Does anyone know this EQ trivia?

What servers were present on launch day (March 16, 1999)? Which servers were added in the time shortly after opening day? I have been trying to reconstruct the timeline of servers opening and closing as a matter of intellectual curiosity...

Maybe this can help:
http://www.zlizeq.com/Game_Information-Servers_and_Versions#4_Server_History
and
https://help.daybreakgames.com/hc/e...8-What-is-the-EverQuest-server-merge-history-

Thank you, I had come across those resources. They are very good for pinning down when the servers closed down and determining their final disposition. However, zlizeq's site in particular I know has inaccuracies for the launch dates of several servers. I think if uncertain that site simply assumed 3/16/99 as the launch date.

Zlizeq doesn't even have Xegony on there with the Server History table, so I can't trust it whatsoever.
Torv also came out several months after launch as a new server, and not March 99. Probably closer, or after, RoK launch date.

I'm pretty sure Prexus was the 1st expansion server. I don't know the start date, but I think it was in April of 1999?

Interesting thread, best I could find was a list of servers available from launch to the end of 1999.

Bertoxxulous
Brell Serilis
Bristlebane
Cazic-Thule
E'ci
Erollisi Marr
Fennin Ro
Innoruuk
Karana
Lanys T'Vyl
Luclin
Mithaniel Marr
Povar
Prexus
Quellious
Rallos Zek (PvP)
Rodcet Nife
Solusek Ro
Tallon Zek (PvP)
Tarew Marr
Test Server
The Nameless
The Rathe
The Tribunal
Tunare
Vallon Zek (PvP)
Veeshan
Xegony

My best guess:
Bertoxxulous
Brell
Bristlebane
Cazic
E'ci
Erollisi Marr
Fennin
Innoruuk
Karana
Mithaniel Marr
Povar
Rallos
Rodcet
Tarew
Test
Tunare
Veeshan
Xegony

Suspect that these were present on launch day:
Bertoxxulous, Brell Serilis, Bristlebane, Cazic-Thule, E'ci, Erollisi Marr, Fennin Ro, Innoruuk, Karana, Lanys T'Vyl, Mithaniel Marr, Povar, Prexus, Quellious, Rallos Zek, Solusek Ro, Tarew Marr, The Rathe, The Tribunal, Tunare, Veeshan, Xegony

Although my gut (i.e. 21 year old imperfect memories) make me doubt Lanys T'Vyl and for some reason I feel like Sol Ro was maybe added after launch. And up-thread Tnexus says that maybe Prexus was added slightly afterwards...

Some indicators that these came later, right after launch:
Rodcet Nife (Zliz's site says 4/27 - 4/29)
The Nameless (posts from Project 1999 boards have old veterans talking about transferring to The Nameless when it opened in July 1999)

Pretty sure these were added in September 1999:
Tallon Zek, Vallon Zek (I was playing on Rallos Zek in late summer 1999, transferred to Vallon Zek when it opened in the fall, my old VZ chars have birthdays in September)

Pretty sure these were added in 2000, about 1 each month launched (Zeb slightly later in March 2001):
Luclin, Druzzil Ro, Torvonnilous, Saryrn, Morell Thule, The Seventh Hammer, Terris Thule, Drinal, Tholuxe Paells, Xev, Ayonae Ro, Vazaelle, Zebuxoruk

I guess maybe Luclin was added at the end of 1999, as Schadenfreude indicates. The VN Board was added in January 2000, with one of those "I got the first post" threads added January 24, 2000.

I missed launch day by a day or two due to a graphic card problem. When I joined, Tunare server was launched, so pretty sure Tunare is not a day one server.

Source:

On the Research Value of Large Games: Natural Experiments in Norrath and Camelot
by Edward Castronova

Download: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=875571
Image: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237424183_On_the_Research_Value_of_Large_Games

That's cool. I started 4/2x/1999, so some of the ones I thought had been around forever (Inno, Bristlebane, Tunare, Rodcet) were added.

Would have been cool to play on a server with NFP or gfay as the trade zone!

I remember the primary trade zone being gfay on Xegony back in 2000 or so, and I think some people used the EC tunnels, but I never remember North Freeport being a trade zone as indicated on this chart.

It may have varied over time. Most servers probably used more than one of the locations to some extent.

I've seen a few mentions of Xegony using different spots in some quick searches. Found this post where Ronak states all three were used:

I remember Fennin using NFP a lot, and then over time shifting out to EC.

on Mith marr the trading area was NFP ..

Cool.

Wow that is a great resource. However, I have to question at least a few suspicious data points.


Erollisi Marr 05/06/2000

I believe this launch date is off by a year. Several Wayback machine archive snapshots show the server board existing prior to this date. The specific EMarr website agrees that it is exactly one year earlier :

http://www.erollisimarr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37250

So maybe reasonable to assume that the Edward Castronova paper just made a data entry error on the year component of the date.


Quellious 06/24/2000

I believe this launch date is incorrect. You can see here that the board exists in the 04/08/2000 archive image of the vn boards and it has a healthy number of posts, similar to other launch servers :

http://web.archive.org/web/20000408234119/http://vnboards.ign.com:80/default.asp?cat=5002

In addition, here is an old snapshot of the server board showing posts at least as far back as 03/01/2000 and it has another 11 pages of posts pre-dating that (image is page 10 of 21, don't really know how much time the previous 11 pages encompasses, but I would estimate at least a couple months) :

http://web.archive.org/web/20010105150200/http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=5032&page=10

Perhaps this is another "off by one year" case? Here is a post on the Project 1999 boards where a player claims to have played on Quellious beginning in 1999 (post reply number 178) :

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1644&page=18


Vazaelle 12/22/1999

I think may be another off by a year case. All indicators point to Vazaelle opening in December of 2000 not 1999. It is missing from the archive images pre-dating December 2000. In addition the VN boards discuss the upcoming server and first posts all start appearing in the range of 12/2000 to 1/2001. For example this image:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010531143950/http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=5068&page=2

has a post entitled "New Site for new Vazaelle Server" that is created on 12/22/2000 (exactly one year off).

Looks like there were a few lists made that had some errors in them, which I'm sure made their way into that paper.

Here's a March 2002 post:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.games.everquest/rxMGzZyfC9I/F1fQKmIXkhoJ

Here's a June 2001 post. This one pulled the list from Caster's Realm:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.games.everquest/KCZFW4qqTfM/Xaat5bo0-CkJ

There is some disagreement in that thread on the years as well.

Here's the Caster's Realm servers page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011205093045/http://eq.castersrealm.com/servers.asp

Also, this guy appears to be pretty certain May 6, 1999 was the date.
http://www.erollisimarr.com/forum/showpost.php?p=426556&postcount=136

Here's a post from June 24, 1999 that indicates Quellious is new, although it doesn't mention the date specifically.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.games.everquest/jvRP2dFiW6M/H82qBDRA1ckJ
This post on the 25th mentions Prexus and Quellious together:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.games.everquest/slPvEzISbFQ/AHBZqAQBvNgJ

Thanks Nniki for finding the alt.games.everquest gold mine, lots of easily searchable chatter dating all the way back to the beginning. I think I have a much better idea of the early server launch history. I shall attempt to parse it into some sort of table to share with any who are interested.