Honestly at this point I don't see why we don't just see some servers set at each expansion set with no unlocking of further. All the complaints are form people who only want the game up to a certain point and complain when they go past their pet expansion to the one that they see as 'ruining the game' Server A - Classic, kunark, velious. Server B - Luclin, Pop, GoD, OoW (loy & ldon) Server C - DoN, DoDh, PoR, TSS Server D - TBS, SoF, SoD, UF Server E - HoT, VoA, RoF + anything new This would be a perfect set. As for 'why would SoE do it' they always see a big influx of returnee's + cashflow when they first open these things.
This has been suggested before several times and in my opinion, probably the best set up out there. Although I wouldn't ever want GoD,OoW (loy & ldon) tainting my Luclin/PoP experience. But that's just my personal preference. The argument is resources and man hours dedicated to all these servers. I think it should be cut down to two servers at most to be more presentable to the suits of SoE. Another argument made over and over is declining population that is inevitable (on any server). But will the viability of the server out weigh the decline. (Apparently the decline on servers such as Vulak for instance doesn't out weigh its viability *shrug*) I say, if they decline to a point, merge and restart. Announce the restart, market a fresh new world to returning players/veterans alike, and you got a never ending influx of interest and population to a very old old old and great game.
Fippy and Vulak are actual time locked servers. The timelock is 60 days. They are also voting locked, so after the time lock expires, the community could keep them locked if they so desire.
