Meanwhile Daybreak is going forward with their EverQuest II nostalgia plan, involving those PvE and PvP Time Locked Expansion servers, and holding an in-game poll to decide what they should be named.
As noted over at the EQ2 Wire, Daybreak first went to the forums and asked for name suggestions and then… I think… drew from those suggestions. My suggestion didn’t make the cut. I figured that since the last great server experiment, EverQuest II Extended, got the name Freeport that it was time for Qeynos to be recognized.
That was a faint hope I am sure. The anti-Qeynos sentiment on the team, present since before the 1999 launch of EQ, remains strong and we’re probably more likely to get a server named Qekaerbyad than Qeynos these days. Anyway, it didn’t make the cut. Instead, these are the names you get to choose from in the currently-running in-game poll.
For the PvP server there didn’t seem to be any obvious stand out choice, but I have always felt that Bonemore was a particularly grim sounding name, so I went with that. Deathtoll seemed too unsubtle while the rest didn’t really resonate with me, but any of the names would probably work.
On the PvE side I could say something for Stormhold, that dungeon in Antonica in which we spent so much time back in the early days. In fact, that would have been my go-to choice had the obvious winner not been glaring at me.
Yes, I think the only appropriate way to vote is to go with the “we’re going to keep bringing it up until you bring it back” name, Isle of Refuge.
This is almost a text book example of what SynCaine refers to as “SOE being SOE.” I cannot imagine how that name made the cut for the vote.
First, the name implies that this subscriber-only server will be a place to escape from whatever sins you care to count on the live servers. Screw you, freeps!
Second, they will be naming a server after a zone they took out of the game which represents a good chunk of the nostalgia they are attempting to milk pander to recreate. How is that a good idea, reminding everybody every single time they log on that the Isle of Refuge server does not include the actual Isle of Refuge that those likely to play on this server want?
So clearly, I feel you should log on immediately and vote for Isle of Refuge.
Make Isle of Refuge happen.