MMORPG.com: There’s been a lot of interest in the Progression Server and I’m going to ask the $64 dollar question. Why? Why did you think that such a concept would work?

Chris Lena: There are a lot of reasons for this server idea, but for me it was a fairly simple solution to a problem EverQuest has had for a long time. People always say to me that they would love to try EverQuest or that they used to play and would like to get back into it but they feel overwhelmed because of all of the content that has been added. They feel like they could never catch up and just lose their gumption. The Progression Server is a way for all of those people to get on this new server at level 1 and progress through all the content together. The amount they have to learn when they start is bite-sized. But the Progression Server has become a lot of things to a lot of people and you can find dozens of different reasons on our forums as to why players are interested in this concept.

MMORPG.com: There’s even been talk of a population control and a 2nd server. Did you expect to generate this amount of interest from the fan base and do you have a “magic” number for the population before you open up another server?

Chris Lena: We do have a magic number and we have reached it. In other words, there will be a second server launching on June 28 called The Sleeper. The bigger question is what the population long-term is. Whenever we open any new server the initial interest is huge compared to the lasting population. I expect this to be even more dramatic with the Progression Server. We have to balance allowing everyone to try the server who wants to with technological limitations and long-term server viability.