I definitely see the appeal in fresh servers. It’s nice to feel like you’re on relatively “equal footing” as everyone else, and get that sense of progression.
I recognize that not everyone does enjoy starting over. Hell, I don’t like starting over; it’s one of my biggest hurdles in Classic, that I never enjoyed questing even in vanilla, and time has not softened my opinion.
But I also think there’s a pretty valid case that “more servers” runs the risk of segmenting the community, which just sucks.
So, I’d like to propose one possible solution:
I’m going to call this a “Rebirth” system — similar to Diablo 3’s system, with a few minor differences.
When a new, fresh server opens, you are given an option to do a “rebirth” of your character. They will stay the same race and class, maybe even the same appearance. It would be ideal if you could preserve your name, but that might not be feasible (unless names were “reserved” for the first couple weeks, giving existing players an opportunity to “rebirth” early).
Now, let’s explore what I’m thinking for this “Rebirth” system.
Basically, a brand new character is starting on the new server. Maybe your original character becomes greyed out and unplayable, or maybe they can continued to be played. The latter would be ideal, but might not be feasible.
What matters is the new character will go through the new phases on the fresh server, just as normal.
However, once Naxx is added and been out for a few months, the “Rebirth” comes to fruition.
Once Classic is fully “complete” (and time to experience organic progression), you’re then presented an option to “merge” these two versions of your character. If you completed certain quests on your original character, and other ones on the rebirth; they’re now all marked as complete.
Your choose which version to “keep” (which server to remain on, which tradeskills to keep, etc.). Everything on the other character — every single item in your inventory, bank, gear, everything — will now show up at your Bank, in a new “Overflow” window. You can withdraw items from this window, however you cannot deposit. Think of it mechanically being the same as items being mailed to you, but just a bit more user-friendly.
This way, no matter what you do, or have done in the past, it is all recognized and combined to create the “ultimate” version of your character. This merged version of your character will maintain whatever your highest rank was, whatever the highest level of all of your factions are (with the exception of Bloodsail Buccaneers/Booty Bay; I would just use the version you choose to “stick” with for those). And if you have some mounts on one, and different mounts on another, you can now enjoy all of them together.
DISCLAIMER: The only exception I might make — depending how others feel about t — would be whether or not gold should be transferred. That’s a whole different discussion, and not really relevant to the idea as a whole.
No being stuck with multiple versions of the same character with different levels of progress, or feeling like you’re “splitting your time” when you should only be focused on one or the other.
In my opinion, this would be the perfect way to honor players’ investment in the game, while also creating a great jumping-on point for newer players. It also gives players a reason to jump into the fresh start of a new server, without feeling like your time will have been entirely wasted on whichever character you would otherwise simply abandon.
Again, just one idea I thought was worth throwing out there.