Epilogue/Prologue/Legacy had a similar system: There was a start zone for gearing and prepping. Then, you teleport to a location, and you can't come back.
This idea was solid for a few reasons. One, people didn't actively make start-only characters. Start was pretty, but boring--you'd only find people gearing there and a GM or two running around. Two, GMs in some periods actively prohibited people from sticking around start. If they see the same character sitting around for more than a day, they'll be dealt with. Three, it complemented the "always IC" attitude. OOC comments of any description in Say were extremely frowned upon and people used /General for spontaneous communication. So because these players were so ingrained with the idea of being always IC, sitting on some chair in a tavern while they conversed in OOC was not something awkward for them. And if they really didn't want to RP, /DND was used to indicate OOC. Finally, because it wasn't a GM-commands server, and travel was an important mechanic, the idea of a persistent starting zone was offputting because it could be used to cheat. So, of course there were no complaints.
However, like some others have been saying, this had mixed results. While most people seemingly do follow this, and indeed, instead of sticking around the starting zone went they went and AFKed in a popular town, increasing population, and giving them the opportunity to suddenly engage in RP. On the other hand, OOC communication was fairly... limited. While you could do so much in the OOC chat, the only-IC nature of the community, some argued, created a feeling of separation and alienation between players outside of their cliques.
You don't *see* someone with cool gear in start, or using a cool spell, or having a cool guild, and then interacting with them. This happens relatively rarely, but still happens every day. All of these things are things you could do IC, of course, but it raises an important question: if its only merit is social interaction for the benefit of roleplay, and that could be achieved IC, is a persistent starting zone necessary?
Well, it was, back in the days of item malls. But right now, it has only two purposes. It serves as a way to jar you, to suddenly behold a custom zone, impressing upon you the work that goes into the server, and the potential you yourself could reach. And of course, it serves as a convenient location to prepare your character before you set out on your journey.
Frankly, if the community overwhelmingly agrees, I doubt the staff would disagree with eliminating the persistant nature of the starting zone. I can say for certain that no matter what, the starting zone as a location will never be removed--you won't start showing up in Elwynn with your basic gear in main phase. But disabling .worldports to that map, removing .tele start, and not allowing anyone to appear or be summoned into it, is something that we can't quite immediately dismiss. Because people who had no intention of roleplaying will not be touched by this--after all, windowshoppers are just there to look at 735 stuff. If they want to go explore Argus, and then go back to afking in start, they can just create a new character.
There is one matter, however--currently, there is a (cultural) "active" state of a phase. A phase that isn't active ('not hosting') theoretically shouldn't have any players in it. This cultural habit can be done away with using commands--by manually closing and opening the phase to non members/officers. And of course, rp list still exists--it shows listed phases that have players in them, and delisting them is a manual command. If the community could get used to the idea of hanging around a phase regardless whether officers are around, this wouldn't be a problem
