Holly Longdale: Even launch day, our in-game map showed the names of the two islands. We were trying to BS them through the entire day, too, like oh, it’s an old display bug.
Carlos Mora: The islands looked like Qeynos and Freeport, so … “it’s a text bug.”
Longdale: So that was four hours. I mean, they knew better at that point, but it was a lot of fun. It was more the fun of them being so hopeful. Of course, if we hadn’t had it, we probably would have had outrage.
Players discover the ruse
Mora: I think at that point they realized that the islands were back, but they didn’t know the boat was back.
Longdale: The boat was a big deal.
Mora: When they logged into the boat for the first time, I think a lot of people kind of lost it.
Kyle Vallée: I was on the server for eight hours, and every five minutes, somebody would scream, “Ehrmagherd, I’m on the boat!!”
[They laugh.]
It was entertainment.
Longdale: It’s been out of the game for almost eight years.
Vallée: The management that was in charge at that time felt that we had better, more polished, better-itemized, more up-to-date content, and that was old and busted, and they wanted to showcase the new hotness.
Longdale: Everyone wants the sexy. It was great at the time.
The boat was kiboshed because it would give people motion sickness. We were doing a livestream yesterday and even people in the stream were like, “Uhhhhmm … I’m getting seasick.”
Public relations representative Michele Cagle: We should have sent Dramamine out.
Longdale: With the press pack.
Vallée: To be fair, it was the case that the newer stuff had gotten a lot better than what we did at launch. Stuff was easier to follow, it was better organized. It was just better, more highly polished content. But the honest truth is, that Refuge Island was so polished. It got redone like six times.
Longdale: Even on the boat, the animations, and all the detail work.
Mora: The full voiceover.
Recovering some classic code
Vallée: That’s the big thing about the island, and the boat. All the NPCs have voiceover, they act, they move around. It was really well done and really well orchestrated, and the people who did it did a fantastic job.
Mora: There were some big-name actors that were used in that original content. One of the things we did when we brought these islands back is that there were these little commemorative coins that made for launch and they have Heather Graham and Christopher Lee with their original speeches from the game. We made the coins the final reward for the island so players could see that. With Christopher Lee’s passing [in June], players really appreciated that.
Longdale: Our Isle of Refuge is part two, right?