World of Warcraftis finally adding Hardcore realms to itsClassicEra servers. On these one-life servers, death is the end of the line - though they can explore the world and communicate as a ghost, they can’t resurrect by any means. Players have been playing Hardcore challenges onWorld of Warcraft Classicfor years now, but they will soon be able to do so with official Blizzard backing.
Game Rant talked toWorld of WarcraftClassicsenior technical designer Tim Jones and lead software engineer Ana Resendez about their journeys toward making Hardcore realms. A surprising amount of work went into preparing this challenge for players. The developers shared some of the struggles they had to overcome, and the path that led them to do so in the first place.
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The Hardcore History of World of Warcraft
TheClassicservers inWorld of Warcraftonly existbecause the players asked for it. “It was the community that banded together saying to Blizzard, ‘We want official Classic servers,’” Jones said. “Eventually, we delivered on that.” For years beforeClassicwas created, fans used private servers to relive VanillaWoW. Public demand eventually encouragedWoWto make it official inClassic.
Hardcore realms are no different. “We started to see some trends in the community [inClassicEra],” Resendez explained, “and there started to be more action going on there, and more people logging on every day. We were like ‘What’s going on?’” Players created and self-imposed the Hardcore challenge, which skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years. This passion created an opportunity forWorld of Warcraftto give players an official platform for the challenge mode.
The community that hasformed around HardcoreWorld of Warcraft Classicis one of its greatest strengths. Despite the intensity of theClassicchallenge mode, theseWoWfans tend to be patient, supportive, and encouraging of one another. “It’s intoxicating in a way,” Jones said, “to just be in a guild and encourage that person who keeps dying at level 10 to just push a little further, and give people advice on what the unique creatures do in certain zones.”WoW Classichopes to capture and enhance that spirit in the Hardcore realms.
“The community is so supportive. It’s almost surprising. It takes you back. Everyone is dying and losing an immense amount of progress on their character, but it’s so much about the journey and the support that people give each other and the encouragement to ‘Go again, go again!’”
WhileWorld of Warcraft Classicoffers a nostalgic trip down memory lane, Hardcore encourages people to playWoWin a way no modern MMO does: patiently. “Hardcore allows players to play the game at a slower pace,” Jones explained. Many games nowadays encourage players to always keep moving and to always race towards the finish line. “[HardcoreClassicis] so much more different than the modern compulsion people have to get through to the end of the game as fast as possible. It’s okay to take your time.”
The Challenges of Making Hardcore Classic Realms
At first glance, one might thinkmaking Hardcore realms inWorld of Warcraftwould be simple. “Believe me, you would think there would just be like one place in the code where it was like ‘Okay, don’t rez or anything like that,’” Resendez explained, “but it actually took a while.” A lot more went into designing the Hardcore realms than the simple flick of a switch, and designing these realms was an adventure in itself.
There were a surprising number of places that allowed players to resurrect, or that used death as a step on their journey, that needed to be changed. “There are parts of the game that expect you to die to complete certain quests,” Resendez explained, “so we’re definitely taking a look at all of those quests that require you to [do so].” In a game as large andintricate asWorld of Warcraft, the developers had to scour the game for any pitfalls that would ruin a player’s experience.
Another major concern was with problematic players in the community itself.World of Warcraftis an MMO with a faction-based, open-world PvP system, and even if the majority of the community is benevolent, a single bad actor can ruin countless other players’ Hardcore runs. In one-life realms, each death needs to be fair, or else it could turn players off Hardcore for good. Jones cited ganking and training NPCs as examples of griefing they needed to avoid inClassic’sHardcore realms.
“We’re taking extra care to identify problem quests… A lot of the time, escort quest NPCs had a neutral faction or something where someone from the opposite faction could engage your escort NPC in combat, and that would ruin your experience of trying to quest. Or, someone can pull a high-level creature from the Blasted Lands and bring it into Elwynn Forest and trick people into attacking the creature, or the creature had some attack that could randomly target characters and kill them.”
To combat this,World of Warcraftis making many quest-related NPCs unable to be harmed by players on the opposite faction and is tightening the distance before enemies leash back to their spawn locations. Additionally, it is making surePvP becomes a fully-consensual part ofWoW’sHardcore realms. “PvP is something that should be very conscientious,” Resendez said. “If you flagged yourself for PvP, that’s the only reason that we would like for you to engage in PvP because it’s something that you are looking for.”
World of Warcraftisn’t making these changes without considering player feedback. Hardcore realms are on theClassicPublic Test Realm now and are planned to go live before the end of summer. Players can only reach level 30 on these test realms and will not be able to carry them onto the live servers, but they will be able to help Blizzard overcome obstacles and iron out details before its official launch.
