Do you think there will be an active RP community on hardcore servers? If so, what will it look like?

Lore Role-playing
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See also this similar thread on the US forums: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/rprppvp-servers-on-classic-wow-hardcore-and-season-of-mastery-2/1594547

As most of you probably know, Blizzard will soon be releasing WoW Classic servers dedicated to the “hardcore Classic” playstyle (i.e., if you die, that’s it for your character). I’m curious whether you think there will be any noteworthy RP community on these servers?

One obstacle to such a community forming is obviously whether there will even be dedicated roleplay servers for the hardcore mode. The way Blizzard talks about making sure people don’t flag themselves for PvP accidentally, suggests that the servers will be PvE (which makes sense) which could indicate that these servers will just be labeled “Hardcore” and not “Hardcore PvE”, “Hardcore RP” etc. I have a hard time seeing an RP community develop without a dedicated server, even if someone tried to set up something like a Discord channel for it.

Another obstacle is the fact that roleplayers generally like to build up a history for their character through in-game roleplaying and events. The current (understandable) aversion to random people RP-killing one’s character suggests that the idea of possibly losing all that due to a random in-game death is not really something most roleplayers are looking for.

If you think there will be people looking to roleplay on hardcore servers, what do you think this will look like, especially in terms of how it would differ from roleplaying on regular RP-PvE and RP-PvP servers?

One thing I could see happening is a closer link between RP activities and game mechanics than what is currently the case on regular servers. Aside from the fact that dying to mobs or during RP-PvP battles would literally mean the death of your character, I could see things like the in-game economy, which would be subject to heavier scarcity mechanisms than regular servers, being reflected in RP. On regular servers, the idea of roleplaying full time as a craftsman utilizing the actual profession mechanism, doesn’t really seem to be that popular, but perhaps it would have purchase on hardcore RP servers?

It would also be interesting to see whether the “duel to the death” mechanic could be utilized in RP somehow, with characters who have survived many of these developing a reputation as skilled fighters IC. Tournaments where players duel to the death could also make for interesting RP events, although the plausibility that people would offer up their characters for them without a sufficiently commensurable award might be questionable.

My gut feeling is that the overlap between people interested in the hardcore Classic playstyle and people into RP might be somewhat limited, and thus an RP community developing on these servers might be somewhat unlikely, but it is fun to theorize about the potentials. What are your thoughts?

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I can’t imagine roleplayers putting as much effort into a hardcore character as they would put into a “normal” RP character -
but I might be wrong.
(I only think so because I wouldn’t.)

My guess is
(again, because it’s what I would do),
hardcore RP characters would be a bit more ‘spur of the moment’, maybe utilizing ideas they wouldn’t use in “normal” RP.
I still think it could be very entertaining and engaging.

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Honestly, i don’t think it will.

And the biggest part of it in my opinion is the fact that Hardcore and RP are two opposite concept in my mind. I don’t know for you, but since i know that a Hardcore character is most likely to die either very fast or in an unfair and unsatisfying way, i really don’t want to invest any kind of attachment to this character.

RP is quite the opposite. You build your character a story, become attached to this character and put much more of yourself in this character than a throwaway character.

In my opinion, building an RP community on those servers would only result in drama’s.

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I’m not sure it would necessarily lead to drama. It’s all about expectations. In certain other MMOs (that will remain unnamed here) a cutthroat environment is an expected part of the experience, and thus while losing a lot of progress or w/e is still frustrating, players expect it when they sign up.

However, I do think that Gawrdon has a point that if RP on hardcore servers ever happens, it will probably be of a different nature than what we currently see, and perhaps more ephemeral.

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If hardcore RP means your char is dead when killed I fear it will only attract the trollers, roaming the RP servers to kill RPers.

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As noted, PvP will not be on by default, and there will be safeguards in place to prevent accidental flagging, including that provoked by griefers. So the only thing trollers would conceivably be able to do would be to kite dangerous mobs towards players, something which is also being addressed by Blizzard by changes to the leash mechanic.

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I’ve been far from Azeroth for weeks now, but official Hardcore realm(s) go online … the 24th, don’t they?

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That’s correct.

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I’d really hoped for a viable Classic RP community in 2019 but it never seemed to get off the ground - too much of a niche of a niche.

I think the Classic setting being lower stakes and more stable with fewer customisation options is an attractive idea, but it’s also very difficult for most players to part with the sheer amount of toys, items and races in the retail game.

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HC RP can enhance your RP as when my Toon dies in RP, me and my freinds go to graveyard and have a wake for him/her . Then make a new toon . we be playing like this on and off since wow started.

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I think it depends on how much time and effort, individually, we are willing/able to spend on a character that might suddenly die I.C…

Funerals are a natural part (or ‘conclusion’) of life, but there are limits to how often I want to experience them :slightly_smiling_face:

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Eh from my experience the problem is Blizzard mistook the RP Target market for EU because of different everyday life realities in EU and US.
In NA you don’t have servers for different languages you only have for different countries and so it is common that players search on their server for a guild for their language and so it is not seen as problematic that on an RP server people from different regions play together.
Meanwhile in Europe we have different countries with different cultures and so we rather stay in our corners.
Blizzard thought that after nearly two decades EU we became like them and so gave us only EU servers first and then only for 6 months an EU RP Server.
Only after this 6 months they brought Celebras and so they catered to the biggest Roleplayermarket of Europe. Problem whas that with waiting 6 months they hit the Roleplayers on the head and so many decided it whas not worth it anymore.
For english speakers it may be a sad truth but in Europe the biggest market on Roleplaying is when you speak german.

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