If it’s optional - either as a self-imposed restriction or some kind of Soul of Iron buff - it won’t make any difference whatsoever for me. Trade and AH was never forced features, much as dungeons and raids also never were.
Feel free to /flex as will I if I ever get to 60 in my IronMan way I hope that the Soul of Iron buffs are modified – Blizz told us they would be in at launch of official HC servers – to be some sort of /flex buffs
All is fine as long as it is optional, in addition to the ONE life rule on the official HC servers See you there.
Optionally, is the idea.
No trading isn’t the game killer people are thinking it would be. If a part of the population isn’t trading, the game would be fine.
If I were to make a server without trading I’d simply put the items needed for quests and some crafting on the appropriate vendors since this seems the be the biggest issue in the trading debate.
No, it’s not. It’s a cooperative game that has some competitive options, which are the forms of PvP it offers. PvE is a cooperative game style, its players versus enviroment. You are making it competitive when it doesn’t need to be. There is no inherent base competition outside of PvP where yoy are actively conpetiting to win a mode. You don’t win at MMOs.
It’s massively multiplayer which means you have to be able to interact together in some way/shape/form. Being that WoW is not competitive in base nature, like most MMOs, trading functionality is a core value of cooperating with your fellow players.
You don’t have to do it, but it has to be there to help foster cooperation, because an MMO is not a single player game.
If this was the Ironman Challenge, you’d be correct. Hardcore isn’t the Ironman Challenge however, the rules in HC aren’t anywhere near as strict or limiting.
Stop this BS. Many is the things you cannot do as an IronMan, but using the AH, your mail or trade is not among those!!!
IronMan Rules:
no gear better than white (all bags and mounts allowed)
no talents
no external buffs
No external help (also not from alts)
no groups
. no dungeons
no prtofessins
no death (obviously)
But you are alloved to sell anything you care to at the AH, buy whatever other players post there and so on. I can also mail myself shirts and other cosmetics from a non-Iron toon in exchange for mats. Only not help.
Playing this off the list you posted for me last week.
Already failed due to player habits. Hit level 10, and instantly put a point into the holy tree for my paladin, then sat and stared at him as I deleted him…
Stop what BS? The Ironman rules include “No transfer of gear, items, or money from any other character (yours or others)” which means Trading and also Mail, even though OP didn’t say that Mail should be excluded. As far as the AH, that wasn’t even mentioned by OP at all.
I have 0 problems with the Hardcore rules, I was simply stating that HC ISN’T Ionman and therefore has a much more lenient set of rules.
Where on earth did you dig up his old list?
From the Blizz article from 2012 “'Till death do you Part” … I think so … and those were some of the old US rules, which at one time also included random choosing of race and class. EU (where I play) had some slightly different ones, and those rules have been changed, remade, expanded, amended, whatever quite a lot since, and all agreed on the ones below not long after “Till Death do You Part” was published.
Please consult the official IronMan Challengers’ site. https://wowchallenges.com/classic-iron-challenge/
I cite the actual rules here for you information and for anyone else curious or even interested in following them:
Do Not Die! – the most important rule of the challenge. Break this rule and your character will get moved to the Honoured Dead section.
No gear higher than White quality. Break this rule and your character is RED FLAGGED.
2 a. No enchantments on your gear. Break this rule and your character is RED FLAGGED.
No Talents allowed. Break this rule and your character is RED FLAGGED.
No Primary Professions allowed. Break this rule and your character is RED FLAGGED.
4 a. No Secondary Professions allowed EXCEPT FIRST AID. Break this rule and your character is Yellow Flagged.
No ELIXIRS, Potions or Flasks used.
We also check for Healthstones used if you are not a Warlock. Break this rule and your character is RED FLAGGED. NO EXCEPTIONS!
Your Killing Blow / Total Kills percentage must be 75% or higher. Break this rule and your character is Yellow Flagged.
Cannot join a party, raid or group with the intent of getting help to further yourself in the challenge.
7 a. This means you CANNOT send yourself gold, bags, gear, whatever to assist in the challenge.
No dungeons, raids, arenas, or battlegrounds allowed.
Joining a guild is OKAY, however, you cannot use Guild Repairs or the guild bank to assist your character in any way.
No food buffs or other external buffs are allowed. Class abilities, racials and personal buffs (eg. Power Word: Fortitude if you’re a Priest) are okay!
All Mounts are allowed.
As per rule 7 a. you cannot send yourself any items to assist in the challenge. All through the years - and I have played IronMan almost since the beginning in 2012, buying and selling whatever gear you had or needed on AH has been OK and accepted by everybody in the IronMan community.
Furthermore making cosmetic items on a trade basis on a non-IronMan alt is generally regarded as OK as well as eg. a shirt in no way can be seen as “whatever to assist in the challenge”.
The ones I linked are the now commonly accepted rules in the IronMan community which is both US and EU. These are furthermore the rules the trackers have been using ever sice they were made in 2012 by Casa.
Ok, that’s cool. No one’s debating that the rules have changed over the years, man. OP asked for opinions about Trading and I gave mine. It’s just a game.
Ok, no hard feeling, it’s only … I have been playing almost exclusively the IronMan Challenge for so long (11 years … I feel old), and … well people have all kinds of funny misconceptions and … well I think I have linked or written these rules at least 20 times in the Forums here and told what IMC is and is not …
The only change to the rules since 2012 (around March as far as I remember) are “reactions” to changes in the game made by Blizz.*)
So changing over the years not so much, I’d rather call it finding their final form, as - as I said - EU and US had slightly different rulesets in the beginning.
*) for instance: Shirts and tabards of better than white quality were allowed in the beginning, but later something in the way they were registered in the API changed and they are no more allowed. Also in the beginning too Quest elixirs were allowed, but after some changes to the API they were not any longer.
Newest addition is the Killing blow percentages - added because of shared killings or some such.
I hope that the Soul of Iron buffs are modified – Blizz told us they would be in at launch of official HC servers – to be some sort of /flex buffs 
The Ironman rules include “No transfer of gear, items, or money from any other character (yours or others)” which means Trading and also Mail, even though OP didn’t say that Mail should be excluded. As far as the AH, that wasn’t even mentioned by OP at all.
Good luck and have fun… FOR AZEROTH! 
