Hardcore has brought new life back to Classic Era. We already have at least one dedicated server for Hardcore and Standard players per region at high population. There was recently a few datamined leaks concluding a possible dedicated Hardcore server, as well as a tweet from Mike Ybarra hinting about Hardcore. The hype is real. If I am to predict anything, I would say that if they made official Hardcore servers, it would be something similar to that of Soul of Iron from SoM; however, with a system where the characters are automatically logged out and/or deleted at the player’s discretion. If Hardcore servers are to be released, I could imagine them also releasing fresh no-changes servers. Even beyond that, Blizzard could potentially rerelease Burning Crusade Classic, as well as Wrath Classic, and so on; but, let’s not get too ahead there.
With all that being said, there is still a lot of skepticism about the possible success of official Hardcore and/or fresh Classic servers. Many are worried that it will split the fanbase even more, or that one will dominate and kill the other - leaving those who are more so dedicated to one side all alone. I myself had shared that same skepticism before; however, after thinking about it, I don’t think it will be as bad as one may think. Here is why:
I am confident to say that Classic Era, the current servers we have for Era, will not be going anywhere. I think of Era as the place where everything has already been progressed, but there is nothing really in the way of playing the game at your own pace. You can leave your characters there as momentums of triumph and success as the rest of the servers move on to whatever comes next. If official Hardcore servers are to happen, as well as a possible fresh rerelease of Classic, I can confidently predict that Blizzard will offer either a free or paid transfer/cloning service to bring your character from those fresh Hardcore/Standard servers onto Era (preferred if it were free instead of a paid service). If Blizzard released Hardcore servers, with some players dying at such high levels with a lot of time invested, the best thing to do with them rather than delete them is preserve them. Era will be the place to preserve those characters, and allow you to continue on the adventure you had begun after already attempting to complete the epic challenge of Hardcore.
The same would more than likely happen to those fresh servers as well. I could see Blizzard flat out replacing the current locked SoM servers with brand new ones (without the SoM changes, of course) and having that same cloning service to transfer back to Era once the progress for you has ended. If Blizzard decide to go down the route of progressing beyond just Classic and going to BCC and Wrath once again, I could imagine dedicated servers for just preserving those same characters - locked and preserved in time where you prefer to be in. I know that it may be way too early to request expansions from fresh Classic servers, but give it more time and I am sure there will be a lot more asking for TBC once again. (Maybe I am wrong about this - my opinions on the expansions are different from yours, more than likely).
As it goes for releasing content for fresh servers and Hardcore; one of two things could possible happen:
- They release all servers, including Hardcore, with phased content at a steady paced rate - probably between 12-18 months instead of 24. It would depend on the overall demand for content release. (Given that it is fresh no changes, a lot of content would be cleared by the top end guilds pretty rapidly).
- They release only Hardcore servers with no phased content. Instead having it be a copy of Era but with the Hardcore rules applied.
The concern for having a split community is fair to have; however, things like that are inevitable. Ever since the initial release of TBC back in 2007, the WoW community had been split. With every following expansion, the community had gotten split more and more and more. Classic Era has seen a major resurgence of players due to the fact that Hardcore has been established, Wrath has been dealing with both a dry spell for content as well as an infestation of bots, and Retail for also being at the end of a major content patch. With that being said, I do not think Classic will ever be as popular as it was back in 2019; however, I do not think that it will be the end of Era.
I would not worry too much about fresh Classic or Hardcore being Dead-On-Arrival. I also wouldn’t worry about Era being dead, either. Era will always be around, and if Blizzard plays their cards right, they will make sure that those journeys on fresh, Hardcore, or otherwise will be preserved and rekindled time and time again. It might take some time, and Era will suffer some major dry spells here and there, but if Era is popping off now, I am sure it will pop off again. We cannot be 100% sure of anything - we just have to wait and see what happens.
There are a few other important aspect of Classic that needs to be addressed by Blizzard in order for anything to work: bots, gold buying, and cheaters. In order for anything in Classic to work, Blizzard needs to manage bots, gold buyers, and other cheaters a lot better than they already are. A key aspect that allowed bots to be as rampant as they are in TBC and Wrath were the boosts. Instant level boosts cannot be a thing in any version of Classic. Yes, the point of them was to allow other people who missed out on past expansions to play with friends; however, it creates more problems than it solves. Blizzard, if you really want this to work out for you, do not make the same mistake happen for a third time. Along with that, work on banning gold buyers and other hackers/cheaters. GDKP and Boosting has been a pretty universal issue as well; however, that is really only solved by managing the amount of illegal gold being put into the game. I am not here to say that there should be no such thing as GDKP or Boosting, but I am saying that if you want to deal with this, gold buying is one of the lead culprits. Otherwise, if they include any other changes to something new for Classic, it will most definitely be doomed from the start.
I will say, if official Hardcore servers and/or fresh no changes servers happen and fail, well, there will always be Era waiting for us. Let us hope things work out okay, and everything that has been discussed all over Reddit and the Forums holds up for the better.
