At best it’s an arbitrary set of rules set by certain people in the community. A trend full of guidelines to make the existing game more challenging and difficult that it actually is. I can literally do this with any game ever and it’ll be the same thing.
Let me pop in Final Fantasy 7 real quick and play “hardcore”.
No materia, no summons, only using items I find in the open world, if I die then I delete game file. Literally FF hardcore 
Ok. 
FTFY
/10char
It’s a specific way of playing the game that many enjoy.
Hope you enjoy your FF7 HC!
lol this. It’ll be a game mode, once it’s an official server, and appeals don’t exist anymore.
It’d make more sense to do this in FFXIV.
It could be a gameplay mode where you die and cannot rez. But most hardcore players I’ve heard are going softcore at level 60, which makes “hardcore” merely a leveling mode.
i have heard the opposite
they’re all joining the HC Elite guild 
Congrats on wasting your time posting this. Be less mad.
Blizzard literally cited ‘Classic Hardcore’ as a game mode in that poll, so if the company that developed the game says it’s a game mode, then it’s a game mode.
Heckin right OP. It’s a generic game mode that is not recognized by blizzard or even the community. The so called “hardcore” have so many loopholes to appeal they made a joke out of true hardcore gameplay.
You see them here whining about the boogeyman “griefers” lol like come on
Even further, they have duo and trio modes so you see people running around with pocket healers XD
Hardcore with a pocket healer lmao 
LOL, a multifaction multirealm guild, that’s hilarious.
Ahahaha lmao these guys really think they are playing HC my sides hurt
lol yeah. And, for whatever reason, more than 1 dungeon run is a NO NO!
You just described a game mode.
The company that developed the game no longer exists. It’s just a zombified shell.
I mean yeah… In essence it’s the same as the people who do no hit darksoul runs.
your posts read like people having fun in wow is the most hurtful aggravating thing that has ever happened to you
Other people are having fun and i do not like it. I’m going to make a post!
Pretty much described every sport, or league or almost any sort of competition ever.