No disagreement from me. However there is now a codified “official HC” rules set. Trading/AH use is on the player to enforce for themselves as most HC challenges were prior to the current popularity boom.
Regardless this reply isn’t super relevant to my post. Guy is being intentionally obtuse, wanted to point it out.
No the thing that made HC popular was people getting on the bandwagon around the idea of HC, there has always been a group of people playing that way even in Vanilla.
With the exception of some people on this board, I don’t know anyone who liked the no trading/ah/mail (yes I am sure there were some and we can agree to disagree on this) most simply tolerated it, the same way they tolerated the fact that a large percentages of the people using the add-on weren’t actually Hardcore because they would simply appeal and continue to play after dying.
Also Classic, TBC, and WOTLK were not ruined by people min-maxing or even RMT which had limited to no impact if you found yourself a guild and did content when it was current.
That said assuming its easy to implement, if Blizzard can modify the soul of iron so that it’s a buff that you lose if you ever trade or use the AH or mail that seems like a reasonable enhancement that they might be able to add in the future after launch.
Hi I just resubbed.
Why not have all the rules in the game and have them tracked in achievements.
The moment you trade out join a group the ssf is no longer attainable on that character.
I’m okay with just no deaths. I could see how both ruleset could be cheesed once the server is mature enough.
Grouping I can agree with–but, twinking hardcore toons? No that’s stupid. The AH should be disabled for anyone under max level–as should mailboxes–otherwise it’s not hardcore.
Hey you know OP, I want this to be hardcore too. But the way i want it as well as the way a lot of us here want it is not what the majority wants. The average player doesnt want to struggle so much that the game is an unfun near impossible struggle 99% of the time with only 1% fun. A huge chunk of the playerbase that doesnt want a HC game are going to play this just to try it out. We really dont need all their spam about how awful HC is and why they are thinking of unsubiing from the game because of it.
Even though the vast majority of those unsub threads are complete spam. They almost never quit cuz you see account progression even after they claim their sub ran out. Just attention grabbing posts to try and scare Blizzard into doing it their way or they threaten to quit. Blizzard knows whats going on, they know almost none of those people ever unsub. The majority who do quit simply do so without saying so.
So if a bunch of people start spamming these threads saying they are unsubbing because they cant handle HC, we all know what is really going on.
And take all the fun out of professions?
Now HC is not even that hard without trade and AH. People buy weapon and gear off Perelli and his ilk and know exactly which elites to kill when and dungeons to run to get BiS for their levels. Try doing it in Grey & White gear only 
(aka IronMan Challenge from 2012). People die just as much decked out in greens I only wish the old IronMan leaderboard was still online to show the truth of this.
I am happy with the baseline one life and PvP disabled. We can always add our own challenges – I know I will do IronMan as always.
Totally respect that but without some in-game recognition, it just feels like we’re playing pretend. Really hoping the Soul of Iron rumor is true.
Well, you get used to it But I too would like different SoI buffs for different playstyles, Would be nice to have a small acknowledgement after all these years.
IMO -
at minimum we need a Soul of Iron for “no trading”
from there I’d like to see a “no partying” SoI, a “perma /pvp” SoI
Lastly (getting kinda wish-listy here), an SoI for the more obsecure achieves like “White Knight” and all the others from the Kargoz addon.
Perhaps when you zone in, there’s an extra NPC standing there with some role-play-ey thing about applying more buffs to you.
I’d like to add the OG IronMan ones - in order of most wanted:
Theres not. As you know, most players are casual. This has been known forever.
Most hardcore players are casual? LOL
I mean, you can casually play HC modes. Hardcore is just the name of the mode, not the required mindset.
I am casually leveling a warrior on BSB using the addon, slow going but it’s a fun break from playing other versions of WoW.
So the conclusion is we need to cater to casual players in a ruleset literally called “HARDCORE”.
literally not what I said but okay lmao.
Cater to the people playing HC on HC servers obviously. My intent is to say that Hardcore is the rule set/name, not the required mindset. You can casually play hardcore modes while adhering to whichever HC rule set you want.
Agreed, I play all modes casually due to time constraints. But the person stating that most HC players are casual is throwing out speculation as fact. How could he possibly know that.
I don’t think that’s the case here. Blizzard seems to try to please all the people all the time, so they applied minimal rules to the mode. Of course some of us aren’t going to be thrilled with the results, since you can’t realistically please everyone. The majority will probably play anyhow so…
Yeah! People on the RP server doing this challenge with the addon are not actually hardcore!
You’re playing a video game. Every time you log in you’re playing pretend.
… You do realize that the addon being referenced here stops you from trading or using the AH, right? What was your point here?
Yes, I’m aware. I’m aware that it was self imposed and it can continue to be self imposed. The ability to use the AH and trade is only an issue if a person who wants to complete this challenge uses them by choice.
My point is that the ability for others to use the AH and trade has no effect on an individuals ability to complete the challenge as others on the RP server were playing using the AH and trading with others.
I like to take lessons from the past, and in this case, Runescape.
Runescape lost nearly 70%, SEVENTY PERCENT!!! of it’s subscriptions after implementing nearly these exact same changes to its Grand Exchange system because nobody enjoys a stifled, forced fixed-price economy.
Your definition of hard core might be webster accurate, but the definition leaves room for subjectivity in that measurement of dedication itself is subjective. Someone with a different idea of what’s “hardcore” might put in 10x the hours as you, and that’s pretty dedicated.
I don’t want bot-riddled HC servers, but I see nothing wrong with free trade if all the money I earn is just gone when I die. There is still significant risk.