Hey, team!
I dinged 60 on Bloodsail Buccaneers yesterday. Before I begin the endgame grind I thought Id share some thoughts I have on the overall experience.
Having not played vanilla WoW since the content was current back in the day, I was getting the itch to try to jump back in. I was interested in its classic version in particular since I had not played retail in a while. I had dismissed some recommended YouTube vids on hardcore WoW because that seemed too “sweaty” (as the kids say) to me, but on a whim I thought I’d give it a shot.
The next couple of months that followed I have experienced some of the most frustrating, surprising, and exhilarating gaming moments in my several decades of playing not just MMOs, but video games as a whole.
Whether its completing an elite quest, escaping certain doom by the skin of my teeth, or watching/helping another player escape THEIR certain death, daily HC WoW is filled with little emergent gaming miracles that I didn’t think were possible in games these days.
Exploring the world in front you, planning your build or your next move in game, and watching your character grow at a pace that allows you to be invested in your character are all things we loved about the original vanilla WoW experience. Its honestly sad that it took a fanmade add-on to bring that magic back to the game.
I wish WoW as well as other modern MMOs would embrace the sort of gameplay that hardcore mode has brought back to the genre. Somewhere along the line, MMORPGs have almost completely abandoned the RPG part of the games.
Having one life forces the player to stop and appreciate almost every aspect of the game. I wish this weren’t the case. I don’t wanna lose my toon and I certainly don’t want to reroll when she does die despite how much fun I had the first time. But its a testament to that experience that I would do so immediately.
I liken it to driving my car. As a real life hardcore life - living individual, I tend to pay attention when I drive or do other immediately irl threatening events. I imagine if I were a vampire and didn’t have such worries, I’d be more sloppy in my day to day activities knowing nothing can really hurt me (outside of the sun and wooden stakes which for this analogy is a perma ban from the devs?).
And its not just bad things in real life that are heightened because we’re mortal. Our trumphs in life are what give perspective to all the bad things we experience. No one is so blessed they shouldn’t appreciate the little wins when they come. Its the same in games.
I’m not some kind of elitist gamer. I have a family and job and life outside of fantasy worlds. But when I do log into said fantasy world, I would like to feel like I am playing the game and the game is not playing me.
I get that many gamers just want to be able to quickly log in and get a quick dopamine hit and move onto to other things in their lives. Mobile gaming is good for that I hear. I personally don’t want that from an MMORPG.
I’m writing from the perspective of someone who watches/reads The Lord of the Rings and still gets chills. I get quite excited when I put on a piece of gear in game that I earned honestly. And sometimes I go to bed thinking about that piece of gear and what itd be like to wear it in real life. I’m a nerd-I cant help it!
Lastly, I should talk about the hardcore community. A lot of people might wonder how you can have a good gaming community when grouping together and trading with one another etc are limited. When my real life gaming friends ask this, I usually tell them, its easier to experience than explain, but I think it comes down to one very simple truth. We’re all in this together.
Just because my neighbor or friends dont live with me irl, doesnt mean I dont miss them when theyre gone. They don’t go to work with me or help me buy groceries or watch my kids etc. But because we share this common life together, I feel a kinship. The same is true for hardcore wow.
This is truly heightened by hardcore content creators. Whether its a stream or youtube video, it feels good to see them experiencing the same game, the same struggles and triumphs that I do. It feels like the early days of WoW and the internet in this regard. I can’t remember the last time I watched any retail wow content. Thats sad to me.
The tl;dr of this post (I would like to think) is; why does it take a hardcore challenge to wring the magic and wonder out of a GOAT game like classic wow? Why did we abandon that sense of exploration and achievement in favor of quick hits and easy wins?
If the answer is simply that the industry has evolved and moved on from these ideals, then Im very happy I get to log on later and continue my hardcore journey!