Seen a couple claims regarding this.
I believe they do run in the same vein, but only so far as a FRESH players attention span.
Other than that they appeal to people in very different ways.
I’m in no hurry in HC.
SOM is a time limited race with QoL additions.
Gotta keep your head on a swivel in HC, one misstep or lapse in judgement, it’s over.
SOM is softcore.
I, for one, have no interest in an official temporary server, and with this perspective do not see SOM having a significant impact on HC. Sure, there are players who came to HC for FRESH, but I think the majority are here for the thrill of the HC play style.
I have no interest in a seasonal server either, and won’t be playing it. I dont think we are in the majority though. Players have been conditioned to endgame as the “true” game.
Adding, the fact that HC has no PvP is also a negative to some.
Of course, it will reduce the HC player base significantly. But people will come and go between the two.
If/when SOM2 launches probably like 80+% of classic players will go there, at least for a few months. People want to try the new thing. Its not necessarily a judgement one is better or worse. I like HC a lot but I’d probably leave for a while to try new stuff. HC makes classic more interesting for veteran players by raising the stakes and making the leveling process even more
meaningful, but its still ultimately the same game people have played for decades.
I’ve no problem with folks that are waiting playing hardcore or Era.
What I feel needs to stop is the constant attempts to reshape those game modes into something completely different to accommodate their vision.
I think hardcore will be fine regardless unless you are the type of person to follow what’s most popular. You don’t need to have a lot of people around with what hardcore is and there are only two servers (per region). It should be fine with enough of a player base for a long time which is great for those who really fit with what it is.
I think this is true in the starting zones but not so much later.
As someone who enjoys playing on PVP servers “keeping my head on a swivel” has been part of the game for a LONG time. That’s why I’ve found PVE servers and 99% one faction servers to be boring to play on (and I do agree that hardcore offers this too but it’s more controlled).
STV and Hillsbrad leveling on hardcore has been incredibly chill. Whereas on the PVP servers I’ve had to think about certain things like: Is this a good time of day to do this zone where I won’t get ganked 30 times? Will that rogue that ganked me be back camping to where I should go somewhere? Where is the most out-of-the-way area where I can kill mobs to get the quest items?
Now the most annoying part is that everything is dead and you need to wait for respawns. So while there is danger in going into a cave, yo have to watch for hyperspawns and while it is best to not do orange quests I don’t think the “head on a swivel only in hardcore” is true.
Of course it will. 90% of the people playing HC are there because there is no FRESH.
All the streamers and their followers playing HC will jump ship from HC to SOM2 as soon as it’s announced.
Many of the top streamers have said they will quit HC for SOM2. Not only because HC is boring but because of the add revenue for jumping to the new hot thing.
Where you getting these numbers? People are playing HC because it’s new. SOM 2 will go exactly like SOM 1. It will launch, people rush to 60. Those who don’t start from the start are SOL. The low level zones will become ghost towns because SOM just doesn’t bring in new people.
The people at level 60 will start raiding. They will clear everything in about 2 weeks. After this, most will end up quitting. Then, only the most dedicated guilds will continue raiding. Those whom hit level 60 that didn’t start immediately will have to pay lots of gold just to get geared to enter raids in the form of buying runs.
SOM wasn’t that popular and a lot of people that played classic never even touched SOM
Both som2 and ICC opening will impact the number of people playing hardcore. There’s also a dedicated base of players that will stay committed to hardcore and many will not play som2.
Next season will be interesting to see if the changes are what people want.
Lot of dream boarding around here about what should be part of the next season.
I agree with som2 but not ICC I think a lot of people are over wrath. I could end up being a clown later on for this for sure. But a lot of my friend group left when they added Heroic + and even more left when they added the wow token.
