20 years old and yet some cannot let go. WoW Classic HC excites – and the players often do not even know why they play.
Most games are relatively short-lived. You play them for a few months and then set them aside. Maybe you pick them up again after 10 years in a fit of nostalgia and have a brief fun with them. Yet World of Warcraft in its “Hardcore” variant seems to be different.
Even in the WoW Classic subreddit the question arises. Here, the user centcentcent asked himself why he actually enjoys the game so much – because all rational considerations speak against it:
It is 2023, I am 38 years old and playing a level 17 priest in WoW Classic Hardcore. Why am I playing this? The gameplay is slow, questing is exhausting, it takes forever to get somewhere and my rotation is simple and repetitive. Why is this the only game I have been thinking about lately? Hours go by and all I have done is kill Old Trübauge and gather Condor flesh.
This is the most fun I have had with a video game in a long time. Why? I put hours into something that could be ruined by a simple disconnect. I love it. There are people everywhere, the world feels alive. Everything has weight, it has a sense of danger and progress. Soon the Death Mines. And when I die… I always wanted to try a dwarf warrior.
The post was well received by the community and has now received over 1,500 upvotes. Some players have ideas as to why WoW Classic Hardcore still works well 20 years after the release of the base game.
So writes Erva420:
It is a good video game, made with love for gaming, rather than being a platform that should sell you microtransactions and investor metrics. It is simply a good video game.
Also, artevelde8 sees the problem more in the newer game generation:
Nowadays, games just let you grind until the endgame content, so you are trapped in a cycle where it is only about keeping up with the latest updates. Not to mention that games currently try to get you to complete daily, tedious, and repetitive tasks to keep playing.
What makes Hardcore appealing? To describe the exact appeal of Hardcore WoW in words is probably quite difficult. Many find it incomprehensible how the “1-life” mechanic can bring fun and how hundreds of hours of gameplay can be wiped out by a single mistake. Yet that seems to be what keeps many engaged, as Barbz182 summarizes:
Feeling of progress.
Feeling of success.
Feeling of community.
Feeling of adventure.
All this is only heightened by the shared danger of sudden digital death.
Have you been captivated by WoW Classic Hardcore too? Or can you not relate to it at all?
Some lose their character even when being careful: due to an unplanned explosion.
