WoW Classic Hardcore Servers Will Combat Griefing But Leave The Rest Up To Players

World of Warcraft Classic will receive official “Hardcore” servers before the end of the summer, with a public-test-realm build for the permadeath version of the game going live on June 29. Heavily inspired by a popular community game mode with a “death=delete” motto, Blizzard’s official version will sport some key differences but will largely leave it up to players to decide how they want to approach the challenge.

In a group interview with WoW Classic team members Josh Greenfield and Nora Valletta that GameSpot participated in, Blizzard revealed that its official Hardcore servers won’t feature many of the restrictions that have come to define the Hardcore add-on that fans of permadeath in WoW Classic have operated under up until this point. Gone will be most restrictions on grouping, a ban on using the auction house, asking other players for help, trading items, and the ability to only complete each of the game’s dungeons prior to level 60 a single time. Instead, Blizzard is taking a largely hands-off approach when it comes to Hardcore, putting the choice on players as to what further restrictions they would like to make the long and harrowing journey from level 1-60 even more challenging.

Part of the reason the Hardcore add-on bans using the auction house, trading, and grouping with other players who aren’t specific leveling partners is that Hardcore play is currently conducted on servers where some players are playing the game normally. With that in mind, Hardcore players being able to benefit from players who have more than a single life didn’t quite seem fair. But with official servers where everyone playing will all be operating under the same single-life ruleset, those restrictions no longer seemed necessary.