Marshal_Lannes
Well-known member
Playing through season 8 of Hardcore, especially going into the Hall of Heroes yesterday and joining the horde of characters surrounding the Kobald unlocking our golden footprints, I realized something; the Hardcore character is a tragic figure. Each season we roll up new characters with the liberty to name them almost anything we want, in the first day or two of Hardcore virtually everything is available. Want to be Jon Snow? Go for it. Elvis? He's available. Madonna? She's there too.
Some people are only here for some fun, some will have spent hours putting together a survivable build. While playing that first week we will see a near-endless stream of Global notices informing us that Jon Snow died to the Magma Brute or Madonna fell to the Arcane Skeleton Mage. Characters who had hoped to fly die from falling. Pages and pages can be filled with characters dying in traps. Occasionally, we will see an L14 or L16 die and in our guilds, people will go ugghhh or F or aahhh. Every time a 15 falls there will be fewer players in epics, less making the climb to 30. Suffice it to say that attrition is high.
For those that do survive or are surviving, it is only natural that players become attached to these characters. You're going on quests with them that always carry real risks. Each journey into a dungeon can be your last. Even going into an Explorer zone can end badly if you're unlucky. The associated risk these characters endure endears them to the player. We grow fond of their ability to circumvent danger. We remember the time they saved another party member with a timely cure spell. An important piece of treasure or gear has meaning because it significantly enhances that character's ability to keep going, to keep surviving.
And yet, as these brave, lucky few unlock the rewards on Hardcore, opening up footprints, eyes, cloaks, mounts, and so forth for our overtuned superhero Live characters to use, the reality sets in. They have but a short lifespan, like a hummingbird or dragonfly. All the glory they will ever know is going to be found over the two months where they are the center of the gaming universe for their players. Should they survive the Hardcore season their destiny is to be rescued from this dangerous world and taken to a homeworld, where they will promptly become a storage mule.
Oh, we all have good intentions with these heroes. We remember what they did with fondness. We were invested in their story. But the mountain is too high to climb bringing a lowly first-life character all the way up to the heights of Legendary R8 viability. They have value from all the favor they've unlocked, all the new Isle of Dread Mythic 3 items they can carry for the Lord of our character panel. But adventuring days? Those are mostly over. It is a tragic end for a character that meant much and endured precarious danger, that made our hearts race from time to time and that walked with giants.
Our Hardcore characters are not destined for Valhalla but for a Kundark banking branch. And sometimes, that makes me sad.
Some people are only here for some fun, some will have spent hours putting together a survivable build. While playing that first week we will see a near-endless stream of Global notices informing us that Jon Snow died to the Magma Brute or Madonna fell to the Arcane Skeleton Mage. Characters who had hoped to fly die from falling. Pages and pages can be filled with characters dying in traps. Occasionally, we will see an L14 or L16 die and in our guilds, people will go ugghhh or F or aahhh. Every time a 15 falls there will be fewer players in epics, less making the climb to 30. Suffice it to say that attrition is high.
For those that do survive or are surviving, it is only natural that players become attached to these characters. You're going on quests with them that always carry real risks. Each journey into a dungeon can be your last. Even going into an Explorer zone can end badly if you're unlucky. The associated risk these characters endure endears them to the player. We grow fond of their ability to circumvent danger. We remember the time they saved another party member with a timely cure spell. An important piece of treasure or gear has meaning because it significantly enhances that character's ability to keep going, to keep surviving.
And yet, as these brave, lucky few unlock the rewards on Hardcore, opening up footprints, eyes, cloaks, mounts, and so forth for our overtuned superhero Live characters to use, the reality sets in. They have but a short lifespan, like a hummingbird or dragonfly. All the glory they will ever know is going to be found over the two months where they are the center of the gaming universe for their players. Should they survive the Hardcore season their destiny is to be rescued from this dangerous world and taken to a homeworld, where they will promptly become a storage mule.
Oh, we all have good intentions with these heroes. We remember what they did with fondness. We were invested in their story. But the mountain is too high to climb bringing a lowly first-life character all the way up to the heights of Legendary R8 viability. They have value from all the favor they've unlocked, all the new Isle of Dread Mythic 3 items they can carry for the Lord of our character panel. But adventuring days? Those are mostly over. It is a tragic end for a character that meant much and endured precarious danger, that made our hearts race from time to time and that walked with giants.
Our Hardcore characters are not destined for Valhalla but for a Kundark banking branch. And sometimes, that makes me sad.
