1.10 Ridulous

[Crystalion]

But Crystalion, the point is that hardcore is a different set of rules that appeals to some folks but not to all

Sorry to waste your time "justifying" Hardcore--I did qualify my objection to HC a little bit in my reply to Ferengi (that post crossed with yours)--because, fundamentally, by "flawed" I was referring to the imperfect game technology...

It would be one thing if the game were "perfect" and then invited you to play Russian Roulette to voluntarily alter your risk/reward equation. But the game is imperfect, and thus inadvertently "cheats" in killing characters that did nothing to deserve to die.

Of course this "failure" on Blizzard's part isn't as bad, in my eyes, as Verant deliberately swatting down successful players/tactics in EQ by patching in arbitrary powers/rules for their monsters (what I refer to as the "You're in our world now--so Suffer!" mindset).

You do have the right of it though: I recognize that my objection to this imperfection is my own feeling, and that many people who choose to play HC do not feel (as strongly) that way.

And I hope it is clear from this and my reply to Ferengi that I generally admire Hardcore players (one might also note that many of the people I admire IRL have both suffered and have an awareness of their own mortality).