Hey everyone! I was lending a hand to assist with the messaging for the AH which we're still looking into. I'm based in Irvine, and a member of our Customer Service teams.

I started back in 2008 and it was Diablo that brought me into the fold. Although I have much respect for our normal mode players too, Hardcore is where it's at for me personally. I have an HC paragon 13 Monk, and am also working on a few alts who are near 60. Although I must remain cryptic about certain things, suffice to say that the best is yet to come.

I hope to have the chance to catch up with you as we go along :)

Hardcore for the win.
/Araxom

02/08/2013 12:22 PMPosted by ricerocket

Oh I am sure you will love it here. It's warm and cozy. You won't hear about people constantly whining about the same thing over and over again.

My armor is secured. My blades are sharpened. Actually, I'm a regular here as are you all - just not in my normal blues. Suffice to say that, I'm in the trenches at Blizzard because of my love for Diablo, and HC. So, yeah. It's cool :)

P.S.
As far as the AH goes, I don't have any more information at the moment, but we're manning our stations and you can bet that as soon as I know more, so will you. Thank you again to everyone affected by this, for hanging in there!

Hey Bottle, I need to refrain from putting forth my own thoughts on the subject as if that's the official word. Not to skirt the issue, but it's important I am clear with you all to let you know that as I am not a regular member of the community team, I'm not at liberty to providing that information. Any thoughts or opinions I may have on the subject would be independent of that of our development team, and that wouldn't be appropriate.

From a personal standpoint, it sounds like a good thing. I don't know the technicalities of what it takes to implement something like that.

Are you sure you aren't breaking some kind of unspoken rule by posting here? I just pictured you guys walking around dressed like druids referring to the hardcore forums as:

"The forum no one speaks of"

And if you did, you would be flogged or something.

No?

Hardcore Diablo is what brought me here. I said it. I do love and have respect for all of our titles and modes of play, but we all know why we're here in this forum. It's true that HC only represents a small fraction of the Community, but I guess that's our job then to go out and stir up the rest of 'em! Right?

Haha, thanks for having me. I may not respond for a bit as I've got to attend to some other forums as well, but I'll be back.

P.S.
As far as the connection issues go - I won't speak more except to say that 1.0.7 is not too far off. Let's talk more after then :)

Thanks Danas :)

Hey Araxom,
You're not really one of us until you tell us how your first hero died. Do you have a story to tell?

Oh boy- well, I could probably write volumes about this.. nay, ARCANE TOMES worth of literature about this, but I'll need to be brief as I'm juggling a few threads in various places.

Let's start here: I had played Diablo and I loved it, but I didn't own it back in the day. My buddy had a sweet LAN set up and Diablo was one of the first coop games that we really hammered away at over at his place. Anyway, when D2 came out, I was all over it. I saw this strange 'Hardcore mode' and was curious about it, but it wasn't for me. At least... I didn't think it was. One day, my buddy Shane give me a holler to jump on in and I couldn't join his game. He let me know that he was rolling a HC character, and after some arguing about the perceived futility of it, I reluctantly joined.

Never again did I look back.

The first run through was relatively tame, and it wasn't even probably until my 2nd or 3rd night when I had my first brush with death. The corners of the screen glowed red and time halted to a stand-still. I immediately realized that the hours of work I had put into this little newborn character were on the line here - adrenaline surged and I began to pop skels with reckless abandon. I remember feeling like I needed to push some key but I couldn't think straight. Nothing was going right.

Anyway, somehow I survived. But I was changed. I never had that experience with normal Diablo before, and although I do respect it and can appreciate the intensity of it- it's just not the same. To each their own. Forever and always, will it be hardcore for me.

02/08/2013 02:02 PMPosted by Nephelem

Haha man, If you really loved Diablo you would be playing Path of Exile right now. :)

I hear good things, I haven't tried it yet, but there's room enough in this world for more than one Dungeon Crawler! :)

Wait a sec, what? I don't recall the corners of the screen going red in D2.

I'm probably mixing memories between D3 and D2, to be fair, it's been awhile since I've roamed through D2. If it wasn't the screen, it was probably the sheer adrenaline messing with me!

Oh no worries, when you said that I was like.. oh snap! But yeah, I honestly feel like there was some kind of glow - maybe not... now we need to figure this out. Was there seriously no glow when your dude got down to lowlife?

Hmm. Dang, I must be getting old if my mind is playing tricks on me :P Oh well, good call! All the more reason to dust D2 off again. And thanks for the heads' up Lykotic, definitely will check it out!

Haha Bob, righteous repsonse :) Well, to that end I will say that recently a coworker asked to see my profile page, (which I unfortunately will not be able to link here) and suffice to say that they came back to me with the response, "Man... it's all... Hardcore..."

Yeah buddy! /highfive

Does losing a hardcore character on D2 count?

Heck yeah it does!

02/08/2013 03:26 PMPosted by Speranza

Araxom don't know if you're able to, but come do some runs with us sometime if you can. We usually do 4 man groups (for d/c protection) on MP 0 or 1. Feel free to add me in-game if it's legal =)~

I'd love to, thanks :) As I'm sure you understand that may be complicated as I won't really be able to share my personal account information, but I really appreciate the offer! On your next run, please know that the spirit of Araxom is with you and that I shall be with all my HC brothers and sisters on the digital fields of battle!!

I definitely hear you. I don't have any information about that right now, but I'll be sure to try and pass along any info as I am able.

Hey Acrimonious! We're going to see a lot of awesomeness develop for Diablo. I truly believe that Diablo III is just getting warmed up. You can be sure that being strictly an HC player myself I very much have my own thoughts on the matter, many of which may be shared with the community at large. Suffice to say you're always welcome to put your thoughts out here. At the very least it gets out into the public eye.

As stated before, I'm not a member of the Community team per se, as I am assisting with messaging for things like the AH, but you can be sure that these forums are looked at by others at Blizzard than just myself. :)

Gonna have to wait and see! I probably have an idea of what to expect, but unfortunately, I gotta leave you hanging for just a bit longer. ;)

You got it Makina, I look foward to reading some stories from you all!

Awesome Bottle, I won't be on much longer here as I'm out over the weekend, but I look foward to catching up when I get back. Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

May the Ancient Nephalem guide your mouse as you carve a path to victory, may the loot Goblins drop that upgrade, and most of all...

...may your deeds be remembered!!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

/Araxom