Nobody likes girl gamers.Quote from LordTyberiusThis, is exactly the reason why you marry a gamer yourself, these situations just don't arise lol.
I assure you you're not as logical as you think you are.Quote from Blisterbeing the logical, linear thinking male that i am
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What is the point of Hardcore? Well, much of this is my personal motivation for playing Hardcore so YMMV depending on what stimulates you in a game.
First off, it gives the game more of an edge. I envision playing a multiplayer game with friends and having a blast. Now, I re-envision playing a multiplayer game with the same friends but now with more determination and focus. After all, we cannot make a mistake or we die. The bar was raised to stay within that boundary of not making a fatal mistake. I feel this only serves to amplify the comradery and strengthen our playing abilities as individuals as well as a team leading us to further accomplishments and an overall higher level of satisfaction as a result. It immerses us much more heavily into the game world and the experience because there's something at risk of loss now. Our time invested (and should there ever be a HC-RMAH, real money for those that buy stuff there).
The second major ingredient for me is from my personal perspective of Hardcore. It REALLY IS a fantastic rush when you are on the precipice of that encounter you haven't yet beaten or even tried on Hardcore. You've been farming other levels, tuning your characters, helping your friends with those same things, and now you're there. The furthest you've been in Hardcore mode to date. And then you begin the encounter. You've stocked up all supplies, made sure every equipment slot is as tip-top shape as you can make it and you're taking the plunge to conquer this new (to you) challenge. You've researched all strategies as much as you can, tried to memorize the important points as well as you can, and here you are in the middle of this battle that, one wrong move, and it's all over. EVERYTHING will be gone if you fail. And you're watching the boss animations, GTFO of the way of incoming damage, being as careful as you can to take as little damage as possible, dealing with adds if there are any and getting in every jab and hook you can while keeping your neck. Then you pass the halfway point in the boss' health and you start to take a lot of damage. OMG IT LOOKS LIKE THIS COULD BE MY DEATH! BUT NO! I MANAGED TO ESCAPE THE AOE! BOOYA, GRAMMA, BOOYA! And you press on until OMG YOU GUYS WE JUST F***ING KILLED HIM OMG!!! YEAH MOTHA F***AS!!
THAT is what Hardcore is about. It's about getting your adrenaline pumping because you are on the edge of losing all of the time you invested in progressing your gear and your character on this one encounter. Hardcore is a THRILL to play. Once you go Hardcore in a hardcore way, you quickly realize there is no greater reward to rpg's and then you never go back to Softcore.
That's just my 2c. Most peoples' are similar in the thrill of the risk and accomplishing repeated victories over the hardest encounters and their first victories over new encounters, etc. It's those moments when great loss is right in your face and YOU BEAT THE SYSTEM. YOU WIN. With Softcore for me now, it's like "Oh, k, I can just keep dying and dying and dying and eventually faceroll the entire game. Yay. -.- *twirls finger in the air*" lol
Also, I've found that for those with advanced gaming skills usually run into other fellow gamers with similarly advanced gaming skills more often than on Carebear-mode. It's just really nice when all your friends are offline, that a lot of times you can join a public game on the moderate to higher levels of hardcore and chances are really good (obviously never guaranteed!) that those players are similarly skilled and focused on staying alive and "doing it right" which makes the game experience a whole lot smoother and more enjoyable overall.
So TL;DR - The rush. The thrill. The risk. The friends that help me get there and likewise the strangers in public games that I happen to further some progression with here or there which is even MORE MEANINGFUL because of the risk of permanent death. It's just damn fun. Stick me in Softcore and I get no rush, no thrill, and no risk of consequence for failure.