After a series of DDoS attacks against members of OnlyFangs, a World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore guild run by Twitch titans Thomas Chance ‘Sodapoppin’ Morris and Tyler ‘Tyler1′ Steinkamp, Blizzard has confirmed that it will roll back their characters’ deaths. The developer has always taken a hard stance against resurrecting hardcore characters, given ‘not dying’ is the central focus of the mode, but argues that the attacks are “an intentionally malicious effort made by third-party bad actors,” and therefore require a different response.
Throughout the MMO‘s extensive history, Blizzard has consistently said that if you die in World of Warcraft Classic’s hardcore mode, you die, that’s it. Doesn’t matter if it’s a disconnect or you accidentally yeeting yourself off of a cliff: you’re dead and gone. To me, that makes sense – avoiding death is literally at the core of a hardcore run: the excitement comes from the height of the stakes.
Recently, however, OnlyFangs has been subject to several DDoS attacks, which have consistently ruined raids and killed various members’ characters. Three days ago, Sodapoppin took to Discord to confirm that OnlyFangs “is over,” noting that, while the guild is still joinable, he “isn’t comfortable dragging people through world buffs, flasks, and consumes just to raid with anxiety and probably the actuality of getting DDoSed and dying again. It’s a terrible ending imo, but that’s the ending we got,” he concludes.
The community has been quick to respond, with one post on the official WoW forums asking Blizzard to fix things. “[You’ve] got [a] hundred thousand people watching this event, and they all got cheated due to the servers not being able to handle the attack. I hope this is not how it’s going to go out.”
On Tuesday March 25, in a post by community manager Randy ‘Kaivax’ Jordan, WoW Classic’s associate production director, Clayton Stone, has responded. “Recently, we have experienced unprecedented distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that impacted many Blizzard game services, including Hardcore realms, with the singular goal of disrupting players’ experiences,” he writes. “As we continue our work to further strengthen the resilience of WoW realms and our rapid response time, we’re taking steps to resurrect player characters that were lost as a result of these attacks.
“Unlike the many other ways characters can die in Hardcore, DDoS attacks are an intentionally malicious effort made by third-party bad actors, and we believe the severity and results of DDoS attacks specifically warrant a different response.
“In the future, Blizzard may elect – at our sole discretion – to revive Hardcore characters that perish in a mass event which we deem inconsistent with the integrity of the game, such as a DDoS attack.” Stone highlights, however, that “our broader stance on character restorations or death appeals has not changed. To be clear, we do not intend to revive characters which have died due to server disconnects, lag spikes, gameplay bugs, or any other reasons. Blizzard customer support cannot assist with issues related to characters who have died on Hardcore realms.”
This is a first for Blizzard, and the response has been mixed. While some call it a “great decision,” others call the response “streamer privilege,” with DDoSes being “a risk you take” when you play Hardcore. Either way, the die has been cast, and OnlyFangs will likely resume its streaming campaign very soon.
If watching OnlyFangs has inspired you to dive back into Azeroth, check out our list of the best WoW addons. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something new, here’s our rundown of all the best free MMORPGs.
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