World of Warcraft: Forever Replaces Realms With Rulesets

Posted on by

World of Warcraft: Forever is changing one of WoW’s oldest first steps: picking a realm. Instead of choosing from a realm list before making a character, players will pick a ruleset tied to the kind of experience they want.

The launch options are Normal, PvP, and Roleplaying, with Hardcore planned for sometime after launch. Each ruleset acts as its own player space, so friends will need to choose the same one if they want to group, run dungeons, or raid together.

  • Normal is the standard WoW setup, with optional PvP participation.
  • PvP keeps open-world danger front and center in contested areas.
  • Roleplaying is meant for players looking for an RP-focused community.
  • Hardcore will arrive later, with death carrying lasting consequences.

Cross-ruleset grouping won’t be supported. Battlegrounds may pull from other rulesets, but Hardcore will stay separate. Faction restrictions also remain in place, meaning Horde and Alliance players still can’t group together.

Movement between rulesets is limited by design. If players want to play under a different ruleset, they’ll generally need to make a new character there. Hardcore has its own exception: when it launches, a dead Hardcore character can transfer out to another ruleset, including PvP, but progress from other rulesets won’t carry back into Hardcore.

Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, though Hardcore is handled separately. Rewards and progress earned in Hardcore can become available elsewhere, but the flow only goes one way.

The PvP ruleset will also include faction-balance tools similar to Season of Discovery. Character creation for one faction can be temporarily limited if needed, and players can only create characters for one faction on the PvP ruleset. Normal, Roleplaying, and Hardcore will allow characters from both factions.

Players can also set a preferred online language through the Options menu under Languages and Social. The setting is account-wide and has a 24-hour cooldown before it can be changed again.

Further reading: Official World of Warcraft: Forever ruleset announcement