So perhaps the most shocking addition in the changelog, and one that would deserve its own thread, would be:
- added random chance of permanent death for old characters
I haven't seen any clarification yet as to what this means of whether or not it is real. It could very well be a joke but we can't know for sure until a few days have passed. I guess the first priority would be to straighten out those details.
Secondly I think this could be a terrible idea. If death results in playerwipe I can guarantee that almost any high gen player would GTX. I have put over 600 hours into my one character and I'm sure there are several people out there who have put over 1000 hours into their characters or even 2000. I think the greatest thing about the retirement system is that it allows us to experience variety while keeping a sense of progression, a permanent death would undo all the great things about the system as it is.
The more likely scenario would be a forced retirement, where the player has to choose an heirloom and start their next character. Lets assume that only player of level 31 or over can "die", this feature plays a role to prevent us from reaching level 33 and such. This is an okay feature but frustratingly unnecessary IMO. Many players including myself are reaching the end of their "retirement phase" and are now focusing on levelling up to 33 or 35 (god help them) and to be honest I would really appreciate an end to the grind. Adding playerdeath would remove any motivation from playing beyond level 31 because any gained experience can be taken away at any moment. Please don't take that away from us chadz! Is it really so terrible to have some level 33s on the battlefield? They already are paying a huge price by gaining 35mil experience and by not heirlooming their items.
So lets collect our thoughts and wait for the first reports of player death to come in, I'm sure there will be some false reports but we will know if they are real soon enough.