Different faces, same party in WoW: Forever

Two friends can enter World of Warcraft: Forever with different-looking characters, different interface layouts and different amounts of help finding a quest. They can still adventure together. Put their characters on different rulesets, though, and even a dungeon invitation runs into a boundary. Forever gives personal taste plenty of room while asking a group to agree on the world it wants to inhabit.

Blizzard's 29 October launch overview makes those choices particularly interesting ahead of the PC release at 11pm GMT on 4 November. A Classic or Enhanced preset sets up your presentation; Normal, PvP, Roleplay and Roleplay PvP define the available launch experiences. Some preferences are yours to adjust over time. Others decide the company your character can keep throughout the journey.

A different view from the same road

The Classic preset begins with standard-definition character models, quest points of interest and objective blobs switched off, and a traditional screen layout. It also starts with transmog and the single-bag option off, while the keyboard defaults to turning the camera. Enhanced starts with high-definition models, quest guidance, one bag and transmog enabled, a centralised interface and strafing on the keyboard.

That's a surprisingly broad definition of presentation. It reaches from how a face looks to how much the map tells you, how your inventory is arranged and what happens when you press a movement key. The presets bundle several tastes together, giving a newcomer a starting point and a returning player a recognisable arrangement to try.

You can change the individual settings afterwards. Choosing Classic therefore leaves room to discover that you really do want a single bag, while Enhanced leaves room to turn off the quest markers. There's pleasure in that flexibility: the invitation to revisit Azeroth comes with space to work out which familiar comforts you actually want to bring along.

Character models have their own choice at creation, too. High- and standard-definition models and animations affect appearance, with abilities and progression staying the same. You can change that selection later through Options or an in-game Barbershop. A preference for an older-looking character can sit comfortably beside a friend's enthusiasm for the updated models.

Agree on the adventure

Rulesets make a much firmer commitment. Forever replaces the traditional realm list with broad ecosystems organised around how people want to play. Normal lets you concentrate on adventuring and fighting monsters, with player combat at your discretion. PvP adds the persistent risk of attack by opposing players. Roleplay brings naming and behaviour rules for people inhabiting a character in Azeroth.

Roleplay PvP combines that roleplaying framework with the danger of opposing players. Its addition for launch, announced on 22 October, gives that particular combination its own home. Someone who enjoys speaking and behaving as their character can also choose a world where an encounter with the other faction carries an immediate threat. Those interests fit together.

Grouping, dungeons and raids stay within your ruleset, and Horde and Alliance remain separate. That makes the group conversation before character creation worthwhile. Agreeing to meet in Azeroth means agreeing on a faction and the kind of adventure everyone wants. Your preference for quest markers can stay personal; the decision to live with open-world PvP has consequences for the whole party.

To play under another ruleset, you create another character there. The commitment gives each character a particular social setting: a roleplaying home, a more dangerous journey, or a world where player combat is a choice. Battlegrounds can draw players from other rulesets, apart from the Hardcore ruleset coming after launch, so the boundary around questing groups and raids has a specific exception for organised faction combat.

A name for a bigger world

The move away from named realms also changes how you introduce yourself. Forever gives a character a two-part name, with the full combination unique within a region. Sharing a first name with somebody else is possible when the complete names differ. A surname opens another route to keeping a favourite first name attached to a new adventurer.

It also offers a lovely bit of group identity. Blizzard gives the example of Asha, Thalen and Mira Brightvale: three distinct characters sharing a family-style second name. An adventuring group can use a common naming theme, provided each full combination is available. A party can sound as though it belongs together before it has completed its first quest.

You can hide your secondary name above your character in the world, while it still appears in chat. Here again, personal presentation sits alongside a shared identity. Early name reservation runs through 3 November for eligible upgrade owners, with a total allowance of three characters across rulesets during that period. The limit applies to reservation, giving that early cast of characters a little room to spread out.

Our earlier look at Forever's camps and Legacy progression explores the things adventurers can contribute once they're on the road. The appealing part of this setup is how little of a friend's taste needs to become your own. Once the party agrees on the world it wants to join, an attachment to the old character models can remain exactly that: one adventurer's preference on a road you're taking together.