Players who log in to World of Warcraft: Forever on Wednesday, November 4 will not be able to group across rulesets, and Blizzard says that wall stays for now. The developers also say it could come down later if one ruleset runs short of players. They laid out the thinking in a final pre-launch podcast, which PCGamesN reported on November 1.

Forever has no realm list. You pick a ruleset when you create a character, and that choice decides who you can party, queue and raid with. Here is what stays apart, what is shared and what Blizzard says it could change.

What is a ruleset in WoW Forever?

Blizzard calls a ruleset a broad player ecosystem that takes the place of a single realm. Four are available at launch, and Hardcore is promised for sometime after launch with no date given.

  • Normal: adventuring and fighting monsters, with fights against other players at your own discretion.
  • PvP: you are almost always at risk of attack from the opposing faction.
  • Roleplay: strict naming conventions and behaviour rules.
  • Roleplay PvP: the same roleplay rules, but with constant player versus player danger.

What stays separate between rulesets?

Grouping, dungeons and raids work only inside the ruleset you chose, according to Blizzard’s official article. Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported. Battlegrounds may mix rulesets, except Hardcore, which stays separate.

Factions are separate too, so Horde and Alliance still cannot group. You cannot hop between rulesets either: a different ruleset needs a new character. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide.

On the PvP ruleset an account can create characters for only one faction. Normal, Roleplaying and Hardcore allow both.

Why did Blizzard keep them apart?

Ana Resendez, a lead software engineer, said it comes down to balance: each ruleset should keep its own economy and flavour. Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield said the team once discussed letting PvE and PvP players group for instanced content. Some members were for it and some were strongly against.

What tipped the decision, he said, was that farming is much easier on a PvE server. Auction houses and trade were discussed in the same way and also stay separate.

What is the emergency option?

Greenfield said the technology is set up so Blizzard could make a change if it really felt it needed to. If a roleplay population cannot sustain itself, the studio has options, such as linking auction houses or allowing grouping for instanced content.

He called it a last resort, “a lever that we can pull if we need to.” Blizzard recently reversed itself and added a Roleplay PvP ruleset, which it first left out over fears of splitting the community.

What about layering at launch?

Layering means you will not see everyone at once. Resendez said players reported people vanishing as they looked out from Orgrimmar toward the Barrens, and Blizzard is reviewing how zones are connected. Software engineer Frank Williams said launch should look much like the end of the beta.

One change arrives for launch: joining a group no longer forces a world refresh. You get a pop-up and choose when to move. Bigger parties of 80 to 120 players are only an idea on the table, with nothing announced.

Is there a price?

The sources do not give a price for choosing a ruleset, and picking one is part of character creation. They also give no Canadian or US pricing for the game itself, so check Blizzard’s official pages before you buy anything.

What is still unknown?

The Hardcore date is not set. Nobody has said when, or whether, rulesets would ever be linked. Greenfield also warned that how layering looks at launch may be quite different from a month later.

Who does this suit?

Friends who play differently. If one of you wants PvP and the other does not, you cannot party up for dungeons or raids. Agree on one ruleset before creating characters.

Roleplayers. The extra Roleplay PvP ruleset gives you an option, but Blizzard has said it worried about splitting that community. The merge option exists mainly for this case.

PvP fans. Remember the one faction per account rule on the PvP ruleset. Layering fixes are still in progress, so expect some rough edges at launch.

Newcomers. Normal is the gentlest start. Your account collections carry across rulesets, so a later character on another ruleset keeps those rewards.

Canadian players log in on Pacific time for the Americas, so read Blizzard’s launch notice for the exact start time before November 4.