Blizzard has heard the pleas and is planning to introduce a graveyard for deceased Hard Core characters.
Yesterday in the EU forums, a blue appeared to shed some light on what Blizzard has planned for fallen Hard Core characters in Diablo 3. It seems that the devs are working on some sort of ‘Hall of the Dead’ for Hard Core characters that have met their end. This ‘graveyard’ will provide players with a memoriam for their dead heroes, as well as move them from their ‘active’ character slots.
Good news indeed!
Quote from Vaneras
We have plans to create a Hall of the Dead where your can view your deceased HC characters, and you will probably also be able to view fun and interesting statistics about them.
Dead HC characters will not remain in your main character list, though.
(Source)
I tried leveling a HC Werewolf Druid in D2, but never made it past level 40. I can’t exactly remember how I died, but that experience soured me on HC. However, given this new mechanic and the years of gaming experience I now have under my belt *wink, flex*, I will definitely be giving HC mode a go in Diablo 3.
A great example of how much the devs are listening, and responding to, the community; and how much leeway they are getting from their publisher to pursue “vanity” content such as this. This is one of those “iceberg” bits of information. The addition of an “HC Graveyard” has many more (positive) connotations than what is shown on the surface.
What was the level cap in D2? I only played it briefly in 2003 when I was still in high school.