The inclusion of a [[Hardcore]] character option is not yet confirmed, but the D3 Team has said they don't see any reason not to include it. Hardcore characters are exactly the same as regular characters, except that they are mortal. When they die, they stay dead. Forever. No restarting in town; no restarting anywhere. Dead hardcore characters were able to log back onto the Battle.net chat channels in D2, but they could not join of or create games. It's not known how that feature might be handled in D3, if there's a more interactive chat room experience.