This is my 1st entry in the 30 days of WarCraft series of articles.
I first started playing WoW in February of 2006. The game was a Christmas gift from my wife, but I waited nearly two months before I installed the software. Somehow I knew what a time vampire it was going to be. That was a relatively hectic period in my life, so I thought it best to wait until things settled down before I started my new addiction hobby.
Truth be told, the game didn’t look all that intriguing to me at first. I mainly wanted to try it because I’d heard it was a good benchmark for PC performance. I had purchased a super duper computer in the Spring of ’05, and wanted to see what a game like WoW would look like on it.
But, still… regardless of whether or not the game looked appealing at first, I knew in the back of my mind that it was likely going to take ahold of me. 😉
During the weeks leading up to my first login experience, I pored through the strategy guide she’d also bought me. In fact, we both did. It was fun looking at the different races, classes, etc… and pondering what race/class combo we’d like to create. At that time, she had no intentions of playing the game with me, but that would soon change…
My wife was out of town for a few days on business, so I figured that would be a good time to play around with the new game she’d given me for Christmas. After a lengthy installation process, I logged in for the first time.
I was blown away. Having not really been a gamer — my only other real gaming experience was Diablo and Diablo II — I was floored by the graphics and the game play. I was immediately hooked.
My wife, who had been playing DII LoD with me, was instantly taken by it as well.
When I first showed her WoW, after she returned from her business trip, her first words were… “give me the install discs”!
Well, that ship has sailed for her, as she quit playing two years ago, but I’m still huntering on as you can see… 😀
Well, that’s the story about how I got started, and when. So how about you..? When did you first start playing WoW..?
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I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for years now and have seen many expansions come and go, each bringing its own unique adventures and challenges. Currently, I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming expansion, The War Within. What excites me the most are the new services like the Ne’rubar Palace Carry (https://wowvendor.com/shop/wow/buy-wow-pve-raid-boost/nerubar-palace/) that are already available. It’s such a relief knowing that I won’t have to spend countless hours grinding. These services really help players like me focus more on enjoying the game’s rich storyline and less on the repetitive tasks.
When did I start?
Just looked at my account history, (yeah, I couldn’t remember xD ), and the very first transaction was a free month starting 30/6-06.. So basicly, I’ve been playing since Vanilla.. 😀
I actually started out as an Ally Hunter I think, with my roommate on Stormreaver EU.. Don’t know why, but we decided to delete those, and start over with Orcs.. So I rolled an Orc Hunter and he did a Shaman.
Why choose Hunter?
Well, I sat there, looking at the classes, and Hunter just appealled to me, because of the abillity to tame pet.. And You would never really be alone, with a Pet on your side to keep me company..
Today I play Alliance thoug, after a couple of friends got me talked in to join their server/guild.
Still got a Hunter as my Favourite class, and nothing can change that.
I am a BM Hunter by heart!
Over the years I’ve been looking into diff. classes too, (to understand what makes ’em tick and how I can kill ’em the most efficient as hunter), and I now have a Priest and a Warr. at 85.
I actually participated in the original WoW Beta, albiet briefly- a friend who was not interested let me use her key. I played a Tauren Warrior and my initial reaction was pretty negative. I’d been playing Dark Age of Camelot since it released and WoW was way too cartoonish for my roleplayer taste. I was snobby and I decided I would never play WoW. Ha!
Through the encouragement of a guildie from DAoC I gave WoW a free trial chance and quickly learned it was everything I loved about BatMUD (yeah, I know!) but IN 3D!!!! I was hooked. I don’t know why I wrote it off when in Beta but I’m happy I gave it another try.
I bought my 1st copy of WoW a few months before BC came out and really started being addicted when BC hit the shelves. I even talked my girlfriend (at the time) into playing and bought her a copy as well. For whatever reason we started a duo of Paladin & Mage (Blood Elf of course, lol) and the rest is history. At some point we started a Priest/Hunter combo and those have become our mains.
Playing with a close friend was a big part of what made the game fun for me. I’ve always loved the social aspect of MMOs and the idea of playing and “meeting” new friends from around the globe. I now have guildies from all over the US, from England, and even Australia. Fun.
I started playing in 2007, my oldest boy kept bugging me to play as he is in Tenn and I’am in Ca. We started a family guild on Etrigg with 3 son’s 2 grand kids, and my wife. At the height we had over 200 members, Then WOW got more into raid groups and the guild started to fall apart. We then moved to Duskwood last year and started another guild Powered by Coffee. half a dozen old members moved with us and we are staying small now, less drama.
I rolled a Hunter same as most, I wanted a friend to quest with as that is the part of the game I love best. I have all the rare pets, and 78 mounts, want the 100 award. I have spent many a night camped out for that rare to tame, much fun. I have like a year of play time.. as I play at work a lot I drive a big rig in Los Angeles and sit a lot waiting to load or unload. Wow has giving me many many hours of enjoyment, And being a Hunter was the best one, as all my others that do not get play much.
Thanks for sharing, Alienwolf!
I started playing a while after WotLK came out, we had a group in another game, and got kinda bored with it and some of the peep’s that loved drama. One of our group kept urging me to try WoW, but I resisted because I just didn’t think I’d like it. Finally I made a trial account, tried a NE warrior, my friend came to help me, but later suggested I make a Hunter. I had told her if I liked it, I’d subscribe and buy the game. After making the hunter, and getting, I think to lvl 10, I left work early the next day to make a trip to Best Buy. I surprised my friend, and she asked I thought you were gonna wait to buy it, I told there wasn’t any need after playing the hunter, I was hooked. Still am! A few of the others from the other game are in WoW with us, hooked them too. LOL
I have been playing since vanilla WoW went live. I was a big fan of Warcraft 2 and the lore involved. A buddy of mine said he had read about World of Warcraft, which was in very early beta at the time. I watched and waited, then bought WoW as soon as it was released. I’ve been playing ever since.
You’re an old-schooler, Tak! You switch back to troll yet, or are you sticking with the goblin?
Nice story Crim. 🙂
I can’t even remember when I started playing but it was definitely before BC. A former student of mine told me about the game but only really started to play when my brother passed on his account to me. He had no time to play anymore so I tried it and was hooked. I went for a night elf hunter. I remember Darnassus: the sheer size of the place and the music that blasted in as I entered really was something unforgettable (eventually, it’s the same feeling I got when I first entered Ironforge and Stormwind).
It was really an aimless gaming experience for me, I just did the quests and didn’t even care about the stats. I just took it all in and enjoyed it.
The beauty of WoW is the many directions anyone can take the game to: questing, raiding, taming, even trading. I don’t think any other MMORPG can boast of these varieties of how you can play the game — and would still be fun whatever choice you make.
“The beauty of WoW is the many directions anyone can take the game to: questing, raiding, taming, even trading. I don’t think any other MMORPG can boast of these varieties of how you can play the game — and would still be fun whatever choice you make.”
Exactly.
Third week of December 2009. I remember it as clearly as though it was a year and a half ago (with a 6 mos hiatus) Old guild member friend from Asheron’s Call and I literally mean old had been playing WoW since it had come out. Told me I’d love the game, however I’d done heavy PvP’ing in Asheron’s Call and like lawman, was told it was essentially a group gig which interested me not at all. Friend told me to give it a try as a BM hunter for solo so I finally succumbed to the game. Actually it was to shut my friend up. I absolutely loved the game from the moment I logged in. I’d not played a MMORPG for over a decade so of course the graphics alone blew me away. I recall seeing my breath and my footprints in the snow and hearing the crunch as I ran in Dun Morogh and just being tickled pink. And swimming? Oh too nice. I’ve spent time just looking at the waterfalls and such in the game. Like lawman, sans the PvP, I was very pleased to see that the vast majority of the game was solo. Have kept it that way ever since with all the plusses and minuses that go along with it.
I was immediately taken by the water and swimming animations myself. I remember just running around the NE starting area checking stuff out, then as soon as I swam through a pond, I was like… whoa… ok, now this is amazing.
I started playing while visiting my boyfriend at the time; he was going to college overseas and had brought his laptop and the new game he’d gotten for Christmas. It was early 2006, about a year and a half into the game’s release, and he had a level 60 pally and was grinding in Silithus. He’d asked if I minded if he played on his computer while I read a book for a while one evening, and I’d said fine. I barely looked at my book. I was fascinated by the game; he started to explain it to me and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. After an hour or so, I asked him if he’d let me try it. I created a little gnome mage and wandered about blasting things and dying repeatedly. I think I hit level 15 in just a few days while sharing the computer with my boyfriend. I spent far too much time playing WoW and far too little time enjoying the foreign locale!
I went home and back to my new job doing tech support for my college, where I was the only girl. I worked there over the summer, and I’d become friends with one of my coworkers who’d also stayed there over the summer. He started bringing his laptop to work to play WoW when it was quiet. (We spent a lot of time waiting for people to call in with problems.) I broke up with the boyfriend who’d introduced me to WoW that summer, so I was quite pleased when my new friend let me use his account when he wasn’t playing.
After discovering that mages were waaaaay too squishy for me, I decided to create a new, more durable character. I didn’t really understand how classes or stats worked at the time, and I was trying to find a class that wore more durable armor and did a good amount of damage. When I read the descriptions of the different classes, I was quite tempted to become a druid, because druids could turn into cats, and I love cats. But leather was only one step up from cloth, and I decided to look for a damage dealer with a bit more armor. Then I discovered that hunters had a pet to keep the mobs away while they killed them. “Ahah!” I thought. “Not as squishy, AND mobs won’t run up and flatten me!” Then I realized I could TAME a cat instead of being a cat, and shoot at things. I created my first hunter, and leveled it when I could play. I developed a severe hatred of the NE leveling areas, which took me at least 6 months to get through.
It took me another year and a half to buy my own copy of the game because the following school year was my final semester and I was writing a thesis. I knew if I bought the game I’d never finish the thesis! I graduated and got a cruddy job, finally bought the BC combo pack for my birthday in the fall of 2007, and created my BE hunter main. (Why BE? I was switching to Horde because the friend who’d shared his account with me was GM of a Horde-side guild and had invited me to join it repeatedly, and I had a nice new computer. The difference in graphics quality between the new races and the old was really obvious on the character creation screen. Plus, I could match my hair color to the orange cats in the starting area. 😉 A bit of a silly reason, but I still love that my pet and I match.)
Since then, I’ve discovered that not only do I love having my own personal attack kitty for soloing, I love the aesthetics of the hunter class. Being able to chose pets that appeal to me, shoot bows and guns, and use polearms (I adore polearms; there’s a female character in one of my favorite book series from my childhood who uses a glaive to great effect, and in Wrath I had one that matched hers!) have made me love my hunter all the more.
I managed to hit 70 and buy flying and then epic flying right before Wrath came out, but I never ran most of BC’s dungeons and none of it’s raids. I finally experienced max-level WoW during Wrath. I also managed to convince my current boyfriend, after several years of playing WoW while he played Eve, to give WoW a shot. He’s not a hunter (fortunately, we’d fight over loot!) but now he’s even more addicted than I am.
I’ve leveled lots of alts, but I can’t seem to enjoy any other class as much as I enjoy my hunter. She’s definitely an extension of my personality.
Awesome story Quill. Thank you for sharing!
I too was torn between a Druid and a Hunter, but then rolled a hunter for many of the same reasons as you. 🙂
I’ll stop there, because this is moving to discussion for my next post.
Again… excellent comment Quill.
I just LOVE the folks that frequent this place. My kind of people, for sure. 🙂
Thanks! Your post inspired me to share.
Nice read 🙂 *passes ONE cookie* You’ll get more as you write more 😉 I started WoW, I think around the time WOTLK came out. We were nearing the end of our studies and we kew this other couple at uni who were suggesting we play WoW, I was hesitant at first because I didn’t think my connection would be fast enough; I remember saying before I could take my sword out I would be dead. But we were drunk after celebrating end of our exams and we popped into a gaming store before I left for home and he bought both of us the game + expansions. I was recommended by another friend to play a hunter, I LOVED the idea of having pets! <3 I created a few other characters down the road and level them but recently deleted them all except my hunter, as the other became a grind to play and I really just loved being a hunter, though at times I wish I didn't delete my priest – nice to have a healing class.
A Hunter is all anyone needs, but then again… we’d have no other classes to pick on if everyone were as smart as we are.
Of course, we do need support classes to heal us.
Oh wait… we have Spirit Beasts… nevermind. 😉
I first started playing about 2 months after BC came out. A friend of mine used to run a gaming store and would play the game as his time allowed. I knew from looking at it that I would enjoy the game immensely. What kept me from playing from the first moment I saw it was my friend explaining to me that “to get anywhere in this game you need to play in groups”. Well that was it for me because I despised the idea of having to play in groups in order to have any fun. I had 3 year old twins at the time and the only time I’d have to play with any regularity would be at night. Late at night. I knew nothing of different servers in different time zones and how I would NEVER be at a loss for a group if I needed it.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that the MAJORITY of the content in the game was centered around solo questing. I could play at my own pace and it was AWESOME! I have not looked back since.
Lawman… you f**kn rule. I know I’ve said that before in so many words, but man… you just get it.
I love your attitude towards the game.
Thanks for being such a vocal presence around here.