Straycat's
story of "getting it" reminded me of when I first realized this game was something special. I'd played MMOs before, and I'm a longtime gamer, so I always knew that I'd get into it. But it was during my first group, right around level 7, where three people I'd never met and I did a few quests together, and traveled all over the Night Elf starting area (yeah, yeah) All of us kind of figured out just how great this game was-- even at that early point, we realized how different our classes where, and how much this game really had to offer.
So the question for today is: was there an exact time at which you "got it" too? Lots of
WoW players are first-time gamers (at least first-time serious gamers), and there were probably a lot of surprises out there when it was discovered that video games really could be as fun as they say. Was there one point at which you "got it"?
Tags: breakfast-topic, getting-hooked, grouping, newbie, night-elf, wow-ladies
Filed under: Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Jan 22nd 2008 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Unundead Jan 22nd 2008 8:10AM
Jan 2004, the week the game came out in the UK. It was all downhill from there. RSI, broken sleep patterns, random pains down my left side. Should really get that seen to :/
Chelon Jan 22nd 2008 9:14AM
They had me at 'Slay the boars'
java Jan 22nd 2008 8:18AM
I got hooked two years ago this week. The holidays right before I got into WoW. I was home visiting the family. My father's retired, we were at Best Buy picking up a few parts to do some projects. My mouth dropped as he caught up with me in the Audio / Video department and he was holding a copy of World of Warcraft. I do mean literally my mouth dropped. He'd never played a video game outside of the game he got in support of his model raid road hobby.
A month later, speaking to my mom she told me she was baffled he's been playing that "warcraft" game all the time. I was compelled to go pick up it as soon as I heard that, I jumped on his server and we've been playing together ever since. Although I have gotten more into the end game aspects than he has, we still have so much more to talk about now, definitely brought us closer together...
Java
dredge Jan 22nd 2008 1:57PM
I was hooked on MMOs when i was playing diablo II, the first time that a had a armor that transformt my necromanser to a ghoul with set bonus! oh man that was great fun. when wow came out my mind was blown apart so many thing more that could not find in diablo. I know a lot of peaple share this feeling :).
Adam Jan 22nd 2008 8:20AM
About 1 year ago. I was at that time playing Knight Online, which was having huge server problems. So much that I decided to download wow and try the free week. I hated it. First thoughts were "to cartoony" "very kidish" "PvP sucks".
But as I was thinking and saying these things, i noticed that I was still playing. I finally admitted to myself that I was hooked about 2 weeks later. I ended up selling my Knight Online player and went full wow by around May.
Tetelestia Jan 22nd 2008 8:35AM
I "got it" 3 years ago I was in the low 20s on my main (warlock) in SFK. This was my first real instance run as RFC and WC were gimmes by guildies. We ran it at least 5 times in a row, trying to get all the sweet blues.
This being my first time with actual group dynamics, I leared a lot about my class and what not to do. Learned on 1st run, do not soulstone myself. Learned on 2nd run, melee is not optimal damage for my class. Learned 3rd run, after 2nd lesson, aggro management is serious business.
4th and 5th lesson: profit!
Chris Anthony Jan 22nd 2008 8:32AM
I was hooked by a friend talking about the awesomeness of a mob that, as it happens, appears almost nowhere else in the game - the Harvest Watchers in Westfall. I'd never seen the game before, but the aesthetic that produced the Watchers - and, I admit, Dwarves With Guns and Elves With Zeppelins - attracted me almost immediately.
Added bonus: for two people I know, including my now-wife, the attractor was fishing. They decided they wanted to take over fishing since it looked exciting (in a Punch The Monkey kind of way; neither of them had really played any sort of video games before), got into combat while they were fishing, demanded to know what the little bars at the bottom were for, and went looking for more mobs so they could /try/ the abilities on the bar... and had their own accounts within 24 hours.
(Added added bonus: despite starting more than a year after I did, my wife has more total character levels than I do - and I'm the one with more alts! She also beat me to the level cap by more than six months...)
Mike Kremen Jan 22nd 2008 8:35AM
Got hooked twice, really. First was after Star Wars Galaxies and Final Fantasy XI, when I wanted something more complicated than the former and more fun than the latter. Second was after a year break here at law school, when friends here started to play.
What point exactly for the first time? Despite my generally disliking 25-man raids now for the # of people, the first successful run of Deadmines was like sealing the deal.
Noahsbranch Jan 22nd 2008 8:36AM
It was in Dun Morogh after rolling my first character a dwarf hunter, and seeing how big the environment was...and then that almost haunting music of Dun Morogh....it was good nite I am hooked!!
Gibbins Jan 22nd 2008 10:57AM
has to be 2 weeks after the game was released
played the beta and felt it just wasnt as good as everquest 2 ( the game i was playing at the time ) went back to everquest untill the game come out for real, i thought to myself i had to buy it because my freind who i played eq2 with did.. started playing 3 days after the release and the second i dinged 10 and started getting talents i was hooked.
Sicko Jan 22nd 2008 8:38AM
I created my account in June 06 and played all of possibly 3 days before going back to UO which was already beginning to slack in terms of community, then about 3 months later I ended up selling my UO account as well. Fast forward to 2 months ago. I'm currently unemployed and living in a tourist town, so job opportunities as well as entertainment options are quite slim in the winter months, and I needed something to fill the time. I didnt feel like starting up again with UO and its dying or possibly dead community for all i know, and more and more people i know from various forums I frequent were playing WoW so i decided to pick up a 60 day game card and give it another go. About a week later they had me, hook line and sinker. It took rolling one of almost every class and playing through a few levels before I found one that I enjoyed (Warlock, now level 66.) after reaching Outland it became apparent to me that I didn't want to spend hours in LFG so I rolled a prot pally and I'm enjoying it even more than the lock now, and of the 2 the pally will most likely be the first to level 70.
Lucas Jan 22nd 2008 8:42AM
Started playing WoW in last january, didn't catch me at first, after about a month of playing on my friends account I stopped playing for a few months because of school. I re started in late June on my new account as a draenei shaman, I've been playing hard core since level 10 D: (My first real character got to level 30 in a week...).
Sinister Jan 22nd 2008 9:08AM
I played the game during press beta and a month afterwards untill lvl 26 with a Night Elf Hunter. Then I stopped because I didn't want to pay for the game and had too many other games to play. Never looked back at it untill one day at work (work at a game developer, QA) our department told me they had started out with new chars and everyone had to start playing (not really had to, but still). I figured I might as well join cause here I am, a gamer for many years but never experienced higher lvl content in WoW and working on an MMO. That can't be right. Long story short, started playing again in october 2007 and currently at 62 with my priest and also rolling a rogue. Play every evening after work and may as well admit I'm getting addicted :)
Xin Jan 22nd 2008 8:49AM
I've never been a serious gamer before, but i started playing WoW about a year ago to play with some friends that were on the same server. I found the leveling pretty boring but enjoyed myself with leveling professions and reselling things from the auction house.
Later when i reached level 58 on my priest and entered the dark portal, that's where the game really started for me. I haven't stopped playing ever since! That's where it got me! :)
Matt Jan 22nd 2008 8:56AM
A little before September of 2004, during closed beta, when my friend let me borrow his account while he was on vacation. Later he had a second beta key sent to him by "accident", which Blizz let him give away. Wow I've been playing this game a long time... maybe I need a life. :-)
Eamara Jan 22nd 2008 9:01AM
I started playing around when the game was first released in the UK. Got a couple characters up to the 30's, got bored as I didn't have anyone to play with, quit for a couple years.
Then I heard BC was coming out, and that Blood Elves would be a playable race. So I bought BC, un-froze my account and rolled a Blood Elf Mage. Got her up to the 30's, got bored, noticed there was another new playable race. So I rolled a Draenei hunter.
Now I'm level 70, with a level 70 druid alt and raid leader of one of the largest guilds on my server. And all it took was taking up my now co-guild mistress up on her offer of a guild to call my home... :D
Milktub Jan 22nd 2008 9:07AM
I really didn't think I'd like WoW. A couple RL friends were players, and one day while I was at their house and we were waiting for the other to get ready to go out, the other decided to log onto WoW for a moment. What I saw looked ghastly boring ... press buttons, gather stuff, go back to town ... /yawn.
But last year I found myself laid off, and while collecting unemployment and looking for new work, decided to get the 10-day trial. After around the 4th day, I loved it.
But the first time I "got it" was when I was 20something and struggling with one of the Grimtotem quests up high on the bluffs. There was a Tauren Hunter up there and we grouped up. While we don't group up any more, we still chat when both of us are on. But for a while, we were always grouping for one reason or another.
superfrank Jan 25th 2008 1:56PM
My friend wanted me to start a character so he would have someone to play with; I refused to install it because I didnt want such a timesink. He came round my house and installed it anyway!
3 months later he stopped playing, 2 years later I still am.
wowdouble Jan 22nd 2008 9:09AM
yeah,i got hooked 1 year ago.because friends of my side all have played getting funny,so i joined the wow.
Darkwrench Jan 22nd 2008 9:12AM
Normally i hate online gaming but my 61 year old uncle ran out of funds so i bought him a WoW card what a mistake next thing you know hes like "Hey why don't you play for a while" that was two months and 4 days ago I still don't know wether to slap him or thank him its still kinda in the air but man what a good game