This blew me away too. WoW is the first MMO I've ever played, so I didn't know what to expect. When I took off the first time, I thought it was cool. I didn't realize the things I was flying over were in real-time until the first time I took off right after someone else, and realized I could still see them flying in front of me, I thought that was the greatest thing.

You beat me to it. That was also an amazing moment for me. My first toon - a human warrior - taking his first gryphon ride from Stormwind to Lakeshire - and I was able to look down into Elwynn Forest and see real players in action. The scenery was buzzing by smoothly, and I could still click on players below me and see their name, stats, health, cast bar, etc, all in real time. I actually called a friend who didn't play and told them about it, because I was so amazed.

Mine is also flight related. My first gryphon ride over the Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge around level 30-35 or so was amazing. I looked down and saw all these giant spiders that I knew would eat me alive with one hit, and I resolved to one day be able to beat those spiders. Guess where I went questing around level 52 or so? That's right, Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge.

Almost exactly my experience. I saw the gryphons flying over me and I thought that I saw a blue name. Then I realized they were real people.

Janaan - Heh, those spiders in Searing Gorge were one of my epic earlier memories, too. Flying from SW to IF, I looked down and saw all these ?? level spiders just walking around as if they were Elwynn wolves or something easy like that. And then I thought maybe, at some point far in the future, I'd have to kill them. /terror