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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Why did you start playing WoW?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Jul 2nd 2011 at 8:00AM
When I met my husband, he was a bit of a WoW junkie. I admit, I turned up my nose at it. I accepted it as one of his "quirks" and just shook my head and curled up with a book during his late-night game sessions. One night, we went over to visit my brother, and I watched as he and his guild were attempting, once again, the 40-man raid of Onyxia's Lair (yes, this was quite some time ago). I watched, listened to the conversation over his speakers, and marveled at the teamwork involved. Dare I admit ... this looked like fun?
Arriving home, I insisted that I wanted to try. Amused, my husband dug up a trial copy and loaded it on the dilapidated laptop. I rolled up a night elf druid and was hooked.
The night elf druid is long gone (draenei mage, thank you very much), and I play on a different server now, but I'm still hooked. The storylines still enthrall me, the graphics still invite me, and I still enjoy the camaraderie and teamwork.
What brought you into the game? Did you just happen to see a copy in the electronics section and think it looked nifty, or was there one moment that will always stand out as your That game looks friggin' AWESOME!! moment?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
Plainswander Jul 2nd 2011 11:04AM
I was a massive Fan of the Warcraft RTS games, and Diablo "back in the day", so, when WoW came along, well, I was somewhat excited. I'd never played a MMO before, but I'd heard all about the horrible things Everquest did/does to people, so I wasn't going to buy it, I was just going to play the beta and be done (as I didn't want to get too addicted). And play the beta I did, it was fun, and then it ended. That would have been enough for me, but that christmas, my lovely wife got me a copy of the full game.
Four expansions later, and countless hours sunk into the best game I've ever played, and she's still regretting that decision, I am sure.
Oh, and I've been a balance druid since day one, THAT was fun sometimes.
Kendro Jul 2nd 2011 11:17AM
I had started following WoW and its development since '02. Having played the previous Warcraft games, and having absorbed as much of the lore as I could find, I saw WoW as an all you can buffet of lore, and continuation of the story. The original promises of how pvp was going to work and the original concept for the hero classes was also very enticing. I got into the beta eventually and ended up changing classes from hunter (in the original hero class concepts only certain race/class combos could advance to a hero class, ne/hunter could advance to demon hunter, which was my original aim) to druid for my guild at the time to help run 5 mans and group quests. I grew to like the little versatility the druid class offered and liked the hots for healing. So I ended up sticking with my druid when WoW went live.
Halvan Jul 2nd 2011 11:47AM
It was something of a migration from a small free to play MMO that was going terribly sour to something more stable for me and the group of friends that I started with. We were the forum dwelling, blog hopping, "theorycrafting" vocal hardcore sector of a certain game that will not be named that simply was not run well. We were the server first types. First to hit level cap, first to finish certain content, first and only people to loot what was essentially that game's Sulfuras in Molten Core days, the guys you did not want to see coming at you in a battleground, etc. One of us came up with the idea of giving the WoW free trial a whirl and we all rolled Night Elves and ran around Teldrassial with absolutely no idea what we were doing. All the crap we had done, all the great stuff we had created, all the prestige and haters we had gathered were nowhere to be found in Azeroth. From a dry, dreary game that we were still playing just out of habit to something completely different. Something you could tell tell the designers poured their hearts into making.
I've been playing ever since, but the group I started with gravitated away from each other after awhile.
Gimmlette Jul 2nd 2011 11:48AM
My daughter, who had played in the beta, thought I would enjoy it. She's gone and I'm still around.
jahd Jul 2nd 2011 11:55AM
I knew little about Warcraft and WoW because of my friends. But I started playing it because of a clients. I own a computer shop, and one month before WTLK a couple bought two PCs. One of them was performing not very well in a random beaviour only playing WoW. I need intensive testing and used one free 10 days test. In a few days I was hooked.
Frank-potato Jul 2nd 2011 11:55AM
I kind of had a transition.....maybe weird but in my own way makes sense for all that was happening @ that time in my life. I used to play BIG TIME Warhammer. Like the board game, yes the HUGE board game with all the strategies and plans and rules and dices and little soldiers that took ages to paint and all that. It was the best moments of my life. So, obviously i liked RPG's and already knew Blizz from Starcraft (Best game ever, too evolved for its time!), so i definitely had to try this Warcraft game. Meh not bad, good story line, kind of lacking that massive battle and punch that my board game brought. Then the added a little prefix... World of..... My little metal soldiers never stood a chance......
Jayjay Jul 2nd 2011 12:17PM
My fiance (now husband) used to play - I thought it sounded like geek-heaven and not something I'd enjoy - I was a badass FPS player - I killed things with a BFG! lol.
Then I watched him play his 'silly game'.
It actually looked fun - I'm a huge fan of fantasy literature anyway - so I made a toon on his account - then we were fighting for playtime so I got my own account and now 5 YEARS later (ugh seriously 5 years? lol) I'm still playing. We have kids so playing wow is a cheap night out for us - if we take the brood it costs us more than a month's sub in just one night x 4.
Matt P Jul 2nd 2011 12:19PM
I've been playing Warcraft games since Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. My dad had bought it to play with his friends, and one day he called my five-year-old self over and said "Look, I can summon demons and crap!" I was hooked, and played every game in the series multiple times.
I was hesitant about playing WoW at first, but ultimately I wanted to explore the expansive world on my own terms rather than limited by missions. It's been six years, and I still love the game just as much as I did as the first time I ran from Tirisfal as a level 9 to see Karazhan and Stonard.
Therinor Jul 2nd 2011 12:29PM
Back then, a good friend of mine (whom I met in UO) and me were GMs/admins on a private UO shard, together with 2 other ppl. Suddenly, my friend didnt log in very often anymore, and I heard he had started playing WOW.
I had heard a few things about the game (this was in 06) but nothing really enticed me to try it. I chatted with that friend one evening, and he said "Don't even think about playing that game, you'll never be able to stop anymore".
Of course, i had to try it. During that time, it was hard to find a copy of the game with a game code (I think it was one of the periods where Blizz held back on shipping more?), but eventually I did, and started a pally (and soon switched to a mage)
Of course, it was a huge difference to UO, not only regarding graphics etc, so I had a very steep learning curve in front of me... =)
Blaise Jul 2nd 2011 12:35PM
I fully blame penny arcade talking about it. I initially stayed away because of the instability issues they complained about, but eventually it settled down and they were going on and on about how great it was. I just couldn't resist.
Rubicon Jul 2nd 2011 12:34PM
It was the summer before BC dropped. I was out of school (college) at the time and spending the 3 month break at a friends place in another city. Our goal was to do P90 (P90X wasn't invented yet) and otherwise I had nothing do all day but sit at his house. I had no job there, and they did, so from 8-5 I sat there watching bad TV. About a month in, some friends of my friends basically gave me their login and said "Hey, while we are all at work, you should play this game." That game was WOW. Over the rest of the summer, I leveled LordSkeletor the undead Warlock. I didn't get to 60, but I had a great time.
I stopped playing when school started back up because I had so much to do, but one of my roomates (a guy i didn't know, but it was one of those student apartment where they give you roomates) still played. AS BC approached the hype about Outland and flying mounts had 3 people harping at me non stop to rejoin then, so when BC dropped I did.
I played with them for the rest of the semester, but I was not hooked yet. However, my girlfriend at the time (who was playing Godfather on XBOX) saw me and wanted to try. So we rolled some toons together and started playing together as a team. Having someone in the room with me to help me with instance and raid awareness without the work/delay/technical issues of Vent really made questing fun. 4 years passed and we have been playing together since. (except for a brief stint about a month after Cata dropped, due to PUG irritation.)
And that's my WOW story.
DarkWalker Jul 2nd 2011 12:41PM
I always liked open-ended games, and the concept of an massively online, open ended game intrigued me.
I first tried a couple beta/free MMOs, but none could really hook me (most of them were too grindy, and the lack of respecs at the time turned me away from them, the same way the lack of respecs was what kept me from even starting a Diablo 2 character on Battle.net). Then I discovered WoW, which was much more casual friendly than any other game out there - and, at the time, had respecs paid for in gold as a planned feature for one of the upcoming patches.
I stayed in WoW, with a couple of breaks, up until Cataclysm, when I left the game due to the content I hadn't yet done not being solo and/or casual friendly. I will most likely only return if/when Random Heroics are guaranteed to take less than half an hour - including queue time - and PUGs actually have a fighting chance of beating the normal raids. Otherwise, I've seen everything else I wanted to see, and while I'm all for solo content, I don't count randomized content (such as randomized daily quests) as worth a subscription at all, and I really dislike player-based gating like what is used in the Firelands daily hub to force players to wait 3 weeks to see the end result of their effort (and was used to force players to spend a whole month to become crusaders in WotLK).
Since my first break from the game, back in BC days, from time to time I would try other MMOs, but none had the right mix of features for me. This changed the last time I left WoW, just after getting really burned out due to Cataclysm's Heroics - I started playing LotRO (which I didn't try at launch due to lack of trials and the fact it seemed too much like WoW in Middle Earth; becoming F2P fixed the first problem, and actually trying it showed me I was wrong about the second), got the expansions for GW (I was put off at first due to the initial focus on PvP and group content, but patches and expansions turned it into a solid, and solo-friendly, PvE experience), and ended up purchasing a lifetime DCUO sub (unlimited cosmetic gear storage, a combat system that would be good enough for an action game, solo challenge instances, and no locks on raids). I'm also planning on pre-ordering SW:TOR and GW2, and - in the event I get bored with all those games - to try Rift before considering going back to WoW, at least if WoW keeps it's current trend of making end-game not really PUG/casual friendly.
valomer Jul 2nd 2011 12:52PM
Warcraft 3
rovingbandit21 Jul 2nd 2011 12:52PM
My wife made me get my own account after I took over her's and she still wanted to play. I did get to keep the big screen TV though, only after I bought her a laptop...
Snappel Jul 2nd 2011 1:00PM
I remember loading up WoW for the first time after getting bored while on winter break 3 years ago. Christmas was coming soon and Wrath of the Lich King had just been released, so I figured I'd treat myself and download the trial. I'm an old Counter-Strike junkie, so naturally my opinion of the game and MMO's in general was pretty low. I even made my first character based on the many (in my opinion) humorous stereotypes I had heard of from reading posts online and over-hearing friends talking about it.
So, I loaded up an undead rogue, gave it the most retarded look I could find, and to my surprise, I'm already raiding Firelands (2 bosses down already!) and haven't looked back since.
8xwdj8xj6z Jul 2nd 2011 1:33PM
My son had played WoW since right after vanilla beta. We have a severely disabled daughter, now 8 years old. During long nights in the hospital starting when she was just a year old (has it really been that long? I didn't actually start playing until after about a year of her hospitalizations), I was too sleepy to read, but I needed something to do while I waited for my daughter to need suctioning, repositioning, etc. I got a trial account and rolled a dwarf hunter, but I kept getting killed while I left him sitting when I went to take care of my daughter. So I rolled a night elf druid that could stealth when I needed to suddenly stop to go deal with her needs.
I made it all the way to 70, then 80, then 85, playing other toons along the way for variety, but hardly ever grouping or running instances since I could never been dependable, never knowing when I would have to stop and leave other people hanging.
We are fortunate enough to have 24-hour nursing now, and I have finally caught up on my sleep. I occasionally run instances, but I struggle with it because I don't know what I'm doing. Level 85, running dungeons like a noob--but I wouldn't have done it any other way. WoW helped get me through some difficult times, and if it means that impatient idiots boot me because I'm not uber enough, then so be it.
Koleckai Jul 2nd 2011 1:40PM
Was bored with City of Heroes. Picked up a trial disk somewhere, created a character. Didn't like said character. Went back to City of Heroes. Then my kids bought me World of Warcraft for my birthday. Created new character and liked it better.
Maccabeus Jul 2nd 2011 1:40PM
I had surgery the summer after my senior year, and i figured I wasn't going to be able to do much for a while. I'd seen my friend play his characters a while back, but I had always thought the game to be too goofy and geeky. I stumbled upon the free trial ad on the Penny Arcade website, and thought, heck why not. I watched the cinematic, and immediately rolled an undead warlock (because zombies controlling demons are cool, right?)
2 years later, I'm one of the top geared warlocks on my server, and helping to lead my guild into Firelands.
Bethontheharbor Jul 2nd 2011 1:47PM
I used to be a huge tabletop AD&D player( 1st and 2nd ed). At one point in my life I needed crash space, and a friend of a friend offered me their spare room. They played WoW. 10 mins of watching them go through Stormwind and out into Elwynn and I was hooked.
They let me roll a warrior, while they were at work. Killing Kobolds in Northshire and that was it. Didn't have funds so I played on private servers for about 2 years. Then on to retail.
BTW private servers suck ass. They never work right, the Databases get wiped out often, and hell there at one point was no such thing as mob collisions. Imagine bosses coming through walls if you got within 10 ft of said wall. SUCKED!
Astalnar Jul 2nd 2011 2:02PM
My friend said to me there is a funny game, mmo based on warcraft where paladins own mages.
He forgot to mention they owned in healing and not in damage output but when I finaly realized that it was too late, I was already hooked.