Let's start this post where all good Warcraft posts should.
Hi, my name is Seth and I'm a Level 60 Orc Hunter. I have been clean and sober for two years now.

This post will contain swear words and possible spoilers for 1-30 alliance quests. So don't moan at me this time I bolded it.

Christina's C-Blog on entering the world got me looking back on my own past with warcraft.

I'm going to try and break this down into how I felt during my tenure. Beginning with...

The beginning - Night Elf Druid: RIP Level 1-5 (Ish)

I rolled alliance to begin with; a friend of my fathers was on the server I chose as a human warrior so it seemed natural. I didn't play this character long; I only rolled it to see how the controls worked and to get a feel for the game.

And I was fucking blown away.

Not the graphics, I had seen better but this was my first time walking through a game world where everyone around me was an actual person. This took a while to sink in. That guy batting rabbits with a staff was an actual person. Not an AI. I had played online multiplayer before of course, but the closest thing to WoW I had played was adventure quest where the idea of playing along side someone else was ludicrous.

I said I was really trying to capture my feelings.

I went up just saying Hi to random people just to test that they were actual people, a fact that was really much tougher to grasp than it should have been. But the first time I saw the FFVIII balamb garden FMV on my PS1 blew me away as well. Not because it was the greatest thing ever, but in comparison to everything I had played before (Which was limited to an Atari, a Megadrive and avery limited library of N64 games) it was amazing.

This was in many ways the same feeling. Jumping from my previous experience of RPGs into a MMO blew me away.

This stage can be summed up in one phrase.

"Holy crap they are Human"

I only played this character for a while before I decided that I would restart. It is a habit I have with any game, I play for half hour/hour to grasp the mechanics and restart. It serves you well.

The first crusade - Set - Human Warlock RIP Level 1 to 24

So I rolled a warlock, it sounded the most evil and that was all that mattered. This was my first run in with grinding; I accidentally walked in an area too strong for me and realized I would need to stay in the play pen until I was strong enough to deal with it. This is a reoccurring theme in WoW, being penned into these zones.

I worked my way up and up and ran through the defias brotherhood storyline from that orchard they took over in the noob zone past the Deadmines and into Stormwind prison. And really had a blast from the get go. Some things were a bit annoying, how many Kobold mines do I have to go through? (The answer, a lot) but for the most part the sense of achievement when you become strong enough to leave an area and that oh so satisfying ding. Well that made up for it.

As a psychologist (Now, not so much then) I can point to that as positive reinforcement and conditioning, a release of dopamine equivalent to passing a big exam just for clicking a mouse at some monsters. This is where things get troublesome for some WoW players.

I liked the Defias storyline, the first time I cleared Deadmines with my brother in my party. Say what you like about there being no end to an MMO, the feeling of completing an instance like that and then walking out into the sunlight. Yeah it's more of the same afterwards but the sudden relief, we did it! Ect. Yeah life goes on and it's back to the grind but that feeling of achievement is not easily beaten.

By this point my exploration was very limited. I had explored Elwin and Westfall but by the time I reached Duskwood and Redridge I had run out of steam. Time to retire this character and look back at my first choice.

The second crusade - Sekhemet* (The first) - Night Elf Druid: RIP Level 0 - 36

This time I was going to explore, really see as much of the world as I could. For a start this entire class was wrong for me. I was using the bear form for attack and totally ignored the cat form. I even speced restoration. Bleughh - all mistakes. But at this point I wasn't using guides. I had installed a Coordinate addon and was using thottbot for maps but was still pure. Bah, not for long.

My efforts at exploration were both curtailed and encouraged by my chosen class, the druid quests had me going back to westfall and to do so I needed to explore the far reaches of areas too tough for me. Following the trail through Wetlands was harsh. Almost every monster could one hit me and i had an aggro range the size of a small planet. I needed an escort to make it through to Ironforge, but once I was on the Deeprun Tram I knew I was home free.

This strikes me as bad design, needing to trek through these high level (relatively speaking) areas to get to the capitals of your allied races, but it helps to establish the insular nature of the Night Elves - it also aided my attempts at exploration which I appreciated. But no sooner than I had finished that quest I was dragged back to Darkshore to look at whale husks.

This led to the second revelation of WoW

"Grinding is boring"

I spent ages in the same area, mostly running from point A to point B. My insistence to use the bear form rather than cat was holding me back as well, I was staying alive but everything was drawn out. By the time I was exploring Ashenvale and Stone talon I was so thoroughly bored with the Night Elf plot line, running back to Nijels point every time a Horde warrior attacked me the game had totally run out of steam.

And god help me if I had to spend an hour looking for a Gnomergan party only to have them disband the first time someone dies I will kill someone.

The alliance lacked teamwork, everyone seemed to be learning the ropes and the Horde were laughing at us with their battle cry emote.

So I cut my ties with the alliance, it was time to change servers and roll Horde.

Thus the third revelation of WoW was revealed to me, which is summed up in one phrase

"FOR THE HORDE"


To be continued.

The Alliance Crusades
The Beginning
First Crusade
Second Crusade

For The Horde
For The Horde
Barons Chat
In his majesties bloody service

Mechanical Machinations Of Machinering
Trade Skills and Cheating
I do not recognize this UI
PvP sucks

The Endgame...
PvP Is awesome
I'm doing this again?
Memento Mori - The elite guild
What do you mean "So you are still alive"?

Semi related youtube Vid - alliance made Gay bar video



*I always name my game characters after aliases of the God Seth, those being Seth, Set, Sutekh, Suty or Seteh - Sekhmet isn't really an alias of Seth according to most experts but enough think that it is that i also use it. Mostly because Sekhemet is an awesome name (Even if it is a female one)


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