I started playing World of Warcraft about 6 months after release and it's fair to say up until I quit I'd seen pretty much everything there was to see in the world of Azeroth. If there had been achievements then I would have let people compare themselves to me and then laugh at their puny stock of points. Then came Burning Crusade. I look back at it now and wring my hands with bitterness but at the time I was relieved that there was a huge amount of new content to immerse myself into. Of course then came the much talked about and parodied trading in of epics for mere greens. I was trading in the things that made my e-peen big enough to sling over my shoulder for something I would have bought at the AH a scant 2 weeks before just because it would match the costume I was making for myself. This all sounds like rambling but it's important for the discussion of my main point which approaches over the horizon.
Basically about 2 months before the release of WotLK I quit the game to get back into real life. I greeted my family who I hadn't seen for years and started going to the gym. Of course I now had a insatiable lust for endless gameplay which couldn't be fulfilled in the realm of single player. No, it only existed in the murky realm of the internet and MMOs were out of the question. No point giving up cigarettes and then start rolling your own and saying you'd quit because they were different. Which meant FPS gaming. Long story short I play CoD4 now. Because I'd quit though I never got the chance to try out WotLK which was always a thorn in my side. I've played everything Blizzard ever made and, even though they are probably a group of faceless corporate types who sit in big leather chairs and think of even more ways to wring money out of people, it felt like a betrayal not to purchase the latest offering from the Blizz boys. Finally we get to the meat.
This all came to head when a mate of mine, who's going over to Africa for a couple of years to work in a hospital there, gave me his copy of WotLK and 3 months of game cards that hadn't been used so they were fully valid to be used on my account. What was I going to do? Sell it off to some other chump in the alley behind 7-11? I think not. So a week ago I got blasted (inebriated) and started the long process of re-installation of my old game discs, the installation of the lastest chapter and patching. Eventually just after the clocks had struck 3 I finally got back into the game that had occupied my life for 3 years. It was at the same time so familiar and in a lot of other ways different. I knew the interface like the back of my hand and I still could probably find every secret spot in any dungeon in Azeroth and, to a lesser extent, Outland. Yet every channel was filled with talk about places and things I'd never heard of before. I didn't even know how to get to Northrend but I was too terrified of all the pro guys who I would have laughed at 6 months before because they were too noob to ask the simple question so I instead checked out the old site that I used to frequent pretty regularly. Which had been closed down. Of course the obvious solution would have been to log back on and chat with all the friends I'd made back in the day. However of my friend list 90% had quit as well and the other 10% didn't know who the hell I was when I whispered them. I felt adrift and a week later I still do. For a game that boasts how easy it is to ease into the universe I was certainly having trouble. Imagine if you left your town for a while and came back 6 months later and everything except for your house had completely changed. That's a bit exagerrated but it's hard to get your point across unless your talking to someone who's gone through this as well.
Returning has allowed me to gain some insight into the game though which is probably the benefit of the whole experience. Everything I used to get all bent out of shape over is so trivial to me now. I see people arguing about it and I just laugh and shrug it off. Who really cares if will of the forsaken is getting nerfed or whether a spell cooldown has been reduced by 5 seconds? Any person who hasn't played WoW might think those two examples could never force outcry but I have seen thousands of pages, hundreds of death threats and dozens of viruses sent over shit like this in the time I spent playing this game.
The vocabulary as well is something that if you go away from just becomes ridiculous and unnecessary. LF3M BRD, Need T, H and DPS. PST. (Looking for 3 more for Blackrock Depths. Need tank, healer and damage classes. Please send tell) There is no reason that is necessary unless you're getting attacked by a giant eagle after you just made off with their golden magical egg. It originally rose from a need to tell someone something and you didn't have the time to type out the whole message. Now we have vent and TS if you're in a guild and if you're in a party that's why you make macros so I don't have spend 10 minutes with the decryption book while I get killed by the exact same thing you were trying to warn me about.
My other major issue is just how serious and stuck up some of these people are. Now I have no leg to stand on. I spent years being an e-douche and if I could apologise to some of the people I pissed off I would. Some of these guys I see just strut around and do whatever the hell they want. A perfect example occured tonight. I'm running with a fairly new guild who are just trying to start raiding end game stuff. I was on my new main and they were on there alts and we were just doing a quick Ultgarde Keep (the starting dungeon in the new expansion). One of our members had to bounce so one of the others managed to rope in a friend who was some epicced out level 80. Now, I have to emphasise even though the dungeon is easy as what we were doing was practising our teamwork and how in sync we could be. It's probably something that's carried over from my competitive fps gaming. Practise makes perfect as they say. My role was to sheep a target right after the tank had got one of the target. You don't need to do this but it forces you to pay attention and not rely on verbal confirmation to fulfill your role. However this D-bag comes in and just starts AOEing and breaking all the CC. When I called him up on it he just told me to "STFU, noob" (Shut the F**k up, you person of inferior of skill level) and left the group. Unless you're related to the queen you've got no call being that arrogant especially if you're claim to fame is clearing out a non existent dungeon. That's just one example. There's a whole parade of walking jock straps who wouldn't give you the time of day for no good reason. Makes me glad I got out and managed to gain some insight into what a jackass I was. I still am but in a good way, I swear.
I guess I haven't really left any real question for people to respond to so I'm in fairly new territory. Thoughts, comments or simple shut the hell ups are welcome. Sorry it's so long
p.s. I apologise if my grammar is poor, it's something that's stuck with me and I can't live without editing by other people when I write stuff.
p.p.s. the explanation of the shorthand and terms is for people not familiar with the game at all who might be reading this
Basically about 2 months before the release of WotLK I quit the game to get back into real life. I greeted my family who I hadn't seen for years and started going to the gym. Of course I now had a insatiable lust for endless gameplay which couldn't be fulfilled in the realm of single player. No, it only existed in the murky realm of the internet and MMOs were out of the question. No point giving up cigarettes and then start rolling your own and saying you'd quit because they were different. Which meant FPS gaming. Long story short I play CoD4 now. Because I'd quit though I never got the chance to try out WotLK which was always a thorn in my side. I've played everything Blizzard ever made and, even though they are probably a group of faceless corporate types who sit in big leather chairs and think of even more ways to wring money out of people, it felt like a betrayal not to purchase the latest offering from the Blizz boys. Finally we get to the meat.
This all came to head when a mate of mine, who's going over to Africa for a couple of years to work in a hospital there, gave me his copy of WotLK and 3 months of game cards that hadn't been used so they were fully valid to be used on my account. What was I going to do? Sell it off to some other chump in the alley behind 7-11? I think not. So a week ago I got blasted (inebriated) and started the long process of re-installation of my old game discs, the installation of the lastest chapter and patching. Eventually just after the clocks had struck 3 I finally got back into the game that had occupied my life for 3 years. It was at the same time so familiar and in a lot of other ways different. I knew the interface like the back of my hand and I still could probably find every secret spot in any dungeon in Azeroth and, to a lesser extent, Outland. Yet every channel was filled with talk about places and things I'd never heard of before. I didn't even know how to get to Northrend but I was too terrified of all the pro guys who I would have laughed at 6 months before because they were too noob to ask the simple question so I instead checked out the old site that I used to frequent pretty regularly. Which had been closed down. Of course the obvious solution would have been to log back on and chat with all the friends I'd made back in the day. However of my friend list 90% had quit as well and the other 10% didn't know who the hell I was when I whispered them. I felt adrift and a week later I still do. For a game that boasts how easy it is to ease into the universe I was certainly having trouble. Imagine if you left your town for a while and came back 6 months later and everything except for your house had completely changed. That's a bit exagerrated but it's hard to get your point across unless your talking to someone who's gone through this as well.
Returning has allowed me to gain some insight into the game though which is probably the benefit of the whole experience. Everything I used to get all bent out of shape over is so trivial to me now. I see people arguing about it and I just laugh and shrug it off. Who really cares if will of the forsaken is getting nerfed or whether a spell cooldown has been reduced by 5 seconds? Any person who hasn't played WoW might think those two examples could never force outcry but I have seen thousands of pages, hundreds of death threats and dozens of viruses sent over shit like this in the time I spent playing this game.
The vocabulary as well is something that if you go away from just becomes ridiculous and unnecessary. LF3M BRD, Need T, H and DPS. PST. (Looking for 3 more for Blackrock Depths. Need tank, healer and damage classes. Please send tell) There is no reason that is necessary unless you're getting attacked by a giant eagle after you just made off with their golden magical egg. It originally rose from a need to tell someone something and you didn't have the time to type out the whole message. Now we have vent and TS if you're in a guild and if you're in a party that's why you make macros so I don't have spend 10 minutes with the decryption book while I get killed by the exact same thing you were trying to warn me about.
My other major issue is just how serious and stuck up some of these people are. Now I have no leg to stand on. I spent years being an e-douche and if I could apologise to some of the people I pissed off I would. Some of these guys I see just strut around and do whatever the hell they want. A perfect example occured tonight. I'm running with a fairly new guild who are just trying to start raiding end game stuff. I was on my new main and they were on there alts and we were just doing a quick Ultgarde Keep (the starting dungeon in the new expansion). One of our members had to bounce so one of the others managed to rope in a friend who was some epicced out level 80. Now, I have to emphasise even though the dungeon is easy as what we were doing was practising our teamwork and how in sync we could be. It's probably something that's carried over from my competitive fps gaming. Practise makes perfect as they say. My role was to sheep a target right after the tank had got one of the target. You don't need to do this but it forces you to pay attention and not rely on verbal confirmation to fulfill your role. However this D-bag comes in and just starts AOEing and breaking all the CC. When I called him up on it he just told me to "STFU, noob" (Shut the F**k up, you person of inferior of skill level) and left the group. Unless you're related to the queen you've got no call being that arrogant especially if you're claim to fame is clearing out a non existent dungeon. That's just one example. There's a whole parade of walking jock straps who wouldn't give you the time of day for no good reason. Makes me glad I got out and managed to gain some insight into what a jackass I was. I still am but in a good way, I swear.
I guess I haven't really left any real question for people to respond to so I'm in fairly new territory. Thoughts, comments or simple shut the hell ups are welcome. Sorry it's so long
p.s. I apologise if my grammar is poor, it's something that's stuck with me and I can't live without editing by other people when I write stuff.
p.p.s. the explanation of the shorthand and terms is for people not familiar with the game at all who might be reading this
