While going through my WoW screenshot folder, i found my original character pics. I’m a bit surprised i still have them because i didn’t really play this character. I used it as a tool to unlock Death Knight and pretty much dropped it as soon as i reached 55. I’m not sure what made me make a female human Hunter since i almost never play female characters except on the occasion i’m playing some Korean or Japanese MMO. It’s almost required to play one in those games haha. I was female and ranged – two things i never do.

I started my WoW career pretty late. It was late November 2013 and i was just getting over Rift, The Old Republic, and most recently GW2. I was playing a lot of EQ2 at the time but the playerbase was so top heavy that i found it impossible to find groups for lower level stuff. I decided to bite the bullet and finally give WoW an honest chance since they were having some kind of really crazy sale at the time. I think i got the game for $5 or something like that. This was during the start of patch 5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar.

My initial reaction upon logging in was exactly what i expected. This is what 12 million people are playing? I remember saying that out loud on vent or teamspeak i believe. I couldn’t get over how bad the characters looked or how low res the terrain was. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why people enjoyed this game. I refrained from being a graphics junkie and forced myself to keep going. I mean every MMO feels pretty lackluster at the start right?

I began to understand the appeal a little bit as i continued on. I was amazed that i could transition between zones with no leading screens. This was the first MMORPG i’d played with a seamless game world. I briefly played Vanguard but that wasn’t really the same with their chunking system. Then i started attacking mobs and it finally clicked for me. This is what tab targeting combat should feel like. Everything felt smooth and abilities went off when i wanted them to. I was starting to enjoy myself, which annoyed the hell out of me because there were a lot of things i didn’t like.

Other than the art style and poly count, i also hated the fact that the group size was 5. I also disliked the lack of support classes such as Bard or Enchanter. I understood they weren’t needed in this game but i still missed them. I also wasn’t a fan of being able to fly or teleport everywhere when it came to getting to dungeons. Taking players out of the game world is never a good idea. Unfortunately Blizzard never learned this until the Garrison debacle years later.

Either way i was getting over some of my dislikes enough to finally make my first DK. A friend convinced me to switch over to Horde so i made myself a Blood Elf and started my first journey in WoW to cap. It was an instant love affair with the class and one i’ve held onto until today. Perhaps had i picked something else like a Warrior, i’m sure the feelings would be the same. I stuck with it and here i am almost five years later still enjoying the game i said i’d never play. We’ve had our ups and downs for sure but i always go back to it when i need that something.