Most anyone reading this that just stumbled upon it don’t know who I am, but those that do know me that got this link know me very well.
Hi, I’m known on Moon Guard as Neo Starstrider, Void Elf Hunter (High Elf Paladin in a previous life) though in the past I have gone by ‘The Doctor’ Andalian Morrison, Human Chronomancer and Illusionist best known for his time in Pyrebird Sodality. As well as Cillvia ‘The Fox’ Morrison, Human Rogue who climbed the ranks of the Melrony Crime Family to become its Underboss before stabbing Selvetore Melrony in the back (both IC and OOC, get to that in a bit.) and leaving to form her own company, Morrison Shipping and Trade, aka The Morrisons. But before that, I was simply Neo, a Human Paladin from Sargeras that raided and posted penis macros in trade chat.
Why am I writing all of this? Well, I’ve come to a turning point in my life where I have to start doing things a bit differently. And the thing I need to do different is cancel my WoW Subscription.
This is going to be a long story. So if you wish to keep reading, go ahead. If you wanna skip it and go straight to my reasoning for leaving, just go until you get to the break.
I was first introduced to WoW when I was in High School. I was having a get together at my house with some friends when one of them found my computer and began to download the game onto it. I asked him what that was and he said “This is World of Warcraft.” He let me create an Undead Warrior to play with for a bit. I enjoyed it quite a bit. But it wasn’t until that summer that I really got hooked onto that game.
Another friend of mine got me to play with him. This time I played a Night Elf Druid and boy oh boy was that a fun experience leveling. I only got him to level 12 before I stopped for a few months but it was still tons of fun! After a short break, I came back and made a Human Paladin on Sargeras known as Neotar. That same friend that was playing with me before made a Night Elf Hunter named Adremmalech and we both decided that we were going to get to max level with these characters no matter what.
We leveled and leveled and we both hit level 40 the day Burning Crusade was released. To celebrate our accomplishment, we ran our level 40 mounts all the way to the Exodar from Stormwind to check out the new Alliance city. Needless to say, it was super dope! But we weren’t done. We continued the Vanilla grind to level 60, stepped through the Dark Portal for the first time and were in absolute awe. What an experience it was to see that giant pit lord standing at the bottom of the stairs. The musical score blasting in our headphones. So much fun and great memories.
We blasted up to level 70 and soon got our first taste of gearing up to raid. I had some shortcomings being a Paladin as I didn’t want to only be a healer. Luckily, Prot was developing into something fun and challenging so I took it! Our entire time in BC was spent mostly in Karazahn, Gruul’s Lair, Mag’s Lair, and Zul’Aman. He went on to raid with a group that got into Hyjal and Black Temple on a regular basis while I stayed behind (mostly due to time restraints due to school.) But it was one of the most fun times I had playing this game.
When Wrath came out, we transferred servers to Drak’theron and met a guy that to this day is one of the nicest and kindest person I’ve ever met and am proud to call my friend (he also DM’s my weekly D&D games). We became members of his guild and went all the way to ICC 11/12 Heroic with him. A lot of accomplishments made with that guy and it was a lot of fun.
But that was the peak of my raiding experience as I stopped raiding when Cataclysm came out. I still wanted to play the game but didn’t know what else to do. So I gave RP a shot. I looked up an excellent guide on wowpedia, made a mage on Moon Guard, and went to town! I walked into the Cathedral district for the first time and was genuinely amazed by all the people there, acting out their characters.
I quickly leveled up this mage, known as Andalian Morrison, and joined a guild that I believe was called Kingdom of Arathor. I learned so much about Arathi Highland lore being in that guild (mostly research I had done) and decided to make my mage be from Arathi. Eventually I made him an entire family: 3 older brothers and 1 older sister. Cerious, Nethran, Cillvia, and Edrayne. I eventually made Cillvia into a rogue I had and transferred her to the server where I then was approached by Selvetore Melrony to join the Melrony Crime Family.
Crime RP was a new experience for me (much like all RP was) and I learned quick that RP Fighting was full of a lot of drama if you didn’t communicate effectively. But the stories told were fun and I had fun. Though like a lot of things, this RP came with a lot of OOC drama and for better or for worse, I let it get to me and run how my RP was. Rather than talk things out with Selvetore, I plotted with his other officers and we all left and made our own guild, The Morrisons.
I can’t say if I had just left on my own if things would be different but the whole experience taught me that talking things out with your guild mates might end in someone leaving but it’s better than essentially ruining someones day through shady means.
Running the Morrisons was challenging. We didn’t know exactly what we wanted to be. Half of us wanted to be crime RPers, the other half just wanted to be entertainers. Either way, we did our best. I ended up disbanding due to time restraints IRL but eventually I came back around on Andalian and joined up with the Pyrebird Sodality, the GM being Kenny.
Kenny was a lot of fun to be around and still is a very creative person. I learned a lot about RP from her as well (even though I had well over a couple years of experience at that point). She taught me a lot about running a guild as well. I stuck by that guild until time ran out for it and switched then to my paladin, Neo Starstrider, freshly transferred from Sargeras.
I used my raiding experience as his backstory and eventually landed on him being a devout Champion of the Argent Crusade, joining up with House Ravenshield in the process. I never let OOC dictate my actions with this character as IC was my only driving force.
Eventually Neo cut ties with the Crusade due to their inability to do anything about Sylvanas and her plague. He joined up with Elizabeth Embershield and the Embershield Protectorate and that’s pretty much where his story is concluding. He will be retiring from active service to take care of himself and his kids (if Telriah so wishes it.)
I will say this about Embershield: It is the best guild I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of.
Telriah is an amazing world builder and a great friend. I love him to death and I hope he continues to run this guild well after I leave. It’s been a pleasure to work with him in building the guild up and I loved every minute of it.
Linaly, Teanuu, Ainsling, Talen, Dubz, Keak, Garion, Nesara, Elbert, Kamarill, Trisana, Walorian and even you Moonsworn, I love you all so very much and I hope you continue to be the amazing people you are.
So if you read all of that, I congratulate you on getting this far. If you skipped to this part that’s cool too. But as I said before, my time in wow has come to an end.
My reasons for quitting are as follows:
1: WoW is just not fun for me anymore. Not even RP can keep me playing this game, sadly enough. I’ve played this game for over 13 years. I had so much fun raiding and jumping into RP. But the current iteration of this game is just not appealing to me anymore. I don’t like world quests, I don’t like the rep grinds, I don’t like the raiding or the PVP. I could go on and on with a lot of the things I don’t like (and to be honest they’re probably things you read or hear about on a daily basis) but it’s just plain and simple: Wow isn’t fun for me anymore.
2: I’m studying to become an Computer Tech and all of the things that follow that path. I am also wanting to start up my YouTube/Twitch project once more and don’t want WoW to be pulling me down.
3: In July 2017, I met the woman that I want to marry. At the time that I write this, we’ve been together for 15 months. She’s moved in with me, she’s decorated the apartment, we put up a Christmas Tree (the first one I’ve ever put up since living on my own). We have a cat, I buy her roses every chance I get, I love her family and she loves mine. It’s as simple as this: Every time I’ve had a choice between wow and spending time with her, I chose her.
Well, there’s that. I hope everyone reading this enjoyed my story and enjoyed the things I had to say. If you want to keep tabs on me, I’ll still be on Discord. My Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube Handles are SgtMajorCool. I believe they’re in my profile as well if you take a gander. But that’s that.
