World of Warcraft
Now when I think back on my history of gaming and how many hours of my life I've spent sitting in front a screen. I can only think of two major titles that have taken so much of my life away from me(willingly of course) and those two are Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and World of Warcraft. To be fair CoD did take up most of my nighttime life in high school, avoiding homework and going to parties like all the cool kids did. But when I wanted to get away from all the action and high pressure rounds of search and destroy matches, I would turned to my favorite addiction of all time and that was World of Warcrack… I mean World of Warcraft. I started playing Blizzard’s most popular title back in 2006 right before the launch of The Burning Crusade, because of a friend that I played Battlefield 2 with suggested that I should get it and try it out. So I did and had no clue as to what I was getting myself into. I installed the game for the very first time and logged in for the very first time and at that moment I knew I was already hooked on this franchise. I made my very first toon on the realm Aggramar, and he was a human male rogue by the name Palmersshadow, I really did suck at naming my characters back then. But then it started, I logged into the Elwynn Forest starting zone and I was amazed, it was like nothing i’ve ever experienced before, there I was standing there with my level one gear, a fresh and new Human Rogue ready to join the Alliance for all its glory. Killing wolves and Kobolds and getting lost in the new world that i’ve never experienced. Being new to MMORPGS I was completely dumbstruck about what I was doing and what I had to do, it honestly took me like half an hour to figure out how do i even sell stuff to this merchant, I was reading the manual that you got in the box trying to figure out how do I right click on an item that I want to sell, yeah it took me half an hour to figure that one out. But once I did, I ventured out of the starting zone and into Elwynn Forest and the first stop was Goldshire, and from then on out it was a whole other ball park. I came across other players from low levels like me to level 60 players and it was honestly fascinating. This small virtual town was full of life with other players talking with each other, interactions between low levels like myself and maxed out players who were probably now that I think about it just bored and wanted to have some fun. I enjoyed the sights of the player interaction and went on to complete my quest that was given me. This was the moment that I knew I was hooked, doing quest, meeting new people around the world, slaying beast and bandits, and providing help for the local npc’s that sent me out on these adventures. Now flash forward to today it’s 2017 and WoW’s 6th expansion Legion was released last year in August 2016. I’m not as hooked to the game as I was back in 2006 but there is still something about it that no matter how many times I unsubscribe I still find myself coming back to it and subscribing all over again. I still love this game and the world that it has made and the story it has told. From the broken world of the Outlands, to the frozen lands of Northrend, to the Shattering caused by the black dragon Deathwing, the fluffy pandas of the southern lands of Pandaria, the Doctor Who messing with times lines that was Draenor, and the return of the Legion. I love this story even though I don't spend as much time as i use to, I still spend time getting lost in it, no matter how much im use to it, or how different the game and the community is in comparison to when I first started playing in 2006. It's still just as fun, yes it has evolved due to a community that Blizzard is trying to compromise with and make happy. But even with the game mechanics being simplified, the story is still just as amazing. I for one can’t wait for the next expansion to come out to continue this adventure.