If your answer is something along the lines of “sitting in front of my computer cursing”, you certainly weren’t thinking Blizzard’s MMORPG would make it ten years, yet here we are to the day.
When World of Warcraft first launched back on November 23 of 2004, I was busy playing EverQuest 2, which had come out just a few short weeks before. Luckily, due to my living situation at the time I had plenty of extra cash laying about. Due to some problems (oddly enough powered by a strong addiction to the original EverQuest), I was staying at my parent’s house, saving up to reestablish myself in the world. Why anyone let me play EQ2 is beyond me.
I had played in the World of Warcraft beta and not liked the game at all. Too cartoony, to simple, too much like the other games I’d played. By the time it launched however, those negatives had turned about, thanks to EverQuest 2. It was trying too hard to set itself apart, and its plastic attempt at realistic characters left me cold. Plus everybody in EQ2 chat was talking about it, so I ran out to the store to grab a copy.
I was hooked, but not before my girlfriend at the time. She pushed me out of the chair, made herself a gnome warrior and told me to go get my own copy. I ran back to the store, but all they had left was the Collector’s Edition, and that’s how I wound up with the Diablo, Zergling and Panda pets that make so many other players jealous these days — an overzealous gnome warrior.
Ten years later I’ve been living comfortably on my own for the better part of the decade. The girlfriend went on to become a raid tank, made her way back up to her home town of New Jersey and we’ve not really spoken since. Instead I’ve got a wife and two kids, a dog and two cats, and I’m still playing this damn game — but I’ve got a much better excuse now.
So where were you in your life when World of Warcraft changed the face of the MMORPG market by recycling established concepts and trimming off the less user-friendly bits?
Comments
25 responses to “Where Were You When World Of Warcraft Started Running?”
Finishing my final year of university so too busy to play WoW. Didn’t start until I started working the following year.
At home, playing a good game.
On shitty forums I’m ashamed of ever visiting.
On the train coming back from the city to pick up my halo 2 pre-order
playing HL2
*edit*
sorry… still waiting for steam to connect so i could play HL2
Contantly looking at the CE edition box at the place I worked, trying to convince my mate to play with me, he eventually agreed so we did, then he got horribly addicted to the game for the next 3 years straight.
I was most likely playing my ps2, not having a clue in the world that WoW existed. I didn’t get into pc gaming until about 2009 so I missed a fair chunk of classic games.
Sitting in a half-empty courtyard in the first generation Everquest, with the handful of remaining online players telling each other “they’ll be back – they always come back.”
One way in which WoW >> EQ is that every class has a reasonable level of solo capability throughout the game. In EQ, soloability erodes over time, some classes more quickly than others, until you reach the point where levelling outside of a group becomes effectively impossible.
I may be misrepresenting WoW here, as I never really played it much. When I eventually left EQ, I mostly moved to LOTRO.
No you’re right, any class in WoW can solo 1-what ever the lvl cap is now. Granted some do it way better then others.
Playing Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne over and over again with some C&C thrown in like Red Alert. Lot of school and career work at that time so an RTS I could pause was far better than an MMORPG that wanted to be my forth part-time occupation.
Was playing it the very first day it came out. It was fantastic back then, though it needed a *lot* of work (it got it). Haven’t played it for like 7 years though.
In the hospital for 3 months with a punctured lung. Making the lifelong decision that I should play World of Warcraft to stay out of trouble and have a long prosperous life.
Story time?
2007 before I started playing. 2002 – 2005 was when I had to stay clear of computers.
Was too busy playing better games on the PS2/Gamecube. I can’t remember what it was, pretty sure it was a JRPG tho.
*edit* Or a plat-formers called Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Jax and Daxter II.
Killing hookers.
And playing some San Andreas.
playing neverwinter nights on the internode servers. great community there…. then came wow and I was like OMG…. I never looked back still playing today. not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing lol
Playing WOW and swearing at the local Harvey Norman who were getting 3 collectors editions (my brother and I had copy 1 and 2 reserved) but only ended up getting 1 copy 🙁
Very glad he instructed me that I had to play this game…enjoyed Warcraft 1 and 2 back in the day but became a console gamer after that.
Led a great guild for a few years, played and raided way too much and met my wife. Good times.
Playing Runescape (I was in year 5, don’t judge!), I didn’t get into WoW until last year! It seems like I missed all of the hype and excitement that it seemed to have 🙁
I actually didn’t know Blizzard was making it, and being a fan of the Warcraft RTS’s, I was like OH $#!+111 and quickly jumped on eBay and bought the collector’s edition, which some girl dropped off at my front door.
I remember buying it shortly after release and then finding out that my computer could not handle it at all, gave up 10 minutes later and went back to Runescape
silly younger version of me 😛
Probably running around school blissfully unaware of the existence of this giant. I didn’t start playing till mid 2005.
I lost a solid year of my life to this game. This is why I now have a hard and fast rule for myself: only play games that end, no matter how good it looks (eg. EVE)
Playing everquest 2. then Lineage 2 for 12 months. then gave in to my mates and playing wow ever since.
I started playing early 2005 and have had a sub up for about 70% of the time since then, I actually worked this out a couple of days ago because I was interested in working out how long I had been playing.