Greetings and welcome to The Modern Gamer! You know me already, I am Sumroad, and I’ll be your tour guide this Saturday. I’m sitting by the Ruby Lake in the Timeless Isle, looking at the sea, while thinking… “well, this place is old…” but at the same time I feel overwhelmed by the beauty of this perpetual sunny highland. I tell you folks, it’s not easy to concentrate in here, especially with all the people splashing in the lake and running by the edge. Though it’s funny when someone accidentally fall or just miss the lake and… splat! I am a sympathetic being but I also have my own guilty pleasures –mwahaha!– This week I wanted to do something different for you my friends and family. Something that is far from being a new concept and it is closer to a nostalgia drop in this overcrowded gaming world.
Come with me into this journey, because as much as it sounds incredible, I’ve never played World of Warcraft before, and I only got to play because a dear friend of mine (thank you Kat! XOXOXO) gifted me some game time, and thus, my adventure began.
Editor’s Note: World of Warcraft is currently running a special where anyone can play for free and level up to Level 20. So if you want to follow along with the Modern Gamer, come on by! Guild contact details for the Modern Gamer are at the end of this article.
World Warcraft is one of those games that needs no introduction, there’s no point for an almost 17-year-old game (wow! WoW), and honestly, I won’t even try to because I most certainly fail. What I’m going to do is talk to you about my experience in this first month of playing this iconic game.
Back in 2004 when it was released, I remember I got a copy from a friend, but unfortunately, my computer was unable to run it, so I didn’t even bother to try to upgrade my system, in fact, I had some other computers but I decided I didn’t want to pay for game time. Even my friends played other games so let’s say the “social pressure” was virtually inexistent. I used to play Diablo 2, Quake and Dungeon Siege instead so I forgot about WoW.
Fast forward to 2021, and we know what happened in that time, a lot of things! I mean, a year can get us dizzy (2020) enough but what about 16+ years! I don’t even know where to start (and I won’t!) to remember how the world was and how much it has changed over these years. I met a lot of people throughout this time and there are a few that really changed my life and soul (Emelie). The one that brought me here, was my brother from different mother… Borden, he used to play a few years ago and was always dropping a WoW comment from time to time in our multiple Discord servers, then I came to play Forsaken World with him and met Kat there. We were the 3 Musketeers, the Borgs.
One day Borden convinced us to play World of Warcraft, but I wasn’t able to pay for game time, so that was it, then one day Kat gifted me a couple months of juice. We started playing and I was instantly hooked, maybe I didn’t level up fast enough but I was having fun like I didn’t had in a long time, at least not with the games I used to play because they were mostly mobile (Diablo 3 aside). WoW really felt like a strange revelation in a moment I felt utterly off due to a lot of things in my life, but WoW changed my mood despite the bad days we all have of course. I didn’t have the pressure of a daily login, nothing to buy to be on the leaderboards, just playing for the sake of having fun. Leveling to fight more interesting raids and dungeons while chilling with the rest of the crew.
When I first landed, I was so mad at the fact that I couldn’t get a mount and move faster, leave alone fly… ride a mount! Then I started to wipe enemies and got the feeling I was making progress, at my baby-level 5 I felt that! (insert rolling eyes emoji and a laugh here). Then my second frustration was traveling. It took me ages to find a portal, or a ship or a gryphon, to get to the gathering point of a dungeon or raid, so my Borgs kindly traveled near me to run some team stuff together which was super nice of them. I forgot to tell you, my first attempt on WoW was on a Mage, but for some reason, it fell from grace at some point around level 14, yes… I was feeling my mages wasn’t strong enough to deal with the “main” storyline and knowing my time was limited, I decided to try a Priest instead, but this time I actually knew a trick or two, so leveling up was faster than before. Every single day I learned something, say pets, addons, exploring efficiently, my attack/defense rotation, and whatnot. At this very point I have to tell you without a drop of shame that I’m still a noob, because WoW is so big and detailed that it’s easy to get lost. You can even get lost in a small place while trying to figure out how to get back up to the dock you just fell from a second ago and while doing that you can get killed by some water creature, then back to the graveyard and try again.
I’m not aware of how much the game has changed over the years that’s for sure, but it doesn’t matter to me, what I care about is keep discovering this amazing world, alone or with my friends for as long as I can. Right now, I’m level 42 without a pinch of rush in my blood really enjoying my new garrison. To be fair, I think my mage wasn’t bad, it was me and my anxious behavior that made me look for another class when I felt outpowered, and I do believe a part of the newcomers would feel the same way. I was trying so “hard” to level up “fast” that I forgot this game isn’t a sprint race, but a marathon, although this race isn’t a race at all, everybody can play at their own pace and do whatever they want, in contrast with a lot of games in today’s market. There’s always a shortcut, loot boxes, premium, and a huge list of in-game purchases that could change the way you experience it. WoW isn’t free of microtransactions, but these are way less invasive to the user experience being most of them, cosmetic. Even if you buy the Character Boost, you still need to grind for gear and such, so it’s not like you buy the Boost and you’re instantly in the end-game, it only saves you some time, that’s it and that’s all. It makes sense for seasoned and anxious players. For us newbies, the experience of leveling from ground up is rewarding in lots of ways, because we are discovering how the mechanics of the game work.
WoW wasn’t entirely unknown to me. I’ve read amazing stories like “a guy” who spent all day killing people in Menethil just for the thrill of the hunt; People who met people there and decided to get married; infamous hacks and exploits; Leeroy Jenkins!, Zeuzo and Shaks story… I mean, these are just a few examples but of course there are a HUGE number of stories out there, famous or not, WoW is a place where people have found joy, frustration, relief, love and a lot more. This is why WoW is so appealing, its diversity and how the community interacts. Yes… there’s always salt and toxic, but you can find great people too.
I’ve been talking to people that never played WoW before and asking them if they would play it for the first time and in 90% of the cases, the answer is… “WoW! That’s an old game, no, thank you!” Who can blame them? The game is in fact, old. It may not have the best graphics but it does have a lot more too. In my short experience with WoW I can only tell you I wish I played it before, and I wish I could still play it in the future. If you haven’t tried it before… I can tell you right now, I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it, and if you get frustrated, remember there’s a lot of info if you Google it, even for the smallest of details there’s a guide, a forum post, etc. Don’t try to rush things up, be patient and you’ll be fine.
Ok! Oh man… time flies when… nevermind, Timeless Isle isn’t the best place to talk about time, but you get the point. BTW… I play in the Azshara server and our guild is called Gamers Hideout, come have fun with us, we’ll be happy to have you! I really hope you have an amazing gaming weekend and remember to hit the comments down below, I’m eager to see you newbies (and not) in WoW too! This is Sumroad signing out! Ciao!
Amazing read brother!!!!
Glad you liked it brother!
Very well said! More players should try it and they would be hooked too :)
Absolutely! :) everything’s better in the Hideout