It’s funny when you look back on your life and the moments that define it. I started playing World of Warcraft in 2005, at the ripe old age of 12 and I can still vividly remember picking up the box and trying to convince my father to buy it for me. I had no idea at the time that this game would change my life, yet somehow my subconscious must have known because me picking up that box in the Mac store on that hot summer day is a memory that will be ingrained into my mind for life.
My gaming childhood spent mostly playing computer games and because my father was a graphic designer I was almost entirely stuck to Macs. My brother had a low end Dell I could use from time to time but the motherboard integrated GPU and an average of 10 frames per second made it near impossible. With most places lacking a Macintosh game selection at that time, I would always jump at the chance to go with my father to the Mac store whenever he had to pick something up. One summer day I was bored and figured I might be able to squeeze a game out of him so I tagged along. It had been a while since my last journey there with him and this brown box with a beautifully drawn elf on the front caught my eye. I had not ever played any of the previous Warcraft games at that age so the lore and history of blizzard games was lost on me. I flipped up the cover to a mesmerizing scene of a battle between a dwarf with a flaming sword and yeti. I was blown away instantly and as I read the front and back I knew I had to have the game. I wouldn’t get too many games a year, but I could usually get one if I promised to do some extra chores or helped with housework. I begged my father for the game who eventually conceded just to shut me up and I went home to play it. Coincidentally my father was at the store to pick up a new computer for his work and in the following days he let me take his old one to put into the family room.
Immediately I was hooked to the game. I made an undead rogue and was finding out new and amazing things every day. I got deep into the lore, joined a guild and met some great people who I would talk to every day over ventrilo. I was a young kid but I was dedicated and always willing to help people out. Once the summer ended and the school year came I was ecstatic to show all my friends this game and hook them into it as well. Although it took some time I was able to get two of them to play and it engulfed all of our lives. I was never a good student, but I was always able to get by so I would have freetime. Every day after school I would race home to play and eventually I hit the max level of 60 and decided it was time to raid. By this time I was 13 but I didn’t let anyone online know my age. Many of the guilds at the time had an 18+ policy so I pretended I was 18 and kept my talking during raids to a minimum.
We raided 3 times a week, often late at nights and I had to sneak into the family room and hope to not get caught by my father. There were a few times he pulled the plug, but I always blamed it on internet issues (sorry for being that guy) I raided for roughly a year and a half in Vanilla and was able to experience things I still dream of to this day.
When I look back at this formative time in my life, now, I can’t help but to realize how much WoW helped me. The quests increased my vocabulary, the interactions with people helped me develop healthy relationships and the embrace by my guild taught me that it was ok to like these types of things and not be a weirdo or an outcast. However the most important thing WoW taught me was how real teamwork works in the real world, not just some fabricated bullshit we are taught as a kid. I happen to be gifted in the area of height and somewhat in athletics and played on many competitive basketball , baseball and soccer teams at the same time I was playing and NOTHING came close to WoW in teaching me about teamwork. Its funny because sports are always touted as a team effort but in reality most people were just there for themselves and looking to take the shot or score. It wasn’t team work , it was a mutually beneficial relationship. WoW was different, I learned what real teamwork was and what real teamwork costs. Staying up for 10 hours straight to kill a boss and trying to correct, not beat down, people who were having problems staying alive, giving up your chance at awesome gear and letting it go to a healer because it would help everyone else out, that is team work. I was more attached to the people I raided with than any of my sports buddies in the real world at that time and I never saw that as a bad thing.
Later when I would become a guild leader with a few of my friends in Wrath of The Lich King, I learned the true value of managing people and on the other end of things, as a team leader. I learned about managing finances for the guild, being responsible and most importantly being held accountable for the actions I took and the things I said. Ill be honest there were a few times I had to apologize because I would say something or do something that offended/hurt someone. These are all the things you can learn from what many believe to be a stupid game. People are so easy to judge when they have never experienced what you have, especially when it goes against everything they have learned in life.
MMORPG players these days seem to get a bad rap and although there was a fair share of assholes at the time there seems to be more these days. Things seem more distant, but maybe its me. I am still looking for that game that will remind me of those vanilla wow days raiding as a kid. Im searching for that first high and I don’t think ill ever find it though, but the lessons I learned from the time I put in and the people I met will never disappear. Overtime people stop playing and the names you once knew like they were your own fade away, but the experiences I learned from and the person that I have turned into today wont.
- Calaber24p
Great post my WoW friend...
It definitely does help team work. Here's mine from back in the day. To find out if people were AFK in raids or not, we randomly have to form up into circles like in the screenshot from one of our raids below:
Do you put Guild Leader on your CV? :P
I started playing at college (bad time to start playing!) when I was 19 or so. Only played for a couple years. I remember the first time I logged in, as a Troll somethingortheother, and I typed 'this game sucks' and somebody around me said 'you suck noob' and I logged out! But I tried again later and loved it so much for many of the reasons you describe.
It's very addictive, naturally. Now there's Steemit to fill that void :|
Funnily enough, I had you down as an older person!
Lol Im debating putting it down when I apply for jobs soon. Im 23 lol not that old, but still have fond memories of my past.
"What's this line on your resume...?"
"It says you managed and carried noobs through heroic raids?"
"Previous Experience:
2005-2006 — Healz"
"Which class?"
"Priest."
"Sorry, we're only hiring Pally healers" lol
This made me literally LOL... the unexpected type that explodes out of you unexpectedly hah. Well done.
I love Wow. so excited about legion. Thanks for sharing your story, gave me a lil nostalgia
Hello @Calaber24p, Great article. As a father of four and a Wow player since vanilla, I would like to say that I have been trying to tell others for many years about how great and actually very educational Wow has been for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I have been one of the luckiest dads in the world imo, to be able to sit side by side my youngest son and play everyday for almost 10 ?years .. he was about 10 when I got us both EQOA (EverQuest Online Adventures) when the Sony PS2's came out. Pretty much the same as Wow, and my son "woke up" and was so badd ass I got 2 more ps2's and set up in living room. (The groups were comprised of 4 players so we POWND all drops) Rockin 4 PS2's w/ 4 (OLDschool large screen tv's took up a whole wall) and played basically 24/7. My son just bloomed talking to people all over the USA and learned so much about life as you mentioned ...(he also didn't tell but a very few his age). after about 2 yrs, Wow came out, so we sold our 2 mains accounts for $3,500.00 and he got his 1st pc ... and we started playing Wow. Before long we were raiding and having the times of our lives ... I want to stress HERE and NOW ... People, you would not believe what it takes to get 40 people to work together for hours and hours ... I am not articulate enough to say how proud I was and still am of all these kids that I watched grow up into great young men & women helping , caring, sharing & loving each other.
I pretty much started 3 of the 4 kids on pc's as soon as they could sit up and control a mouse .... and yes they grew up playing games and yes their IQ's are all way up there.
Wow was a thing in our history that was just at the right time in our history that helped a lot of kids turn into great human beings. Anything you can learn in school was taught at home in games, name it, it is there. With a little direction, NOT dictation, children will BLOOM ! @Calaber24p I am very proud of you and so sorry that I wasn't able to talk to your dad back then ... He missed out on something that he will unfortunately never understand. That chance of bonding usually comes but once a lifetime. I hope that you found other ways to do so.
Greeat article!
I was a gamer myself, never much into world of warcraft but what u told here applies for most mmorpgs
Now I feel to be too old lol!
Probably the last Warcraft I remember:
i still play that
Lol, is that Warcraft II been sooo long, dont rem it looking so good, lol, started with Warcraft orcs and humans !, lol FUN times with the kids !
Wow .. been THAT long .. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is a sequel to the real-time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and published by Blizzard in December 09, 1995
Oh really? Amazing! I should play it too again! :D
Best Teamwork ever...
Where we learn values :D
Great post I love World of Warcraft!!! Check out my Steemit Geofilter @calaber24:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@acassity/snapchat-steemit-geofilter-live-in-salt-lake-city-at-the-city-creek-mall-1st-geofilter-of-many-planned-to-come-for-steemit
Wow was magical, damn was I hyped as kid by all the cool cgi marketing videos from Blizzard and the first time I logged in as an elf druid, seeing the mystical starting area - I was sold. Now looking back, I guess there'll never be anything like Wow to me, the magic is gone. But I have high hopes for future of VR and MMORPG's.
love the post for me its SC2!
WoW didn't only teach me the values of teamwork, but it taught me how to be a better person, it taught me how the market worked, and so much more. I thank this game for making me what I am today.
I know it isn't a tasteful thing to do, but your post actually encouraged me to write about this - https://steemit.com/life/@mrkuujo/a-lesson-in-real-life-taught-through-runescape
I had a similar experience with runescape teaching me valuable lessons.
I love to read your thread m8, very vell done :)
Been playing in 12 years so i totally get you..
My favrourite time LVL 70 Rogue 2 k rating vengeful drake and gear and ofc mongoose ^^
Good luck bro
Votes for u
A movie you like Warcraft?
Sadly the first time I played WOW I did so badly that it pretty much put me off forever. I spent hours wandering around trying to level up but I was so late to the game that it seemed like everyone else was on a much higher level than me. I found it pretty demoralising and quit not long after.
I think part of the reason was that I also did not have enough spare time to put in and level up consistently. I had friends who were playing 20 hours a week in some cases and I just did not have that free time - it also made me feel left out of the jokes, incidents etc and the time they had but I didn't.
In the right circumstances I could see it being almost like a sporting club or team though where you get together with friends an go on missions together.
Glad to hear you had that kind of experience and gained a lot of it. I think you were probably at just the right age (even though you were officially too young).
A bit older and you might have had the same problems as me.
For me it was Dark Ages of Camelot. I remember organizing a raid of approx 800 people. When we arrived at our enemies gate, they had somehow heard of this pending raid and easily defended our advances. There was likely 2000 people from around the world, who were able to organize an offense and a defense in under 24 hours.
Aaah, reminds me of how many things I've learned from playing MMO's.
It was league of legends that tough me the magic of gaming. We had a high skill local team, we took 2nd and 3rd places in local lan parties. Never first tough, as the guys who were in first place were way too good for us. They even competed in national turneys, we could have only dream about doing that.
amazing post @calaber24p
I miss the good o'l vanilla days of raiding for 5-7 hours then camping lowbies in Darkshire for another 4 hours. You made a great point about the teamwork involved in this game! P.S. Sweet chain healz
I was Skipp of Malorne the Paladin Healer who often rolled Ret.
As a healer I noticed the teams agressions and passions as they played and how aware each person was of their surroundings as I was constantly aware of their wounds.
The game also helped me learn the nature of talking through our issues and creating a game plan instinctually using each of your friends combined resources and talents.
I miss playing wow and I might get back into it yet again sometime but I'm working on becoming an aspiring chef to a degree where I can make mean meals for all my friends and myself for life.
WoW is an amazing game any way you look at it. The lore is incredible, the graphics are beautiful, and the interactive gameplay has yet to be topped IMO.
You don't have to look like this to play WoW btw hahaha
Thanks for your insight
You are right.. it's hard to get the highs of the game as when Vanilla and The Burning Crusade were big. Pandas was uninspiring, and who can love Warlords with those lonely garrisons? I hope Blizzard looks to their greatest days for inspiration.
Great post, I played Runescape as my first mmorpg and then Conqueronline but was able to relate to this post so much. The aspects of trading, typing, spelling, politics, getting ripped off & etc.
this is you? Leeroy jenkins :)