This post is part of Saga’s 20 Days of WoW Blogging Challenge!
Day 03 – Your First Day Playing WoW
What’s funny about this is I kind of have two “first days” of playing WoW. Somehow, before I went out and bought a copy, I had found an online copy of WoW with a private server attached. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what a private server was, no idea what I was doing. I just followed the instructions with the download and found myself at the character creation screen.
I created a human male warrior and then logged in to the world.
So there I am, level 1, standing in Elwynn, completely amazed at the graphics and level of detail and everything.
And then I decided to go exploring.
There weren’t any NPCs, no mobs, not a soul. It was crazy. I ran, I actually RAN, from Elwynn, over to Redridge, up through Burning Steppes and then I saw Blackrock Mountain.
I went into Blackrock Mountain from the south side and I have this very strong memory of running up the spiraling ramp and running up and down the chains.
But, there was no one there. At all. It then dawned on me that I was on a local server, not an online server, so I went digging around and discovered I needed to buy the game to connect to the real game servers.
It was over Canadian Thanksgiving that I did so, so that’s mid-October of 2005, and showed my brother the game. I had elected to roll a male night elf hunter, because I was trying to keep a low profile. As a woman, I’ve been harrassed a LOT in online communities by creepy guys, so I was prepared for that happening and decided to fly under the radar with a male night elf.
So my first day of playing WoW for real was me running around Aldrassil and Shadowglen, playing like a scrub. I’d shoot something once, it would come at me, another autoshot might get off and then I’d melee the mob down. Somewhere in all of this, I convinced my brother to start playing and he quickly went out and bought the game and rolled a druid. (He beat me to 60.)
My first real day of WoW play was pretty awesome. I loved dinging. I knew I wanted to do more of it. I really felt like a hunter, too, stalking my prey. I had no idea what it meant that a mob was red or yellow or green to me (both in terms of friendliness and level) and I was constantly getting lost by the spider tunnels.
I also remember that Shadowmeld got a lot of use from me right from the start and I was SO sad that I couldn’t move while stealthed!
Honestly, though, what I remember most about my first day of playing WoW is how gorgeous Aldrassil was. This lush, green place, a huge tree… it was really amazing. I was blown away by the graphics and I loved running around Shadowglen. And jumping. I loved (and still love!) the male night elf jump. Somersaults!
Yesterday – Why You Decided to Start a Blog
Tomorrow – Your best WoW memory
Then they renamed it Teldrassil. How dare they!
1. You could stealth while moving if you’d rolled a rogue ;-)
2. Don’t tell anyone, but the night elf jump is a big reason I don’t want to race change. That and Tikari just seems like a night elf – any other race, and he wouldn’t be him. (but it’s really the jump)
My first time I was a Night Elf as well, playing on my brother’s account after he’d finally convinced me to give it a try. But I only played her for 5-6 levels (also getting lost in those spider caves – they’ve claimed so many.. so many!)
Then I went out and bought my own account, found out my brother was actually horde and rolled an Undead. Their zone was VERY different to that of the Night Elves, but I quite liked the dark tone of their starting area. Something about the story of the Forsaken always resonated with me.
And I absolutely looooved Silverpine Forest. Especially at night time with the clear dark blue sky with the sparkling stars. I swear that the majority of my screenshots from my starting days are from Silverpine. I was just so amazed by the beauty of the game (only having played MUDs before or Baldur’s Gate).
AliPally – haha, actually, Aldrassil is a subzone within Teldrassil. Teldrassil, as I understand it, is the whole shebang, the whole tree. (For someone with two nelf toons, I sure don’t know my night elf lore.)
Tikari – You know, I had the chance to play my brother’s rogue here and there and I couldn’t STAND it. Ugh. My bank is a level 5 rogue. I have a level… 14 (?) Undead rogue somewhere out there that I log in to if every other realm I have a toon on is down. ;)
But YAY, I love the jump!
… my blog is probably not the best place to share secrets, btw. ;D
Saga – ahaha, damn those spider caves!! That’s pretty cool that the Undead zone really resonated for you. I never liked it much, not after the lush green Elwynn Forest. It just seemed all dead and full of despair. To each their own! :)