Origins, Part II

Welcome back, class. I hope everyone did their homework, and reviewed the previous lesson. Today we're going to cover my happenings exploring the new world that is WoW, up until... Hmm, I guess we'll just have to see how long this gets. We'll also see if we can't explain my Altitis while we're at it.

(Old) New World
So, a couple of months after uninstalling WoW, and its box getting lost in the mess that was my desk, summer vacation started and I was looking for something to do in all that free time (well, there was work, but a guy needs to have fun too, doesn't he?). And what better way to waste time, than going hunting for stuff on my desk? That'll burn at least a week... *grin* So after all the "chores" are taken care of (installation, updates, reactivating my account) I decide to delete all my old characters and make a fresh start, and I think to myself "let's give PvP a shot". So I take my pick from the handful of available RP-PvP realms, and introduce Lorna the Paladin to the world. Lorna has a lot of fun running around between Westfall and Redridge, as well as healing in the Deadmines, and even joins a very nice RP guild. She makes it all the way to level 30, before getting abandoned at the Darkshire inn, mostly because I didn't like the ganking. The obvious solution was moving to an RP-PvE realm, and so I did...

Moonglade

Into the realm selection screen I ventured and, after selecting English RP-PvE, was promptly assigned to my new home - Moonglade. I travelled around on 3 or 4 characters there, occasionally deleting one character and replacing it with another, mostly minding my own business. That all changed with Dorni. One day, while he was running around Loch Modan helping the locals with the Trogg and Gnoll infestations, he was approached by a little gnome messenger who was handing out leaflets and application forms to King Magni's elite defenders - The Mithril Guard. I can honestly say that my best times in WoW were had roleplaying with the Guard, and it seemed like I was over my Altitis too - except for some alts that were rolled to play specific roles in RP stories, Dorni made it all the way to 60 as a Protection specced Warrior. If only it could stay that way...

Real-life getting in the way again

Things were going very well, for me and for the Guard. I'd just turned 60, was second-in-command in the guild, and we'd even made a trip or 2 into Zul'Gurub (with the help of other guilds we had good relationships with). Until that one fateful day when my boss called me into his office and said "we want you to go to Japan for a while. It shouldn't take more than 3 weeks, a month at the max". That was almost 2 years ago, and I'm still waiting for the 3 weeks to end... I tried to keep on playing, but the time difference made it almost impossible to attend most guild events or even just sit down for a drink at Bruuk's. By the time I went back home for a visit 3 months later, the guild had changed too much that it just didn't feel "right"*. After that, I'd just let my subscription lapse, and hung up my WoW indefinitely.

Damn you, Penny Arcade

That might have been the end of my story. Heck, I wouldn't even be telling it if it were. But the powers that be conspired to get me back in the game - PA ran two strips about getting back into WoW followed by a small mention about the leveling changes in 2.3, and that was enough to get me hooked again. It's a good thing (or is it?) Blizzard finally let people download the game clients, so I was able to get the game and start playing WoW for the 3rd time... However, I didn't really feel like dealing with all the "history" I had on Moonglade (and the fact that I already had 9 characters there that I didn't want to delete), I rolled on a new server. That's when my Altitis really kicked into hyperdrive - due to the time difference I was mostly playing solo and me starting to get into reading many of the great WoW blogs/forums, every time I'd read (or think) about something that seemed cool I just rerolled. "You mean there's an easier way to level a priest than going Holy? Sign me up!" "Are Warlocks really that easy to play? I don't know, let's find out!" "Do I want to tank, heal, or be sneaky? Why choose? Roll a Druid!"

That there is a very slippery slope... Once you start down that road, it's very hard to turn back. I mean, at least for me, picking up a long forgotten character isn't all that "natural" - it's a lot easier to roll a new one of the same class, and with the 2.3 changes getting a new alt to the same level the old one was is pretty easy. So here I am - changed from someone who didn't even like the game and deleted his first character, to having over 30 alts of various classes/races/factions/professions sitting in wait all around Azeroth.

That concludes our brief foray into pre-historic times, but by now I've almost forgotten why I started it in the first place - to make a post about "Why I WoW". Now I wonder if I'll actually get around to writing it. *grin*


* Not that the changes were "bad", or that the guild wasn't doing well. It's just that some of the friends from before had left, new people joined the guild whom I've never met, and the general "feeling" wasn't the same.