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