When was the first time you ever heard of World of Warcraft? As a fan of the three Warcraft RTS titles, I became aware of this title around March or April 2003 and instantly sought out more information. I came upon the early version of the website, which looked like this, and spent a memorable late afternoon pushing work to the side so that I could absorb every iota about this project.
I think it’s fair to say that from this very first day, I was hooked. I’d been intrigued by MMORPGs from afar, but aside from a somewhat disastrous outing in Anarchy Online, I’d given the genre a wide berth in the early 2000s as I waited for a title that would be more accessible than these often-obtuse games. When I heard about WoW, I knew I’d found it.
The only problem, of course, was that it was early 2003, and no matter how much I willed it, World of Warcraft wasn’t going to release the next day. Thus began an agonizing year-and-a-half waiting period during which I moved apartments, met my future wife, and combed the internet and forums for any new details about this MMO.
I have to say that Blizzard was masterful at drip-feeding tantalizing tidbits about this game during that time. One article in particular stands out in my memories as it explained the then-revolutionary quest system and how there would even be objects in the world or dropped by mobs that would open up new missions. It sounds quaint to praise this now, but back then, it was awesome. The whole concept clicked in my head and made me think, “Why aren’t all these other MMOs doing it this same way?”
Months went by. I filled up some of that time in early 2004 with what I consider my first “true” MMO experience, City of Heroes. Good times, but that felt like surface-level fun when I wanted a full-course meal. Most people have forgotten how insane the hype was for WoW that year. Everyone was talking about it, everyone wanted in on the beta, and speculation around the release date was a hot topic.
I did get into the beta — two weeks before launch. I tried not to spoil myself too much, just performing a quick tourist survey of Elwynn Forest and seeing what the devs had in store for the beta’s end.
Then came launch day. No, I didn’t stand in any lines at midnight; I simply swooped into Best Buy before work and snagged one of a pile of collector’s editions. Then I experienced the longest work day ever before I got home, installed the game (while listening to the soundtrack CD, which I still own), and entered Azeroth as Chark, a Dwarf Hunter who was fated to live maybe two weeks before I rerolled him.
That first year was a learning experience for me. I’m sure I did almost everything wrong, struggling to get up in levels and earn enough gold for my first mount. The initial patches had a few quality-of-life features but mostly focused on high-end content that I was sure I’d never do. For me, I was casual from the start — and this was a fairly casual game, especially for the time.
By 2006, I’d settled in what would be my main for several years to come: a Gnome Warlock named Syp, which became my online handle from that point forward. We had great adventures on the road to 60, including grinding that ridiculous Timbermaw faction for the summon trinket and leveling up engineering (for the toys, of course!).
When The Burning Crusade came out, I was standing in line at midnight for my copy amid a large crowd of people shouting “for the HORDE” and “for the ALLIANCE” while neighbors shouted “SHUT UP we’re trying to SLEEP!” I was so excited to play in Outland that I didn’t sleep that night whatsoever.
The years of playing this game blurred together. There were vicious periods of burnout, glorious returns, rerolls, and first steps in Northrend. However, by 2009, I was starting to feel like it was time to set WoW aside and focus on other MMOs like LOTRO and Warhammer Online — not to mention some of the promising titles that were coming from 2010 to 2012. So I missed the latter half of Wrath, almost all of Cataclysm and Pandaria, and a majority of Warlords of Draenor.
My biggest return to WoW came on the tail end of Draenor in 2016, as I got pumped for Legion’s launch that summer. It turned out to be the best of all times to come back to the game, as those two years of Legion’s cycle were some of the greatest I’ve had in that game. And while I was on-again and off-again in retail for the next three expansions, I feel like I’ve hit my stride once more for The War Within.
Retail wasn’t the only adventure I had in WoW — there was the revival of vanilla with Classic WoW in 2019. It’s mind-blowing to me that this is already five years old, but it was a solid five years. I’m so appreciative that I had the opportunity to “go back in time,” so to speak, and adventure through the first three expansions once more. It was also eye-opening how satisfying and well-designed much of the game was for this era.
I’ve also had a fun stint playing Classic Hardcore, exploring the early days of Season of Discovery, enjoying last summer in Pandaria Remix, and soaking up several BlizzCon presentations and reveals. I restarted on a fresh account around 2018 as my family hijacked my old account (including my precious vanilla CE pets!), have been involved in so many amazing guilds, and made quite a few close friends.
What’s to come for the future? More expansions, more fun, more memories, and a journey that hopefully spans my middle-aged years and into retirement! So happy 20th birthday, World of Warcraft — I appreciate the good times.
Stepping back into the MMO time machine of WoW Classic, Justin Olivetti offers up observations and ground-level analysis as a Gnome with a view. Casually Classic is a more laid-back look at this legacy ruleset for those of us who’ve never stepped into a raid or seen more than 200 gold to our names.
