MMO's and WoW

Greetings,

So for the first post I reckon I should talk about something that's been a ridiculously large part of my life for the last 3 years. My good RL mates played EQ and then Guild Wars, so when I finally got a Dell that could had a half decent graphics set up, I pressurised them into picking an MMO that we all would play.

WoW

I also hooked a few more friends into this (I can be very persuasive). Luckily no-one got divorced, I think we all got close at some point, at least those of us who are married with kids. Needless to say following my own 'I'm an individual' traits I did things very differently to everyone else.

I started off as a NE Priest, a good choice as it turns out as healing classes appeal to me. This is old WoW and I quit at level 52 as the alternative was divorce. A compromise was for me to stop playing with my RL friends and jump ships to the Horde (Hellscream EU).

I have to say I had a great time of it. Horde on HS seemed to be a little more mature, and a reasonable stint on The Lost Souls guild had great benefits in teaching me the trust and tenets behind the weird and wonderful relationships that people have online and the politics that go with it.

After my year in exile I headed back to my RL mates. I didn't fit in with their very large guild so I found another more my size in Cheese n Crackers Co. There followed my most enjoyable moments in WoW doing Karazhan etc with some lovely people as a resto shaman.

I wouldn't say I was any good, I never intended to be someone to look up to in WoW, I guess I'm more a social gamer than anything else. Things didn't work out though, so I went back to my RL mates running a Thursday night raid scene.

It is more fun with your mates, no doubt about it. I guess because we've known each other for years before MMO's means that any criticism and bitching never amounts to much thank God.

Sad to say that me and WoW went our separate ways in February. I bought but never played WotLK. I was levelling up a toon on the achievements system from scratch, got disillusioned when Blizz made some changes and lost heart in TBC, I always hated Hellfire Penninsular. I guess it was bound to happen at some stage.

So, so long WoW, thanks for the memories. I shudder to see time /played and think about how many languages I could have learned, diplomas earned, good deeds completed.

But, it has been a major part of my life and I don't regret it.