Nostalgia for Noobishness

Before World of Warcraft I had played things like Sims (Original, expansions, Xbox and PC…and before you ask, yes, I had the little extra expansions with things like kitchen furniture and pets.), Grand Theft Auto (I was really good at the driving but sucked at being a pimp.), and various sports related games (boys hate it when you beat them at hockey by the way). I picked up WoW on my way home from work at the beginning of a long weekend because I had no real plans, the weather was crappy, and I’d heard a few people at the office talk about it. I didn’t sleep for about 36 hours.

WoW was fascinating! Nothing I had played had ever been even remotely like it. I had no idea how to do simple things like move, open bags, and swim. I didn’t know about class trainers or flight masters. I was scared to death to die because I didn’t know what would happen and then when I did die it took me forever to figure out how to resurrect. (There was one very memorable death involving falling off a cliff into Wetlands at level 14 and taking three hours to get back to safety because I couldn’t find my body easily and didn’t know how to use the spirit rez.) I can still remember the first time I had 50 silver because the cat lady’s charge is something like 37 silver for a pet and I really wanted one but it seemed like a lot of money at the time.

While I spent a lot of time wandering lost in circles (my friends will tell you I still spend a lot of time lost but don’t listen to them…they don’t take their meds…crazy people) I was completely fascinated with the look and feel of the game. There was that thrill of discovery everything I found a new place; whether it was as grand as the world dragon in Duskwood or as small as accidentally catching a prize fish from the STV Fishing Derby it didn’t matter. There was the fun and challenge of leveling Lark and learning about what paladins can do, vanilla, TBC, and Wrath to explore and a myriad of alts to level and learn about. One of the most fun leveling times I’ve had was getting my horde mage to 80 and doing all the areas I’d loved from the other perspective.

And the people! Let’s not forget the people! I remember the first WoW friend I made. Manius was leveling a lock and we met at about level 8 and leveled together on and off on various toons for years. Countless toons and two main servers since I still talk with him whenever I’m on Drenden and can catch him. One of my other oldest WoW friends is raiding with me now. (/wave Zaka). Many of the key people in Heroic have been around for long time and the guild wouldn’t be the same without them. The game wouldn’t be the same without the people I’ve known.

Most of my time for the last two-plus years has revolved around raiding and the goals therein, or, in the last year or so raiding plus my guild. There are a few things I still want to achieve in Wrath: getting us our 25 man ICC mounts (got my ugly, bony birdie from 10 man on Sunday!), killing Putricide and Sindragosa on hard mode in 25 man (and giving at least a few honest shots at LK hard), and wrapping up the Ulduar 10 and 25 metas for those mounts (most of us are ridiculously close…it’s just silly we haven’t finished at this point). But mostly…I think I’m about done.

I’m ready for Cataclysm. I’m ready for the excitement of new things to see and do and learn. I’m ready to relearn all the classes and specs on Lark and the alts. I can’t wait to have the time to level a new toon from scratch and see how the leveling has changed and do the new quests. And, I think, I’m finally ready to take my little guild into the new content and make it a success there as well. It won’t be the same but I think it will be good.

I’ve flirted with other MMOs since I found WoW; Warhammer, EVE, AOC, and a few others but they couldn’t hold my attention for long. Either they were too buggy or didn’t have enough players or they simply weren’t interesting to me. However, I recently started the Final Fantasy XIV beta and that may have potential! That’s really where this wave of nostalgia for newness comes from. The game is visually stunning and very interesting so far. I have to learn from scratch what to do, where to go and what the classes mean since I never touched any of the other Final Fantasy incarnations. I still haven’t figured out how to start a profession and it’s driving me crazy. LOL. At any rate, it may give me something to do until Cataclysm comes out and WoW feels new again.