Being back in Teldrassil was weird. There was my Zoe, with the same face and the same hair, and there I was, eighteen years older, wondering why everyone was so attached to these graphics. Can we call this minimalism in gaming? Perhaps. I don’t see much evolution, though, or much that looks pretty. Some of the old running animations still look better on the characters, I’ll give them that. But those hairstyles? They should go. Horrible. I’ve never cared much about transmogs, although I did love a Defias bandana. Apparently, I have my exceptions.
World of Warcraft was my first MMORPG, and being back brought up memories I hadn’t thought about in years. I remembered the first person I met in Teldrassil. We’re still connected, and he still plays, although we don’t really keep in touch beyond a “hi” and “goodbye” once every couple of years. It’s strange to remember meeting someone in a game all those years ago and know they’re still somewhere in that world. Back then, I was twenty, single, and not ready to mingle. I could spend hours playing Burning Crusade and enjoy myself. Eighteen years later, I’m a mum, a small business owner, a wannabe YouTuber, and an IT professional working in a corporation. I still love gaming. Finding five spare hours for it is another matter.
Which is probably why spending those five hours collecting a handful of fangs and not even reaching level ten was so frustrating. I kept running left and right in spirit form because the respawn point was somewhere in hell, only to get back and continue killing things that refused to drop whatever I needed. The poisonous spiders were particularly confusing. How many do I need to kill for a couple of poisonous sacs? Shouldn’t they all have them? I don’t need everything to be fast, but after playing Retail casually, I’m not interested in spending an evening doing this. No, sir. When Classic came out, I didn’t understand the hype. Playing Forever Beta reminded me why.
Then all the other things I’d forgotten started coming back. The mana. The food. Oh God, the full bags. People in chat were bragging about getting bags from mob drops, which was lovely for them. Not my Zoe. The Gods of WoW were never particularly generous with my rolls or drops, and apparently our relationship hadn’t improved during my absence. My partner kept hearing me complain and saying, “This game is not for you, honey. You’re torturing yourself.” He couldn’t understand the nostalgia, and I wasn’t doing a very convincing job of explaining it while swearing like a truck driver. Fortunately, neither stream had a mic or camera.
The chat, though, was entertaining. It seemed full of people around my age remembering the old days, laughing, talking, and occasionally saying something that had me wondering what on earth they were on about. While they were reminiscing, I was dying again and asking myself which part of this they had missed so much. The running? The drops? Sitting down to recover mana? Or did they miss the people they used to do all of it with? That part I could understand. I was remembering someone I met in Teldrassil eighteen years ago, after all. Reading the conversations was probably my favourite part of those two days, even when some of them deserved a “WTF?”
There were changes I liked. Being able to have a character name in two parts reminded me of SWTOR’s Legacy naming system, which I always thought was cool. About time, ten years later. I liked the improved profession artwork too. Call me a snob or someone who needs things to look nice, but the artwork matters to me. If a game doesn’t appeal to me visually, I probably won’t even try it. The camp feature caught my attention, although I’m not sure how much I’d use it. Housing has never been particularly important to me in Retail WoW. I’m curious about these additions, but I’m also wondering whether they’re enough to make an old game feel new. So far, it feels like WoW has been repackaged and sold to us again, third time.
I also found the way the beta was sold a bit cheeky. In my book, a beta was something you played to see what you thought, and then you decided whether you wanted to buy the game. Paying beforehand to find out whether I even enjoy it feels backwards to me. By the time I stopped, I was considering asking Blizzard for a refund. That probably tells you more about my experience than the number of hours I played, because staying at the keyboard doesn’t necessarily mean I’m having fun. Sometimes I just want to understand what’s different and see whether the improvements actually improve the gaming.
Across the two streams, I spent almost eleven hours playing, reached level twelve, and finally got to Darkshore. I did enjoy remembering some of the quests as they came back to me. There was something fun and melancholic about it, even with all my complaining. But the grind was unbearable, and I’d had enough. I can remember enjoying those hours years ago without wanting to spend my evenings in exactly the same way now. Back then, I had the time, and so much of it was new to me. This time, I knew the place, remembered the quests, and had considerably more waiting for me when I logged off.
And yet, the plan is still to play at release and stream on YouTube. I’ll probably try the new race and its starting area, although they look rather like Blood Elves to me, so I’m not feeling much novelty there yet. I want to see it for myself, and we’ll see how long I last. I’m also curious about how busy launch will be after hearing about the unexpectedly high interest in the beta. Will everyone come back? Will the chat still be the part I enjoy most? Will Zoe finally get a bag?
This is where I’m starting the weekly gaming posts on ErdeGora: two days back in my first MMORPG, plenty of memories, and a partner wondering why I kept playing something that made me swear so much. I went in wanting to see what had changed in WoW. Somewhere between Teldrassil and Darkshore, I found myself thinking about how much had changed for me. I still wanted to be there, at least long enough to have a look around. I just didn’t want to spend another five hours waiting for the spiders to cooperate.