Memories of Vanilla #1 - The Beginning

What's up dudes!

With Classic now slated to be released in the summer of next year, I thought it'd be interesting to reflect back on my own vanilla experiences while we all wait. If nothing else, it'll add to the hype train and give me a way to release my excitement. As you read, feel free to leave a comment with your own stories and experiences from way back when.

So without further ado, here's my classic World of Warcraft story...

Back in the summer of 2005, I was an excited young teenager just beginning to find my place in the world. I had a job at a local pizza restaurant and enjoyed hanging out with friends and playing my Nintendo Gamecube whenever I was free. Good times.

Well one day my brother and I went over to a buddy's house because he'd been raving about this new game he got. Some game where you could make your own character and run around with other people called "World of Warcraft." I'd never heard of it, or any of the other Warcraft games for that matter as I was strictly a console gamer until that point, but he seemed pretty into it. So, we hopped on our bikes and headed about 2 miles down the road to see what he was flipping out about.

When we arrived, I yelled up to the 2nd floor from outside to let him know we were there - he always had his window open in the summer, so he definitely heard me. With a thump, he jumped down the last 4 steps to the side door to let us in. We ran upstairs to his room where he had his own computer set up and I was taken aback by the game in front of me. There were people running around on the screen in a yellow, grassy place with half-built buildings. Stood at the center of the screen was a woman with a red ponytail and purple dress.

I had gotten my first glimpse of WoW.

Being the generous sort of soul he was, my buddy showed my brother and I around Westfall on his human mage, Leika, who he'd been apparently been playing for the last two days or so. He recounted tales of a place he called "The Orchard" and how the "Defias" there had killed him over and over as he'd attempted to finish a quest. Intrigued, I asked if I could try it out, to which he replied. "Yeah sure...after this quest."

Well, as we all know now, one quest led to another and we ended up watching him mess around for nearly 20 more minutes, casting blue spells of frost at robot-like things on a farm and collecting random items around the zone. Getting bored, we asked if one of us could just try it out. Finally, he agreed.

My brother went first, if I remember correctly, and created a human paladin - he was really big into Final Fantasy IV and Cecil was his favorite character, so it was just kind of to be expected. I watched, intrigued with the world around him as he killed wolves and kobolds around the Northshire Abbey. Before long, another hour had passed and it was my turn.

The next 20 minutes of my life, I sat fixed in front of the screen, trying to work out what to play. I thought that the Horde races looked pretty cool, but since my brother and friend had already rolled Alliance, I thought I should follow suit. Then, I had to look at the classes. Warlock stuck out to me in particular, as I was 15 and full of teenage angst, it seemed pretty appropriate. Demons and shadow magic - who doesn't love that?

However, just as I'd sort of settled on going with a human warlock, he suggested that if I really wanted to use shadow magic, I should consider rolling a priest instead, as they could become dark shadow priests with a cool purple glow AND could heal if needed. Upon hearing this, I clicked on the staff icon, entered the name "Silvite" (I was a huge Skies of Arcadia fan at the time) and hit enter.

My adventure had begun.

An amazing introduction!

Having wasted essentially 20 minutes of my hour of play time, I had my work cut out for me. My brother had already leveled up to 4, so I was well behind! But as I watched that opening cutscene, panning out from the majestic statues of Stormwind and flying over the bustling landscape of Elwynn Forest into Northshire, I knew that I'd just entered something magical.


The screen faded to black for a split second, then I was faced with the back of my character, Silvite - the level 1 human priestess. I looked around, spinning with the arrow keys in classic noob fashion before noticing a yellow exclamation mark above the head of some dude standing nearby. A quest giver, I was told. Pressing the up key, I moved over to him, right clicked as per my friend's instructions, and began to read.

Learning to quest

The remaining 30 minutes of my first crack at World of Warcraft are a bit blurry, as it's been over 13 years at this point. However, one thing I remember super clearly was the grape fields. As our friend had warned us about the orchard, I asked if this was where he died a lot, to which he replied no. That would come later, at around level 9. I looked at my lowly level 3 in the corner, then back to the time in the right-hand corner of the screen, and sighed. It would be a long time until I reached level 9.

Anyway, my first experience with WoW ended just before the grape fields of Northshire, but I was sure that I'd be back. In just 60 minutes, I was hooked and ready for more. Looking back now, I must have experienced that initial cutscene and those starter quests at least 50 times by this point, making and deleting alts, messing around on private servers, and the just generally enjoying the game, but even now I still remember that first experience so clearly.

I hope you enjoyed my little rant about my first WoW experience. If you liked it, share it around to spread the joy. Also, feel free to leave a comment below with your own first experience with World of Warcraft. I'd love to hear your story too.

Until next time guys. Take it easy!