#Blaugust2019 day 28 -- The Book of Tom's WoW

While the entire world is heading back into World of Warcraft Classic Mode, I'm not.

My experience with Vanilla WoW was . . . a mixed bag. I'm sure it's amazing and everyone is reliving all the good times, and I'm also sure if I joined a new guild of people (I hear the Blaugust peeps have a guild going?) and made new friends, I could feel the magic . . . but . . . yo, I need to ramble a bit about that.

Lemme see if I can walk back this feeling inside me:

Chapter 1 -- It all begins with Everquest

I really loved Everquest. Honestly. It was a fantastic game for me, and I felt like I had so much success in it as a player. I had my epic weapons. I was raiding. The lore was deep. The world was wide. Binders upon binders of printed maps, quest notes, and forum posts. (No binders full of women though . . . oh snap!)

I was there when Everquest was king . . . I ran a web page for the guild, made YouTube videos before YouTube was a thing, and was a pillar of my guild . . . and then my friend sold his account and left me. Ooph.

It was ok. I still played Everquest afterwards. I mean, I had new friends and that actually opened me up to new opportunities with larger raiding guilds and I got to finally raid the places I had only ever heard about in passing.

Chapter 2 -- Vanilla WoW

My same friend who dragged me into Everquest joins World of Warcraft and begins leveling. The band is back together again, and I'm invited to bring the party to World of Warcraft!  So I jump in!

But the feeling is different this time. Now I'm continually behind my friend in levels and playing catch up. He's got a new bunch of friends with him that aren't really the nicest people, and now instead of it being a big self-sufficient guild, I'm part of a "raiding alliance" where the egos are awful, but we hit Molten Core, Onyxia, Zul-whatever . . . all the typical spots.

I'm there when a rare velociraptor mount drops for our raid group and miss the winning roll by one tiny point (mind you, i'm still burnt about that all these years later -- I've only mentioned it like 3 or 4 times on this blog already).

. . . and then my friend sells his account and leaves me again!

I mean, it was fun, and I liked my paladin well enough . . . well, maybe I should have just played Hunter . . . but it's just not the same without my friend playing. I didn't make any deep ties to people like I had back in Everquest.



I tried to hang on but when all my raid gear was replaced by green drops in the next expansion I felt like I just wasted a bunch of my time for nothing.

Chapter 3 -- Forging my own Path in Everquest

So I return to Everquest with no old friend leading the path! This time I'm in charge and directing my own play. I have old in-game friends, and I don't have to catch up to anyone. I'm behind the cutting edge, but it feels great because I find a really cool friends and family guild and everything is super chill.

And then I get the itch to really hit raiding hard again in Everquest! I'm earning DKP. I'm right back in it and swinging at raid bosses with the best of them.

But, news of my son's Autism puts the kibosh on the raiding lifestyle, and I'm out.

Chapter 4 -- ALL MMO'S ROCK . . . when played casually that is

I played 'em all, but in a way more casual sense -- and I had the children to tend to . . . life had permanently changed.



And of course I found Wizard101 and could play an MMO with both kids and adults and even found success with this blog.

Um . . . End of Imaginary Book

So, I don' t know. It just feels like there's a lot of baggage there. I'm gonna be honest. I've been a little psychologically burnt by my account-selling friend leaving me high and dry and not having solid ties to the game that so many came to love. And I guess for many, WoW was their first MMO, so for them it's probably like coming home, but I don't feel that.  I feel that more for Everquest.

I guess joining a new guild would be fine like I said initially in this post, but . . . there's that nagging feeling in the back of my mind. WoW was always more about the people inside the game than the game itself for me. I can't get that back, and I don't know if I want to.

/shrug

I tried to explain it. I hope I didn't sound too harsh about my friend . . . like I still love him and we're buds on Facebook . . . idk. I sincerely hope you all enjoy your time in WoW!  Thanks for letting me walk it back with you.

Am I alone here?

Happy Dueling