Gathering Data on when you first started WOW

[Deleted]

Strated playing when WCII came out and played the first one at the same time. Joined wow at AQ patch (didnt have powerfull compter before)

[enchanted]

So your thread's title asks us when did you start playing WoW, while your poll asks us when did you start playing warcraft so I'm confused whether you're asking about the franchise itself or WoW as an mmo? Nonetheless, I started WoW in Early wrath, as you could say like 1 month before Wrath's release while I did play the old Warcraft games as back as 2006 or so but didn't feel like joining wow until wrath.

[Jaded5542]

I started playing WoW in Vanilla, only reason i got into it, SWG: NGE.
/old

[Vintersol]

Orcs and Humans \m/

[Deleted]

Played the RTS and was a part of the original open beta. So... to answer your question. too long.

Same.
I was introduced to the WarCraft universe at 12 with Reign of Chaos.Hooked ever since.

[Dirdie]

Not at all, the Question is when did you star playing World of Warcraft, because a Significant portion of the population on MMO-C wants to be first even in a blind test they will answer the earliest possible answer which is an invalid response. So I can safety use the rest of the data which will now be closer to the truth than if I just started possible answers with Vanilla. You can infer the question from the forum topic.

Also putting this reply on the second page makes it unlikely that people will see it before they vote.

Actually the question just said Warcraft.....

[Deleted]

Probably via the Central Limit Theorem.

I 'm not sure that it can be applied here...

[Fahrenheit]

First Warcraft game I played was Warcraft 3, then I went back and played O&H and ToD, and then Warcraft 3: tFT. This was all about a decade ago, like 2002/2003. Which is went I first heard about WoW, in late 2003.

But I decided not to play it as I didn't care for MMOs at that point, having only played one EQ, and I didn't find it all that fun. So I skipped it. Until my brother started playing WoW in May of 05, and said I should give it a shot. Been around since.

[Hardkorr]

From what I gather from the data so far, the people who are most active on these forums are those who played/started during Vanilla/TBC. Does this mean that these players are the ones who care most about the game because their passion for WoW extends outside of the game and into the forums?

[Alopex Major]

I'm not sure of the exact patch, I chose after AQ though because I attended the event on my server and I was only 50-some at the time. I didn't pay close attention to patches then as I was a noob. As a druid, I know I joined before bear dance form and before tree form, if that gives an idea.

[Deleted]

Well the poll didn't match the title, so I voted for when I started WoW (early TBC) as opposed to when I started Warcraft, which was with WC3.

[Delaios]

I started fairly early in Wrath, early december or late november 2008. Not sure about the exact date I started playing, but I know that "Going Down?" was my first achievement. I got it by falling off the top of the building in the Night Elf starter area. That achievement is dated the 10th of december, but I played some other characters before that so I can scratch a few days off.

[DeicideUH]

I've been playing since Warcraft 2 (before expansion), but voted Cataclysm (when it was released in Brazil and I actually started playing WoW, though I was following news about the game since alpha).

[unholytestament]

Started playing Warcraft when Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness came out.

Started WoW March 2005. Right around when 1.3 was released.

[Gothicshark]

Looking at the usable portion of the Data.

MMOC%	#MMOC	Version of WOW	Sample Date	Subscribers in Millions	% compared to Max of sample
25.33%	58	Early WOW (Before AQ)	1-Jan-05	1.5	12.50%
19.21%	44	WOW Vanillia (After AQ)	1-Jan-06	6	50.00%
25.33%	58	Early TBC (Before Sunwell)	1-Jan-07	8	66.67%
8.30%	19	Late TBC (after Sunwell)	1-Jan-08	10	83.33%
13.97%	32	Early Wrath (Pre-ICC)	1-Jan-09	12	100.00%
3.93%	9	Late Wrath (After ICC)	1-Jan-10	11.5	95.83%
3.93%	9	Cataclysm	1-Jan-11	11.5	95.83%
0.00%	0	Mists of Pandaria	1-Jan-13	9.5	79.17%
N/A	N/A	Current Estimated Player Base	11-Nov-13	7	58.33%

sample size 229

Current Model Based on Sample
1,772,926 Early WOW (Before AQ)
1,344,978 WOW Vanillia (After AQ)
1,772,926 Early TBC (Before Sunwell)
580,786 Late TBC (after Sunwell)
978,166 Early Wrath (Pre-ICC)
275,109 Late Wrath (After ICC)
275,109 Cataclysm
- Mists of Pandaria


(obviously not accurate for a lot of reasons, but it does indicate that MMO-C players tend to say they are long term WOW players, which fits since it does take some effort to find MMO-C.)

- - - Updated - - -

Well the poll didn't match the title, so I voted for when I started WoW (early TBC) as opposed to when I started Warcraft, which was with WC3.

Yes, because I want people to remove themselves from the sample.

[Amazing R]

Been playing since Warcraft 2, had a few ups and downs, but I'm still here.