The first time you set foot into Azeroth...

[The Glitch]

So much negativity on these boards lately, I figured it'd be nice to have a positive thread to spend time in, exploring the feelings you got when you first started playing, when you first created your first character, when you logged into the wonderful world of Azeroth.

How did you feel? What were the first things you did? Did you just go off and explore, or spend time looking through all the tabs for spells and such.


For myself, I made a Female Night Elf Druid. I was so excited after seeing the Night Elf in the cinematic, running through the forest, turning into a panther. I thought *I want to play one of those!!* and Proceeded to spend like an hour choosing the features she would have for what at the time I thought would be the rest of my time playing (until boom Barber! haha).

So I chose to give her long spring green hair, sultry but simple face with no tattoos and jumped into the game!

This was my first time ever playing any games on PC, (apart from solitaire or Minesweeper haha! Blame my hubby for forcing me to try out WoW) At first log on I was amazed by the scenery, it just looked so amazing,the music, it was magical, then I spotted some cats and pigs and I wanted to roam about and see what else was there! Then I realised I had no clue how to move, I was wondering how I moved without a joystick..or pad.. (/slaps self) But my hubby was there to guide me, and I got a hang of the controls fast, and that was me I was off, chasing pigs and cats killing happily until my hubby told me I hadn't picked up the *quest*.

Quest? What the hecks a quest? I soon found out, and there was no stopping me after that! I spent hours in Shadowglen, even after I ran out of quests, I figured that was it? and was dissapointed .

My hubby sighed at me and pointed me in a specific direction, I left Shadowglen, and walked into Teldrassil. The world just got so much bigger for me, I was even more excited, and proceeded to devour the quests like a mad woman. I had no clue that even Teldrassil was not the end of my adventures, when I went to Darnassus, I think my eyes may have popped out of their sockets.

I just couldn't imagine anything more beautiful, it was breathtaking, seeing the Ancients of War (I was scared to run past them I thought they might attack me!) then seeing the city sprawl out before my eyes. Seeing all these players wandering about the city not realising they were actually other people. Finding the Owl Vendor was also another *lightbulb* moment and was probably the cause of my extreme pet collecting addiction that consumes me even today

It just completely gobsmacked me in every way, that games like this exsisted. Well I was hooked and have been since, I bet you can understand how I felt when I found out I could take a boat to a whole new continent...

Please share your feelings of that first time you zones into the game. I'd love to hear

[mitbrandir]

The only thing i was doing was killing mobs when i first started playing wow. I had no idea what i was doing or what i had to ( I was was around the age of 9-10 when i first played the game ). I Soonly wandered off into the world, and I was really fascinated by how the world looked, and in particular zones like Burning Steppes. I was even more amazed by how Iron Forge looked like. I remember it being an hole journey getting from Elywnn Forest all the way to Darnassus, too. I also remembering being afraid of getting ganked by hordes when i went from Elywnn Forest into Westfall, which also shows of how unaware i was on how much playground this game has, which felt even bigger due to the fact that you couldn't fly in Azeroth in vanilla, and normal land ground were quite expansive (or atleast, they were in my memory, and the epic mounts being like really expansive). Another thing that fasinated me alot were the kodos in the tauren starting zone. As soon as I saw one i immidately wanted to roll a hunter to tame one as my pet, but sadly i came to the conclusion that i couldnt do that, which made a bit sad, but still excited for the game, as i've always liked the idea of the hunter class, and especially as it was in vanilla and tbc.

I had the same thing when TBC launched with the blood elf starting zone. I liked everything. The models, textures, music, units. The lynx cat were really cool to me. I was astunished by when i walked through the ruins of Silvermoon. I still find it a pity that that erea is very lowly populated, even though it is the best looking concept and capital there is, in my opinion.

PS: I find this a nice topic/thread, to go back to the more nostalgic feelings

[melodramocracy]

This wasn't my first foray into the genre, so my first truly 'being blown away' moments belong to other titles.

I messed around with a trial account, decided it was interesting enough to have a go at, and joined up with a few rl friends who had played in vanilla / bc. The first thing that really impressed me was crossing the river from Silvermoon into Ghostlands, and quite a leap environmentally from other MMO's I had played. The odd quiet of everything, the droning music, it's still one of my favorite areas of the game.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I was always focussed on getting enough silver for the vendor armor matching 'sets'. There was no dressing room feature yet so I had to buy them to see how cool they looked. I was obsessed with armor, and have always been so throughout the years of playing WoW. I was a massive collector of gear.

I also loved looking for PvP locations. My first PvP raid was at lvl 8 or 9 and we went to raid Ashenvale & Astranaar. The moment I entered Ashenvale (I never had to balls to enter alone, because it was contested territory) I was completely in awe, because there we engaged in combat with Alliance players very quickly. This was the first time I saw the spell Moonfire going off. I shat my pants and got the hell out of there.

After that I was obsessed with camping Moonbrook in Westfall, and run around in Duskwood, and Redridge Mountains. I was at lvl 40 after about 6 months of playing, because I was always exploring, and PvPing.

I didn't have my first 1 gold until I was around lvl 35. I felt SO fucking rich.

Good timesssss..

[Alter Ego Pablo]

I tried to loot a wolf as a human, but I was unsuccessful

[Omniscient]

Well, I started to play because I watched my older brother playing it for a while. Gave it a try and just went "Damn, this is fun." I started out with a mage, the game was just kind of awe inspiring at the detail and I was surprised my computer was even able to run it. (I think I had something like 256MB of ram at the time, really crappy e-machines computer.) Had crazy amounts of fun and couldn't put the game down for a long while. But I did switch between alts and it did take me forever to get max level. (I had started playing two weeks after BC came out) But none the less, I picked up on a lot of things pretty quickly and was very involved in Dueling/arena type stuff, but also casual raiding. Had amazing amounts of fun, made a ton of friends and coaxed my bestie to play with me. Even had two computers next to eachother since we literally lived in the same apartment complex.

[im2smart4u20]

I remember my first time I got on WoW and god was it a great experience. I think I started out as a night elf too! If I remember, it was a druid also because of the cinematic that got me pumped to turn into a cat. I was so damn excited! I tried out the trial and got familiar with the controls instantly as I had pass experience with some other, dull and boring MMO's. I was incredibly curious about the whole thing because I always wondered what happened if I died and where I would go to do level up or talk to people. The most challenging part was trying to find the quest people, which was the best. I always loved challenges(post-BC) and the scenery with it too. I wish I could still relive that same feeling today, but unfortunately everything has become so dumb and kiddy styled that it's not worth staying online for more than 2 hours. :

[dokilar]

as someone who had played all the warcraft rt games from the first one all the way to TFT i was very much interested in finding out how the things in warcraft were going. i had recently moved back home from the military and ran into some old gaming buddies a few weeks afterwards. we all played rts games and stuff at lans and a few of them were also interested in checking it out so we all rolled together.

since this was my first mmo i wanted to make sure we were all in the same area so we all decided to make taurens. i actually wanted to play orcs because i had always been an orc-first campaign kinda guy but i thought cairne was badass enough that we could all roll taurens. we all logged in and played fairly regularly for a few weeks, we managed to get to around level 35 or so and suddenly my friends didnt want to play as often as i did so i ended up re-rolling an orc warlock. this became my main toon all the way up until WOTLK.

my friends stopped playing a month or two but i got hooked by the battlegrounds and continued to play for a long time and even ended up meeting my current guildmates while pvping. since then we've all explored different games together and even had a few get togethers. a lot of them are from michigan so every other year or so we get together over a weekend and drink and play some games, pretty cool

[SymKensaki]

All of my friends had been playing for about a week before I got the game, and the only class they did not have in their roster at launch was Druid. So naturally I looked up everything about druid and when I saw that deceptive, blizzard-given description of Mark of the Wild as "the strongest buff", I was super excited. Hell, I remember casting mark on and healing everyone I saw for a good long while.

The world was rich and vivid compared to the other 3D online games I had played, and I remember being especially wowed with the ability to move and act, effectively, at the same time. The only thing I didn't like were the set paths and very limited customizable character progression, since I had just come off of playing Asheron's Call - a game rife with ruin-your-own-character style decisions. Fortunately WoW was so well put together that it really didn't matter.

Unfortunately it still stands as the most recent time I've felt the new game "magic" of an online game, which really sucks considering how long it has been since it came out.

[Nadev]

I was a dwarf rogue because looking at the old website, I thought you could only pick the race-class combos shown there. That and the idea of being a ninja dwarf was too cool to pass up. I remember slaughtering wolves and troggs and trolls for about two hours before I finally set out for Kharanos. I had never played anything like it and for over six years, it was a thrill.

If I ever comeback to WoW, I'll probably race change my BElf rogue to a dwarf for kicks.

[Wishblade]

Having only seen the Vanilla cinematic and knowing nothing of WoW I went into the game and the human starting zone thinking, "Ooh, cool intro, nice music, neat place... But what the hell is going on here...? What is all this stuff...? Guess my cousin will tell me...". He did indeed help me through Northshire... But by the time I got to Goldshire I was on my own... Was kinda tough being on my own in this unknown game. Sure it was pretty fun with something new, but I was always wondering, "What the hell to do now...? Guess I'll look around and do these quests..."

[Kraenen]

I was a dwarf rogue because looking at the old website, I thought you could only pick the race-class combos shown there. That and the idea of being a ninja dwarf was too cool to pass up. I remember slaughtering wolves and troggs and trolls for about two hours before I finally set out for Kharanos. I had never played anything like it and for over six years, it was a thrill.

If I ever comeback to WoW, I'll probably race change my BElf rogue to a dwarf for kicks.

that's weird. didn't you see the race/class combo lit up at the character selection screen? all the races that could've been rogues should've been lit up while the others not

[Nadev]

that's weird. didn't you see the race/class combo lit up at the character selection screen? all the races that could've been rogues should've been lit up while the others not

I was 13. And had never played anything like WoW before. I figured it out as soon as logged out to make a new character.

[Yuuki Asuna]

I was a Human Warrior (still my main today). I remember not knowing what to do and was just in awe at how beautiful the game was and still is! I remember complaining about the weapon skills though >.< Oh and BLAAALAAAAAAHGHHALLALLLALALAGHHGHHHGGLLALALALALABHGHALAAAH (MURLOC!!!) I thought they were soooo cute and funny!

[Thimagryn]

It was probably when I was still a teenager. I can still remember it like it was yesterday. The first time installing the game, reaching the splash screen, starting the game and I built my first barracks and farm. Those were the days!

Oh Warcraft 2, how I miss thee.

[derpkitteh]

i was 15 i think. i made a night elf hunter and was walking around shadowglen like :O

i started shooting a nightsaber, then all of the sudden i get a whisper from some random person like "u wanna be my girlfriend?" and i'm like dafuq, went to whisper back at them with "wtf?" but they logged off immediately or something. so like, after that i went running about shadowglen, hitting everything in my path and stuff. tried to kill a grell but it killed me. i got out of there and was doing the quest where i find the pendant for the druid dude, and he was kinda tough and there was this other chick there. so we teamed up and looked for about 30 minutes, killing the bear guy over and over trying to find the gem, then she read the thing you loot from the bear and saw that you just had to open it to get the gem. quite a fun little time waste there.

there's a shitload more stuff i remember, buying white vendor gear because more armor = better, my first pet and stuff. remember when i saw my first blood elf too, it was a horde raid on auberdine. i saw it and i was like :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i immediately bought BC the next day. that's when i made my current main character. i kept the hunter around for ages, got to 53 on her. but i changed to the paladin and never looked back. now days i relly wish i hadn't deleted that hunter.... i was decked in really bad gear with random stats and huge 2hand axe with spirit.... but it was my first. kinda depressed now, that's enough remembering for a while T_T

[Spraxle]

I had played a ton of Warcraft 3 and its expansions so when I found WoW (a month after its launch, trust me I'd have been there on launch if I had known about it) I was intrigued to continue the story from Warcraft 3. I remember reading the instruction manual as I installed the game, this was my first MMO you see. But once the game was loaded up I hit play and sat back and giggled as the starting video played. Then I got to make my toon. A human Paladin. He was a righteous instrument of the light, healer of the sick, purger of the unclean. It's so funny now but I lvl'd as Holy. All I wanted to do was help people (NPC or PC) and smite the scourge who had so plagued the land in WC3 and beyond.

I would do quests but I found myself wandering into a zone and I would explore every nook and cranny before I ever did a quest. Duskwood was my home away from home at that time... It gave me a place where I could fight the undead I so wanted to crush under my boot and protect the people (the old abom attack). Back then I was such a noob but it was so fun. I would spend hours running around in zones finding all of the areas of the map and killing (slowly) anything that dared step into my path. Oh man I had so much fun back then. I used to go up to WPL and just kill the ghosts that inhabited the graveyard outside of the little 'town' there. That would go on for hours (or so it seemed). I meet my first long time friend there, a warrior named Tasadar. He and I would destroy the undead till our fingers hurt. That's also where I saw my first epic (the 2h sword, can't remember the name of it) drop. I gleefully gave it to Tasadar since I was a Holy Paladin and what use did I have with such garbage haha. I never role played but in my head it was a constant role playing thing. I was making the world better for the Alliance one dead unholy abomination at a time. Then I found Southshore <-> Tarren Mill PVP and oh boy it was life or death for real.

[Nadev]

Duskwood was my home away from home at that time.

Duskwood used to scare the hell out of me, especially playing at night. I never leveled there until Cataclysm.

[TrollShaman]

Years before I thought of even playing WoW, I played a few games on the original DotA and Warcraft 3 I thought Trolls were really badass. I had 0 knowledge of WoW when I made my first trial account, so when I saw the Troll race as an option it was rather a no-brainer. The class I picked was a hunter just because of the description 'good at soloing' and the fact bows are my favorite weapons.

Next thing that happened was I was in front of an Orc in Durotar which I was familiar with after doing Rexxar's WC3 campaign. The atmosphere felt really mystifying for a moment there, with the music and terrain. I thought there was nothing wrong with meleeing Scorpids either as I kept thinking melee and ranged did the same amount of damage. Eventually I ended up in the OLD echo isles, where I had serious issues in killing Zalazane because of proximity aggro ): Then I started doing a quest series that asked me to tame a variety of beasts in Durotar, and when I got the skill Tame Beast, I tamed a red raptor immediately as I thought Raptors were the coolest beasts around Durotar. It's too bad I released him 2 years ago in favor of green raptors...

Overall WoW gave me a really good impression about the game itself which is one of the reasons why I'm still committed to playing it.

[Underverse]

My first char was an undead warrior. Wow, those starting zones, and the exploration, picking peacebloom...

The undead music in deathknell still gives me the chills. It isn't awe-inspiring, motivating, or emotional, but it captures who the Forsaken are so very well...