What made you fall in love with World of Warcraft?

[Cerilis]

Giant crocodile pets.

[schwank05]

It was my first real MMO. I loved it and pretty much was my life through College, and for a few years after then I got married and had kids and No longer play.

[Cerilis]

orcs.



Really, it was because of the orcs. At the time I was a big lord of the rings fan, and often wondered about orcs in media. I was reading a novel series called just that, Orcs, by Stan Nicholls.



I hoped to find other media that proved orcs could be as much badass heroes as human counterparts, and found that with warcraft, started playing wow, downloaded WC3, brought all the novels, and got deep into the lore from here.

That book was hardcore. Too much, actually.

[Shadowferal]

Well, I'm from way back when I only played Everquest. I was a solo player futilely trying to level up various alts.
Several acquaintances to me gave a variety of reasons to play this "new" game called World of Warcraft. At that time it was around the Silithus expansion timeframe.
The two reasons that sold me; solo-ability, and "it's fun."

[Kraenen]

The RTS got me into it
The guilds I was in and the music/atmosphere kept me going and made me love it

[chrisnumbers]

A buddy of mine from Counter Strike talked me into buying WOW around the release of TBC. After countless attempts I finally gave in and rode my bike to Target to pick up a copy. I played an undead warrior off and on for a couple weeks and wasn't really into it...until I wandered into The Undercity. That music...it grabbed me and pulled me deep into the game, like I had no choice.

[Revak]

I played the RTS games but didn't love them. Civ was my go to pc game at the time. But I liked the story enough that once WoW came out I was interested. I'm a lifelong Mac user so Blizz supporting Macs got me to purchase it. But I purchase lots of video games and have owned nearly every gaming system ever released in my life (showing my age here).

But it was the vanilla night elf experience that got me. Loved leveling a night elf priest. The atmosphere. The leveling process (though slow as holy) really let me get immersed in this game.

End game is the goal nowadays. But when I played in vanilla it was getting that next level. Getting to that next zone to experience it. Finding people to group with to kill elites or packs of 3 or more enemies on a quest. Those "smaller goals" were worth more to me than getting a toon to 110 and raiding.

Along the way experiencing how badly you can get beaten when accidentally hitting the wrong zone by boat (STV when I wasn't the right level). Or jumping into a crossroads fight with horde. Astranaar used to have some good battles on my server (Rexxar) and I would always jump in and try to heal the one level 60 I had met as that person would show up to help us defend. Finally getting a mount was a huge reward.

Then all those people you grouped up with randomly joining a guild together. One day hitting 60 (I hit 60 in Silithus) and everyone being excited about it with you. Then farming the 0.5 sets and applying and getting accepted to a raid together as a group. 40 man raids were a fun experience as gear wasn't the goal then.

By the time TBC rolled around we had so much invested in this game that we were able to form our own guild during the T4 days and it exists to this day.

QoL is a lot better now for sure. But this game being new. This game requiring a lot of time and effort to level and get through. The rewards being different as you went along to keep you going (levels, gear, mounts, zones, community, etc.). Blizzards art style and music. Being online with tons of other players when MMOs were not that big yet. NOT knowing everything about what you're doing as well. Thotbott wasn't nearly as good as wowhead is. All of this made the game magical then.

I go back and play games all the way to the atari days still. I love all types, genres, and ages of games. The classic server is exciting to me since vanilla was what made me fall in love with this game. It will not be as enjoyable as I've already done it. But I look forward to it.

[Moralgy]

WC3/Frozen Throne.

I really liked the Story, and how it was told.

I got into it after the fact, wasn't a big video game nerd until wow sucked me in so never heard of it before lol. Loved it, it sparked my interest in lore in wow, and that would have probably got me interested in WoW if the timelines were reverse on discovery of games.

[Canield]

I must admit I never played the RTS. I learned of WoW through a message board in early 2006. I began playing with good friends from school. I continued to play with them doing heroic 5 mans and some raid content. When I went to college in 2007 I had an on campus group of guys I would raid with. We would lan together in the dorm lobby each week. I would say the relationships I built with close friends in game.

[Tennis]

I played Warcraft III with my friends and with online friends. I loved that game so much!

For WoW many people I knew played it so eventually one day I figured, Ima give it a try.

[Mormolyce]

Well I was always going to play it since I was a fan of the Warcraft series from all the way back in Warcraft 1 and 2.

But I got hooked on how addictive it was. So many things to do...

[Hashtronaut]

The RTS games.

This and being able to explore that world.

I fucking loved Warcraft 3 and WoW when I was a kid.

[Shadowferal]

There was that "fun factor..."
Had me up all night.

that was then. A couple of years ago I quit...I'd like to say I never looked back, but every now and then I think of a quick visit. (The beginning zones for night elves, blood elves, and pandas, are gorgeous.)

[Violent]

My friends..

1 out of 14 of us started playing in vanilla, the rest of us were still playing D2. The 1 friend (after awhile) finally got a few more of us 2-4, to try it out.
By 2 weeks later, all 14, 15, of us dropped everything else and started playing. (about a month or 2 before TBC dropped)

Best times on WoW I ever had. We started a guild with all of us, made a bunch of "waves" and names for ourselves on the server we chose. And then a few of us out of the 15 started World - PvPing together. FUN-FUN!

[Deleted]

Arthas in the RTS

[Ealyssa]

I can't take my sword out and kill dragons IRL, freakin protected species :/

[Sluvs]

As weird as it sounds it was sort of a combo.

Mulgore music + The sunset while i leveled with my tauren shaman.

That was the shit.

[Deleted]

A friend was already hooked and he suggested I watched for a while as he killed some raptors.
Was pretty meh.
Still, I got an account that week. Hoping to find my friend somewhere, as a surprise. I made it all the way to thunder bluff (starting as a Tauren), in what I thought was a perilous and long travel, convinced that people in the city would surely know of my friend and his many awesome stories. Little did I know that I chose the wrong faction. That servers were not connected (chose a wrong one, of course). And that my friend wasn't a particularly well known hero.

When it was finally explained to me that finding my friend wasn't going to happen just like that, I went back to him to explain in embarrassment my inadequacy. We laughed. He then left me staring at an alliance taxi flying the longest flight, north to south in any of the two continents (can't remember which). This used to last like 15 minutes or so. The realization was one of sheer size. The vastness and diversity of landscapes was impressive and captivating. It seemed like everything a tabletop nerd could ever desire: a seemingly endless amount of content, in an ever expansive world.
I was sold.

Then came raiding, and ended up in relatively high ranking guilds. Which I liked a lot.
But what I always came back for was discovery, traveling, quiet moments fishing and listening to its amazing soundtrack.
Quit playing some time mid Pandaria never to return. But I still keep contact with some ingame friends who keep me updated on stories, and pretty pictures I may enjoy.

[Violent]

It was my first real MMO. I loved it and pretty much was my life through College, and for a few years after then I got married and had kids and No longer play.

Then you didn't fall in love, you were just playin. Play-pimpin.

[Kellorion]

My Belf Pally and the starter zones of the Belfs.