I'd never played an MMO before, but I had been playing the Warcraft games since before b.net. I played Warcraft 2 on the MSN Gaming Zone for years. You'd join a lobby in the chat room and when it was time to play all you'd get is a DOS prompt and you had to open War2 manually to launch the game! I didn't even understand what I was doing at the time, I just knew what I had to type in to make the game launch.
So, having a history with Warcraft I knew for sure I had to give this "World of Warcraft" a shot. I didn't even understand what an MMO was or how it worked. I'd never been to the WoW website or forum. All I knew was what was written on the box.
So I logged in for the first time and went to the character select screen. I knew I was playing Horde, there was never any other option for me. I immediately fell in love with the Tauren and created a Warrior. (Still my main to this day. Always has been.)
I started moving around with the directional arrow keys and jumping in NumPad 0 because I didn't know what I was doing. I'd played Counterstrike and that's how I moved in that game so that's what I did in this one.
I got to level 7. I was talking to a friend on AIM about it after logging off and told him I had made a character on a PvE server and that I was "already" level 7. He told me to stop that character and make one on a PvP server but I felt like I had invested a lot of time in my level 7 and wasn't willing to switch so I stayed on a PvE server.
I remember some of the questions I asked him. What is an elite? Can you become an elite? Can you take over and destroy other peoples towns? What are these amazing looking battlemasters in Thunder Bluff? Can I fight them? How do I get armor that looks like them?
The next day when I made it out of Mulgore to go to the Crossroads I remember dying a lot along the way. The quests at the Crossroads were only level 10-12 but you had to run through level 15-17 mobs to get there. I thought I was lost, but I just kept pushing on heading in the direction of that arrow on the mini map.
While questing at the Crossroads I got 2 quests that I remember like they were yesterday. The first took me to Orgrimmar, which blew my mind. No mount and no idea what was going on I had to find my way around to turn in some quest. I remember I passed by a level 60 shaman who was wearing the tier 0 blue dungeon set. Elements, I think it's called? I remember thinking he must be the most incredible player on the server with that armor. Once I finally left Orgrimmar I swore I was never going there again because it was too big and too confusing.
The other quest sent me to Rachet, and from Rachet I got a quest to go to Booty Bay. Being completely naive of the world (of Warcraft) I made what I thought was the logical assumption that 2 factions, 2 continents... it must be 1 continent per faction. When I took the boat to Booty Bay I honest to God felt like I was infiltrating enemy territory. I thought there would be swarms of Alliance players just waiting to kill me. When I left Booty Bay and went out into the jungle just a few steps I thought for sure I was going to get got. After the fact when I was talking to that friend on AIM I told him I went to the "Alliance Continent... you know, I took the boat." and he explained to me that both factions share both continents.
While questing in the Barrens I remember grouping up with someone to kill some stuff around level 15. I had no idea how the loot system worked and I'm not sure he did either. If he did then he just took advantage of my naivety. A bag dropped. A little blue 6 or 9 slot bag. I looted it from a mob and I was so excited because I only had the beginning backpack still (I had no idea you could buy more bags) and was spending tons of time running back and forth to empty my 1 bag. Well, when my so-called friend of a questing buddy saw that I looted it, he told me it was his. I thought we got the same loot so I asked him if he didn't get one off of the dead mob and he said no, but that one was supposed to be his because he hit the mob first. Not wanting to steal from anyone I very reluctantly handed the bag over to him. I don't even remember how long I went before I realized I could buy bags.
For some reason at level 18 I got very bored with the game. I don't remember why I but I remember exactly where I was standing in the Crossroads when I logged off and didn't log on again for days. One day I just had an itch to play it some more so I logged back in, picked up where I left off, and the rest is history.
The Barrens is where the game really began for me. I still fly out there on occasion just to look around, land in the Crossroads and reminisce a little. WoW gets new expansions and different MMOs come out but I've never recreated that newbie feeling. I guess that's why Vanilla players always say Vanilla was the best.
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