I started playing World of Warcraft (on a different account) roughly a week before Burning Crusade came out. Why?
…because I wanted to bond with my 12 year old son as a single mother after his father died.
I also started playing because I saw him playing as a Horde player in Undercity and I was appalled by the concept of Undercity as I observed him playing. I was horrified by this obviously evil green stinking city and I was ABSOLUTELY certain the Horde (and game) simply had to be pure evil. I HAD to discern more to make sure my only child wasn’t being led astray into evildoing by some vile source on the interweb/-net.
…And so I did and am a loyal Horde player. I had a friend I met named Tom who elucidated on the lore and offered information to me. At that time a third party site had a ton of info. Tom directed me to (alaka…some of you know which one based on that). I was skeptical and made sure I looked at EVERYTHING I could find about world of Warcraft, not just Tom’s recommended sites.
Anyhow…Time passed. I attended college courses and when my son went off to college I began to frantically search for ways to draw him back to WoW. He returned on his own accord as he always has. He achieved his Associate’s Degree, his Bachelor’s, and finally his MA in Economics.
My son is 24 now, nearly 25 I’m sure he would say.
…And we continued to talk on the phone and play WoW during work/education off times.
I did so NOT agree with his faction choices on occasion (he has never seemed to me to have any loyalty in that regard). My kid veers to Alliance because according to him he doesn’t care for lore, only the gameplay(…yes, I know, appalling to some of us. I tried, I promise.)
I dabbled on the Alliance side of things; however, let’s be honest here—once a Horde player always a Horde player for we diehards. Same for Alliance players. We play with who we relate with/like/whatever and Blizzard has allowed us those choices with a great MMORPG covering every concept we can relate with in terms of beliefs and diversity OR SIMPLE preference.
World of Warcraft was a way for my son and I to bond as I saw it and so I tried it. I loved it. It has oddly served a bonding/watchful tool for us from my perspective.
We both still play though not together now as he is in his 20s and our work/life schedules are off. I have 2 people on my friends list and he is one of them. I get the little notes about he enters this or that in dungeons, etc. I love it!
Anyhow…
I don’t care for some of the ways the game has evolved (or arguably devolved) but as a whole, I love World of Warcraft and I hope it never goes away.
Thanks Blizz for keeping on with WoW despite what the trolls say and will continue to say. I’ll pay my sub fee and enjoy this vast worldwide game as well as the movie(-s? More please, your cgi team is incredible!) probably until I can’t type anymore with these increasingly frail human fingers.
I think you’re awful sometimes as a company but I have evolved with my son in respects no parent can appreciate who doesn’t game.
With all of this being said, trolls aside or involved
… why did you start playing WoW, people?
I started playing because my friend put a copy of the game on my desk. I was happy playing EverQuest but I never logged in again after I tried WoW.
For a long time I didn’t have a great computer. I remember seeing posters for WC3 and being curious but never could play.
By the time I had a slightly better computer I was dating a guy online. He suggested I play with him kinda as a couples thing.
He was not a good person. I’m glad he’s out of my life. Least WoW is still around.
I honestly don’t remember. I saw a television ad I think… But once I started playing I loved it.
yeah like anywhere in life there are scrubs but we move on and still play. I love it!
why did I start simple I been playing Warcraft games my whole life no reason not to.
same
oooo same here around that time!!
I’m sorry to hear that, but it’s good that you were there for him
Uncle gave me and my bro warcraft 3 discs.
Got REAAALY into the world and then i wanted to play the game where i can create my own character of the races in the game.
It was Jan/2005 I was still playing Tibia and Knight Online then my classroom mate showed me WoW that he was playing on a private server because he couldn’t afford the live sub. I joked around for a bit and on February, 5th, 2005 I made my first account on the real deal. Never stopped playing for more than 4 month at a given time since!
For me it was seeing older kids play WoW and Warcraft 3 as a kid. Had a strict upbrining so I didn’t play any online games growing up but I’m working and on my own now so last year I decided to start.
It’s awesome!
I was into WC3 for a good while, really liked the game and the story. I knew of WoW, but disregarded it at first and wasn’t interested. Runescape was my MMO at the time.
Until one fateful day I decided to try it and added WoW to my Christmas list, this was right when BC released. Then 13 years happened. 
My mom played Blizzard games in the 90’s (Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo) along with other sword and sorcery games (Might and Magic, Age of Empires, etc.), and my dad heard about WoW from some coworkers, so he bought her the game. This was in 2005. I was watching her play and dying to make a Tauren Druid. I was not able to play until 2009 (</3) when my dad finally started playing too. He told me yesterday that the reason he made an account was so that I could play too (<3), but he ended up loving the game too! My mom stopped playing at the same time. I ended up stealing her account a few years ago and it was the first time that my dad and I were able to play together… <3
I occasionally tell my mom to come join us, but she says that her laptop is not powerful enough to support the game… </3
I love this! <3
For Goldshire, my lanky lemon lover. For Goldshire.
/tentacleflip
I was playing Lineage 2 with some friends. This guy at work tells us all about this new game that has mounts and about this thing called a “carrot on a stick” that made your mount go even faster. After walking everywhere in Lineage 2, the idea of a mount with some extra speed sold us all. And 5 new wow players were born.
Isn’t is funny and interesting that so many of us are scattered in the World of Warcraft who have such fun and interesting stories to share?
I love the private/commercial server element. lol.
I’ve heard so many stories about the private ones.
I always return too, though one time I totally missed an expansion and that was Cata. From what I’ve played and been told, I actually didn’t miss much! lol
I played Orcs vs Humans, then Tides of Darkness, then Beyond the Dark Portal. Spent a couple years away from computers, then when I got back, I worked till I could get Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne. I remember the April Fool’s Joke for Reign of Chaos that it would be the Alliance, Horde, Night Elves, and… Pandaren.
Anyway, followed the game from announcement, got in to Beta a month before Open and played off and on since. I’m an altoholic, but I also played many different MMORPGs at the time, from Dark Age of Camelot, to City of Heroes, to Star Wars Old Republic. Between a lot of people I knew starting on different servers, I was behind on start because I kept switching around.
I saw the south park episode about world of warcraft.
lol!!!
Carrot on a Stick=OP/Lite once upon a time!
<3
I was a brand new graduate nurse working 2nd shift and all the security guards played Wow. I thought it was a kids game. They had me try the 2 week free trial. Omg! I fell in love with it immediately. I made a female troll arcane mage. After work we would all meet on line and quest and level up our toons. It was a great way to learn the game. Year’s later I’m still playing.
My buddies in high school asked me to play and I eventually said yes. And I was a total nerd who had no idea what was going on, but fell in love with the game.