see and I revel in your pain it works out, and for the thread The scale of wow captured my imagination, I never played a mmo before and the thought of playing one world shared with so many other people was amazing, I never really cared about the story till later when wrath was coming out, I only played nelf because they where elves, and I thought all the other females where ugly, but once I got into the lore, I loved them even more. I started in late vanilla btw
That’s not a lot to revel in, but you do you.
Aside from its cartoon style, the high/night elves was the first to draw me in. Lord of the Rings elves are just pretty humans with pointy ears, Dragon Age elves are skinny twigs, and D&D look basic to me, Warhammer elves are bland (High Elves) or they come off as try hard edgelords (Dark Elves). However, WoW’s elves have this mystical other worldly look to them that drew me to them.
I favor the Blood elves/Nightborne. Im more of a fan of magical society elves over nature elves.
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As many have said, the humanizing twist on your typical fantasy races. Dwarves that could be evil, orcs and minotaurs that could be good, smart zombies and different flavorings of elves. Each with rich story and a, largely, fleshed out society to take in.
Oddly enough too, the art style. I dont think I could play WoW like I do now if they ported everything over to say… UE4. It would look amazing and Im sure I’d appreciate it, but it wouldn’t be WoW. I enjoy the “cartoony” feel
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Usually I tend to follow magical realism in which stories being told has huge dynamics regarding character development, morality change and the external factors. With that said it’s the Elder Scrolls that captures my heart in it.
Staying with OP’s topic I’d say Lordaeron’s history & fall & Arthas. To this day it still gives me the chills.
I haven’t looked at WoW the same since Wrath’s era when I played it. Made me very sad when it ended with Arthas’s death…it had to happen nonetheless. From therein WoW’s story from Cataclysm & onward killed me and didn’t come back until Legion which drove me to study the Elven history, our artifact’s and much more. In a way it felt like Wrath’s nostalgia.
Now here I am with BFA, not enjoying it at all, though if it weren’t for my guild family I’d be happy to have left the game.
I am highly curious to see what Shadowlands brings
PS: Wrath made me respect the Forsaken more & their struggles which is sad when being undead. I’ve always had this odd eerie about Sylvanas however…years later till now I was right…
PSS: King Arthur’s fantasy story it’s what got me to love my faction and paladin more. I terribly miss you Varian…your son is but naive
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I also stopped between Wrath and Legion. I never saw Cata fresh and didn’t really leave WoW due to dissatisfaction. I’d started Vanillia when I was about 12 or so. Come the end of Wrath I was headed to college, had a job and other mounting responsibilities. I didn’t have as much time for it and just never bothered renewing my sub when it ran out without me even noticing for like a week.
But WoW’s a strange entity. In those intervening years I certainly thought about now and again. Less like a game and more like a town I’d moved away from with places and people I remembered fondly. I’d dabbled in other MMOs but they never held my attention for much longer than a couple of months. Old Republic springs to mind - I really enjoyed their classes and their BGs were excellently designed. But looking back I struggle to recall a specific zone or town.
That’s what I think brought me back to WoW eventually. It really did construct a world you can get lost in and feel connected to. And it’s sandbox nature really let’s you make your own fun with some creativity. My favorite bits of this expansion came less from the in game content and more just inventing our own. Having PVP skirmishes in old content is always fun - especially now that net guns are a thing. Capturing Westbrook Garrison and forcing our Alliance opposition to face us in that narrow gateway by putting net gunners on the towers was more entertaining than any Warfront.
And that’s something unique to WoW. There’s not been an other game where I can fly around the world, take a closer look at an old area and come up with something fun to do with other players there.
Teldrassil. Darnassus. The lore. Honestly it’s been the lore all along. I enjoy the gameplay mostly, but learning the stories in the game was what captured my attention and then working out how my character fit into those stories, even before I started RPing. But Teldrassil and Darnassus were so freakin’ beautiful and I love the kaldorei, I love their “How may I help?” and “What brings you here?” and “May the stars guide you,” and the fact that they worship a goddess and follow a High Priestess, and the balance, the dichotomy they embody that so many people have such a hard time grasping. That’s why I kept playing and why I keep playing.
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I started in Wrath. I liked all of the race choices and was a really bad altoholic for a long time. A funny story, I had the max number of toons on my account and kept deleting tons of them so I could level more. I’d eventually delete the toons I was leveling and ask Blizzard to restore all my toons constantly. They actually emailed me eventually saying I was the #1 person asking for restores all the time and told me if I didn’t stop they were going to temp ban me lol.
I loved the quests, the art, the races, classes, music. I was fully immersed in this game when I first started. I loved Azeroth.
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WC2 was one of the first PC games I ever played, and introduced me to the Starcraft and Diablo franchises. The medieval fantasy setting really captured my imagination, and the stories & characters that followed in BtDP, WC3, and the accompanying books only further cemented me as a fan.
Before WoW came along, I’d never played an MMO. I signed on to explore the world I’d only seen from particular points of view. I remember taking forever to get to 60, when Classic first launched, because I’d spend my time running to far and out of the way places. I was excited to see Outland and Northrend, and explore the places that the RTS games had taken me, as well as towns cities I’d both sacked and defended. As disappointing as WoD was (story & content wise), it was still awesome to see AU Draenor and the pre-fel Orcish clans.
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Another aspect I feel enriches WoW so much is it’s music. It really helps set the scene for so many zones. I feel like we forget about it because once you get used to them you tend to ignore or mute it.
But imagine how different seeing Orgrimmar for the first time without it’s thundering drums would’ve felt? Or Silvrrmoon’s proud trumpets, the Undercity’s ominous chanting etc.
Or WoW itself without this little number that probably set the stage for million’s of players first glimpse of Warcraft.
My earliest remembered experience with WoW itself(not Warcraft), was a moment. My uncle was riding through thousand needles, spires of stone on every side, hyenas and basilisks everywhere. I stopped and was enthralled, and then he leaves the canyons and up on his screen my newly gained reading skills see: “Shimmering Flats” appear on screen. As far as I could tell, an endless white plain, with dangerous wildlife and a ramshackle raceway in a forgotten corner of the world. That was when the desire to explore this wild, fascinating land took root in my 7 year old heart.
A few months later, and I’m on the character creation screen. I was FLOORED at the choices. “Those Elves are PURPLE! And their eyes glow silver!”. “You can actually PLAY as a zombie? Dude, cool but not for me”. Some of my thoughts before making my first toon.
But it was the Trolls that actually managed to grab my attention. Of all 8 OG races, this was the only one I had no real context for. They were the ones that actually had that “Foreign”, exotic feel that made we want to play one. Though to my shame, I really was quite put of by the 2004 female features when I was younger, so male troll mage was my choice att.
Truthfully, the aesthetic of Kalimdor and the Horde is what truthfully got me interested in this game. The ideals of the Horde and story didn’t become real priorities to me until…MoP, roughly speaking. I was…aware of some major story beats all throughout BC, Wrath, and Cata, but mostly I just played for fun.