Wow Nostalgia

How many of you have come across this funny feeling?

As I travel around Northrend, enjoying the spoils of war, LolCritting mobs with my shiny new abilities, enjoying the scenery, and the new plotline, my mind casts back to the early days of WOW.

The days when you had to compete in Redridge mountains for mobs because so many people were there, when groups of pleasant people were easily found, and everything seemed a bit… *sunnier*

I have played wow since the day it was released on that fateful day back in March 2005 (EU launch). I started my gaming career on an RP server with some friends from a gaming community that formed back in Star Wars Galaxies back in 03, as a Dwarf Hunter (then 8 levels later, my current main, a Human Mage.

My first impressions of Elwynn Forest were Awe. The huge trees, the detail of the woodlands, the buildings as I approached Goldshire, it was beautiful, and I HAD to explore everything! At least until I heard a confusing Murglurgle as I took a swim next to the skinners hut, and the panic that followed as some slimy green frog-thing made me into sandwich paste. (Yes, my first death was to a Murloc.)

From here as I learned, I moved onto Westfall, which was also awesome in its huge openness, and the big tower that lingered on the horizon, that I soon learned was Sentinel Hill. (Isn’t that in Sonic the Hedgehog?)

I don’t know why, but the more time I spend in Northrend, the more I want to go back and experience everything with a fresh perspective. Explore every nook and cranny, take my time and take in everything I can.

Then I think “What happens when I hit outland” The whole continent just seems like a big plot-hole to me. Progressing to Northrend after doing the likes of the Plaguelands makes perfect sense to me. Going to some foreign world of floaty rocks and giant mushrooms just does not seem like a proper progression.

Northrend seems a much darker experience, which I think is a good thing. Whilst Ozeroth (Old-Azeroth) seems personal and urgent as you go around helping out your faction in its start zones from whatever crippling demise is pending, Northrend is very much fantastic blend of storyline. Everything seems so much personal, and yet at the same time there is a world-wide sense of urgency. My only complaint is some zones seemed to take you out of this. Grizzly hills anyone? It seemed to break the continuity from Dragonblight until Icecrown where it seemed to carry on. This might be a fatigue thing where I went from an attitude of exploration and learning to one of “must catch up”.

One day I may go back to Elwynn forest, or perhaps Darkshore, get some friends to hook up with and enjoy the adventure of slowly leveling, running every instance, and learning all I can.

Whats your Nostalgia? What in your vast or limited experiences in WOW’s history really stirs those cockles?

-V