WoW and Me

While playing WAR today I started thinking about the days when I was into WoW and what I liked about those days. I guess, I sort of miss WoW.
World of Warcraft was my first MMO ever .Yes, call me a what you will, but I never even touched the Dark Age of Camelot or Everquest. The only reason I decided to give WoW a try was (and is) my love to Warcraft III. So I couldn't let go of the chance to play around in the beloved Warcraft universe, the thought of going to Ashenvale or Lordaeron just blew my mind. The fact that it was an MMO made it even more exciting.
The game wasn't perfect but it was good enough to fall in love with it. One should admit that when it comes to PvE, WoW is the best. The dungeons, even the first ones like the Wailing Caverns, had those moments when you had to say "woah, coool". And it got better and better as you progressed. The best locations by far (to my liking of course) were the Hillsbrad Foothills and the Hinterlands. Oh the happy hours spent there...grinding =). But it was all good until I had my "in love with Warcraft" level up. One thing that is pretty important to me is the way the environment is structured. Some people may complain about the "cartoony" graphics in WoW (which is not so bad imo). It actually is a prudent step to avoid massive lagging and it made the game more accessible to people who did not own a high-end PC. And the soundtrack...it is not diverse, the several types of locations had standartized music, but it fit them perfectly.
Now I realize that a major role in my enjoying the game was played by my guild "Azeroth" which later became "the Guardians of Wisdom".* I loved my guild and I liked playing with my friends, doing instances, or just chatting away. It really kept me interested in WoW- it was more than just leveling, it was the friends now. Gear wasn't such a big deal for some reason, we did everything we felt like as long as it was fun. WoW gives you the choice, you can go crafting or gathering herbs if you don't feel like PvE or PvP. Then Real Life had me quit the game for a while. I had to take the graduation exams and start thinking about my future. And WoW took to much time, and I needed a break from it anyway. After plowing through RL issues I finally had time to play WoW a bit. Not as much, but it was enough for me. I got a bit older and the fan-boy excitement was not as strong as it used to be. And there was a big difference from the old days now. I was on my own.
It's all fun while you are a happy little noob, but then comes the grind. The grind for everything - money, gear, levels, PvP. The expansions made thing worse. Blizzard took the easy way out: raising the level cap, introducing loads of new gear, which made everything you worked so hard on useless after the first few levels in Outland. It ruined the game. For me at least. I still wanted to move on, but the constant grind, the fact that I had to kill mobs which are extremely predictable and the lacking PvP did their thing. It was boring. And frustrating to say the least. People in WoW would kill for phat loot, it seems. So the point of the game is not killing Blackwing, Illidan or Arthas. No! It is getting that epic staff of pwning. So I quit again. I logged on a couple of days ago and tried to play a bit and got sick of it in a couple of hours.
Now when I think of WoW and actually start missing it, I realize that I am not missing the game. Oh no, I'm missing the good old days with my first guild running around Hillsbrad. The game itself , although polished, is not doing it's main task - making people (or rather me) have fun and relax after a hard week of working. Instead you have another job online and you have to make money there too, lots and lots of it. Otherwise you won't be able to buy the epic flying mount or whatever.
All this is said with my mind still on WAR. It will have an expansion one day; I hope that Mythic will not make it the way Blizzard did. Great games should not be ruined just because a company has to make money.

*A shoutout to Landriana and Sinnz, the people I had the most fun playing with.