One thing about the summer is vacations. I am working at a school, so I really have a long summer-vacation. And this one has been busy. 2 weeks I was in South-Wales, and 2 weeks where spend on the Innovation-Guildmeet.
I missed a lot.
I missed a lot of the Malasian Airplane that went down over the Ukrain. Although some of that emotion did reach me, not as huge as it was in the Netherlands though. I also did not raid for 5 weeks (well, except one night). I was also not able to participate in Beta as much as I wanted. And now I am back, my blogroll is full of 10/10 things.
Alt:ernative over at
www.alternative-blog.net is asking players to fill in 10 questions for a series of podcasts. It is WoW's 10th anniversary soon, so this seemed a good time to do that, and here are my answers.
1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
There were two reasons I started playing World of Warcraft. I had started a new Job in januar which meant that instead of a 60+ hours/week working at irregular hours, I now only had to work 32 hours, on very regurlar hours. So I had some time left. Second, there where rumors of a Star Trek MMO:RPG coming, and I had hardly any experience with RPG's or MMO's, so in febraur 2007, in my first vacation working at a school, I started playing World of Warcraft try-out version.
2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
Mendak, Dwarf Hunter with his bear Ursa. I played this character in my first week of try-out, no idea what I was doing. But I did like the game, and after a week I bought it. At that point I also made my second character, a Blood Elf Tankadin named Gowron.
3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
I have no idea anymore why I started with Alliance. maybe the trailer I saw with the dwarf hunter in the snow influenced me. After a week playing, and doing some more research, I thought I would like the paladin class, and because I already did some Alliance, I opted for Horde, to see what was on the other side.
4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
This has me thinking. I have enough memories of won fights due to actions I did (wrong trinket on Hydross ; solohealing an ICC-boss), and enough memories of close bosskills. I could go for the moment I actually hit the wow-download button, but to be honest, I don't remember that. I think the most memorable moment in WoW, is when I really stepped into raiding Hardcore.
The fun part is, it was outside the game. I was at my friends house (Kemwer/Gunho) and we where both part of XII. Both of us where officers, and we where talking about the lack of focus and direction or something. At the end of the evening we decided on a radical step. I opened the calendar, and put a raid in on every day for the next month. At that moment, XII became a 'Hard-Core', as did I...
5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
Overcoming obstacles, and it really doesn't matter if that means killing that Elite-bird in Winterspring, doing some Black Prince related quest, or a Raidboss after 50 wipes. Just that feeling of 'I/We did this'. And with an obstacle I mean something that does not go down on the first tries, .
..through wiping, we learn.
6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
Thunderbluf would be my first instinct, but then..it has been a long time since I was there. I think this really depends on the expansion. There is not really a place where I would go to just do nothing.
7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
Since I started playing in februar 2007, I have never unsubbed. At this moment I don't even have to add time, it is all automatically, no mid-raid end-of-subscription moments for me.
According to Althoholic, my current time played of a characters still existing is 539 days, 10 hours and 56 minutes. Although during checking I removed at least 14 hours of gameplay, and I now I have deleted characters before... so my estimate would be upwards 560 days played at the moment.
Which, is a about 5 hours a day since I started playing.....
8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
Yes, I think. I am a fast reader, so I scan the text for big clues, and fill in the gaps of the story the first time around. My raiding character must reach max level... With the next few alts that pass the quests, I will read it more thoroughly, after that I skip it.
9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
Not really, considering where I am now, regretting something that happened, which may change where you are now feels a little strange. Your successes and your mistakes make you what you are today. The only thing I may regret, considering it would not change much, is disenchanting all old gear on my Paladin, because I could never use that again.. damn you Transmog.
10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
A lot. I am one of those people that will try no to plan anything on the raiding-evenings. I see it the same way when I was playing a sport. Three times a week I go to that sport, either to train, or to play a match. So I try to plan non-WoW stuff on the other four nights, does not always work, but most of my friends now that Su-Tu-Th is taken for me. And this is not even the biggest Impact WoW has on my life.
Somewhere during a guildmeet 2 years ago, I fell in love with Innovations Healing Lead.
So yeah... that has some effect on my life.
