My Addiction to MMOs Part 1

This story is quite long so I want to break it into two parts just for the sake of ease. I will post the second part tomorrow.

Ever since I was a little boy, magical worlds with wizards, orcs, elves, ect always caught my attention. Before I had my own computer or internet access the only way I was able to access these worlds was through movies or television. Even when I had access to the internet, my father was a graphic artist, so we only had macs until I was 15, leaving me unable to play many PC games in those worlds. I remember for the longest time looking at websites drooling over gameplay screenshots wanting to play certain titles such as everquest.

Eventually there were a few browser based games I was able to play such as the first release of runescape and neopets, but at that point they lacked any sort of immersive world and werent enjoyable. I was a console gamer up to this point, but in 2004 one game changed that, World of Warcraft. Take in mind I still had macs at this time, so walking into the mac store and seeing an fantasy adventure game that was online and had stunning graphics at the time, was mind blowing. I basically told my dad I would do any chores he wanted me to do for months if he bought it for me. Ultimately he gave into my begging.

When I first logged on I was actually a bit confused, the layout wasnt similar to anything else I had ever played before and I was quite young. I didnt have the traditional experience with roleplaying games to this point so the attributes were mostly ignored. I would take what I could wear with the most armor, even if it was inferior to another piece I had. I was able to get another friend into the game and together we explored the world of Azeroth. Eventually I was able to get the hang of things and mastered my character and joined a guild that would end up being a huge event in my life.

By this time it was 2005, I had maxed out an undead rogue and was playing close to 8 hours a day. I would literally come home from school sit down and play until it was time to go to bed and do it all over again. With my guild I made friends that I would talk to, fight with, and gear up together, only bringing me deeper into the game. I dont think at the time I realized, but I was very addicted. All I thought about was WoW and everything I did outside of the game was dream about being back in it. Eventually I stopped hanging out with many real world friends and the ones that I still did hang out with were ones I convinced to play the game with me.

Eventually we all started raiding together (huge 25-40 man groups taking down bosses) and spending countless hours just to get a piece of epic gear. Ive spent weeks of real time attempting and killing bosses in single raids. I could sit there for hours without even standing up and the time would just melt away. Before I knew it 5 hours could have passed and to me it felt like no time at all. For all intents and purposes I lived inside the game during this time in my life. Even if I had 20 minutes to kill, I would walk around a main city talking to my friends in game. This carried me into highschool where I would ultimately see a big change with some of my real life friends leaving the game.

-Calaber24p