Community Blog Topic Results: How long have you been playing WoW?

I am not a social person – I like calm and quiet surroundings and I tend to not talk to people much – however, I am nowhere near as anti-social as I used to be, mostly because through the social aspect of WoW and raiding with my guild I have created a lot of my social skills. Without the friendly chatting and banter during raids and the casual conversations in guild chat, I don't know what I would be like today. Having that environment inWoW where there were people I could chat with and hang out with really helped my issues with socializing.

In all those years I played WoW, I finished high school, am about to wrap things up on university. SoonTM. Really. I promise. I met numerous people, both good and trolls. With some of those people We are still friends, even now when some of us moved to other games. We still stay in touch, play Chivalry, League of Legends or whatever the flavour of the month is.

I was in law school at that time. WoW released its first expansion and experienced WoW players are already raiding Black Temple. I was playing at an Internet Shop in Katipunan (iHooked) and was mindlessly levelling my Human Warlock when this little guy approached me and started to converse about playing WoW. He convinced me to transfer to Coilfang because there is a Filipino guild there. The little guy turned out to be Toto, the guild master of the biggest Filipino guild there (Katipunan). Since my Human Warlock was only level 30+ at that time, I decided to re-roll a new toon in Coilfang and the rebirth of Mangkepweng happened.

I still work for the company I did when I started, though these days it's in a completely different capacity. Most of the people I worked with who played as well when I started have moved on. One lives in North Carolina. One lived with him for a while and moved back to start playing again. Another is happier playing Final Fantasy 14 and Guild Wars 2 these days. I now have three children; the middle one was only a few months old and the youngest was still just a twinkle when I bought the game. Now our oldest has a level 80-something paladin and druid, the middle one just likes rolling orcs and making fun of them, and my youngest will watch over our shoulders and cheer. My partner let herself get talked into starting a toon "for something to do with me"... these days she's progression raiding with an amazing guild (9/14 SoO), while I sit in the background waving a little 'go team!' flag.

Warcraft has had a big impact on my life. I have met some really cool people online and even talked to some on vent and phone conversations. I have since started this here blog, which gets me to write on a regular basis. Something I wasn't doing. I still need to become more disciplined in my writing (because I do want to do it professionally at some point). I have written probably 500+ poems and 3 novels, which still remain unpublished. So this is nice to be able to blog about WoW and the occasional sports or entertainment topic.

Blizzard has created a world that I will never forget, and in many ways has defined who I am and who my friends are to this day. To many, this isn't just a game, it's a life experience. Talk to anyone who played from close to the beginning, and they'll all tell you that.

I started playing right after the gates of AQ opened. I bought WoW sort of as a Valentines Day joke for my partner who was looking for a new video game to play after getting bored with Diablo II. I had never seen an MMO before and watched him play for a good two weeks before he said: "Get Your Own Game!" Fast forward to today, we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary and we both have been playing WoW for most of our relationship.

I'm mostly the same guy was five years ago, with the same family, house, and job; that's not too surprising since I was 30 and married before I first set foot in Azeroth. I have, however, started and finished my Master's degree in that span, and learned to play the violin and piano reasonably well.

Dec 15 2004.

I had to wait a couple weeks after it launched because I was in a training class in the Army. Since that time I deployed to Iraq, got out of the Army, got my Bachelors degree, got a good job, got married and Im now looking into buying a house.

I dont raid like I used to back in the classic/TBC era, but WoW is still a part of my gaming life.

Well, it has been a very long, glorious ride. Started playing shortly after wow went live, way back when hunters (my first toon) used mana and arrows (or bullets), and when hunters had to tame a beast to teach that skill to their own pet. Lots has happened since then; lost a fiancé (wow geek-who taught me how to play), had three major car accidents, almost finished college, contracted pneumonia from a client, moved from Illinois (and the dreaded snow) to beautiful North Carolina (yeah, no snow); met a wonderful guy (another wow player), life is good.

Early May 2009. I've told the story here before-best friend wanted to do RAF, told me I just needed to stay long enough for her to get the mount, nothing more, since I had all too frequently asserted I wasn't going to play WoW since it consumed everyone I knew. Four and a half years later, she's taken several long breaks from the game while I became a progression raider and guild master.

To be fair, though, she got the mount.

WoW has helped pull me out of some tough spots in my life, has brought 2 of the most important people in my life to me, and has given me hours upon hours of solid entertainment.

I one day hope to meet Chris Metzen, Greg Street, and Mike Morhaime so that I can shake their hands and thank them for making such a wonderful game and more importantly an amazing story that has brought so much happiness to me and my family.