Five stories that show why the original "World of Warcraft" is so fascinating
16.9.2019
Translation: machine translated
Almost every WoW player gets nostalgic when it comes to the 15-year-old vanilla version. We're also of the "Do you remember? Back in the day?". Here are five anecdotes that have contributed to the fact that the memory of WoW still warms our hearts.
When active or former WoW players meet, it rarely takes long before sentences like: Remember back in the day? Back when that one blue sword dropped in that one instance? Or when the Horde and the Alliance fought for hours in front of Tarren's Mill. "World of Warcraft" may already be 15 years old, but the time back then remains unforgotten. That's why I asked digitec employees what their favourite memories from classic WoW are.
Philipp Rüegg: The animal whisperer
Nickname: Philard. Race: Taurean. Class: Hunter
A hunter is nothing without his pet. And my fat Tauren bull has always had an eye for special animal companions. Because not all pets are the same. There are some with a lot of armour, others with high resistances and others with high attack speed. The latter is the be-all and end-all for Damage Dealer. One day, when I heard about a beast that had an attack speed of an incredible 1.0, I realised: I have to tame this animal.
My search for clues led me to the Badlands. It was said that a majestic mountain lion was up to mischief here. Level: 47, name: Broken Tooth. I had already searched the internet for the places where it had been spotted. But even after searching the area several times, there was no sign of Broken Tooth. So I came back in the evening. And the next morning. And again in the evening. "Have any of you seen Broken Tooth? A rare mountain lion," I desperately asked the local chat for help. No answer. When I was about to give up, I discovered the corpse of a yellow-orange animal on the ground: Broken Tooth. He was here. But someone had beaten me to it.
It was another two days before Broken Tooth and I came face to face. I immediately set up an ice trap and lured the lion towards me with a well-aimed shot. In theory, taming an animal was quite simple back then. You click the "Tame" button, hearts fly through the air and when the loading bar is through, the pet is yours. Unfortunately, the animals do not watch helplessly, but attack you incessantly while you stand there helplessly. If you get stunned or die first, you're out of luck. And that's exactly what happened, of course. But it wasn't Broken Tooth that dealt me the fatal blow, but a stupid add, i.e. another opponent who happened to be walking past.
So I ran from the graveyard back to the corpse as fast as I could. In the hope that no player would interfere. I was lucky: Broken Tooth was still there. So it was the same game all over again. Ice trap, attack, tame. My life meter was almost at the end again when I remembered that I still had the Tauren ability "Stomp". A two-second stun. Not much, but it was just the tine on the scales I needed. Broken Tooth was mine.
Dario Milkovic: The little sorcerer and his mount
Nickname: Dematrius. Race: Human. Class: Sorcerer
Patience was one of the most important qualities to have as a "World of Warcraft" player back then. Especially when the daft Gakin from Stormwind sent you on the long journey to Takar in the Barrens. Well, a journey that you had to make anyway. The joy was all the greater at level 40 when I was finally able to buy my mount with my hard-earned 100 gold batzeli.
So my next destination was the logging camp of the eastern valley. There was a stable master there who sold mounts. I ran as fast as I've ever run (not even possible, as the character always runs the same speed) to Katie to buy the horse I'd been longing for. FINALLY, RIDING!
The joy didn't last long, however. Disillusionment followed at the class instructor's....
.. the mount for the sorcerer is free.
Yep, what I didn't realise at the time. Apart from the Paladin, the Sorcerer was the only class that could earn a unique and much cheaper mount through a series of quests. 100 gold for the tonne.
Michael Smith: 40 is the best time to fail
Nickname: Liam. Race: Night elf. Class: Warrior
I fondly remember 15 years ago when I entered Molten Core as a tank with the first European group. With over 40 people in the Ventrilo voice chat, we discussed for fifteen minutes how we could overcome the two gigantic Mountain Giants at the entrance. On my first attempt, I lost aggro within a few seconds and the raid was immediately crushed. Of course, we didn't give up, tried a new tactic and the second attempt was crowned with success.
After that, a Firelord stood in front of us and we started the fight without delay. Unexpectedly, small fire elements spawned next to the big one and confusion arose in the chat. One half shouted that we should kill the big one and then the small ones would disappear. The rest were convinced that the small ones had to be attacked first before the big one could be dealt with. The raid leader put his foot down and everyone focussed on the big one. A mistake. As soon as he was dead, the raid followed him into the afterlife shortly afterwards because the small fire elements did not vanish into thin air as expected.
We continued like this for several hours until we reached the first boss. When we failed there several times, an even nastier surprise came not much later: The previously defeated Trashmobs at the entrance to the instance were all back... Respawn. Fuck.
Although this may sound very tedious, it was the best gaming time I've ever had. Exploring new tactics with a group, investing a lot of time collecting new items and farming different potions to push the raid was an experience like I've never had again.
Stéphanie Quintana: Bambi dies twice
Nickname: Alequa. Race: Night elf. Class: Druid
One lasting experience was a starting quest for which I had to kill a deer. I was eleven years old at the time and had recently written about deer for a class assignment. That really got me back into Bambi fever. And when I then had to hunt a deer in WoW, it cost me a lot of tears and really traumatised me.
Luca Fontana: The Journey to Ashenvale
Nickname: Alodon. Race: Human. Class: Paladin
It must have been Christmas. My best friend and I were on holiday and were playing games late into the night. Once, we had plans. Travel plans. We really wanted to go to the territory of the night elves - to Ashenvale. Problem: it's in Kalimdor, at the arse end of the world. At least as seen from Elwynn Forest, our starting area. And we were barely above level 10, so we had a long, dangerous journey through the unknown ahead of us.
We travelled from Stormwind to Ironforge on the underground railway, then trudged through the eternal snow to Loch Modan - past the dam - through the marshes, then by boat to Theramore and off through a gloomy morass where spiders and crocodiles wreaked havoc. Level? I don't know, there were only skulls next to their character portraits. We'd been travelling for hours, without horses and repeatedly killed by NPCs of far too high a level. No matter. We had long since caught the adventure bug. We explored new worlds. It was far too exciting to turn back.
Then the wasteland, a seemingly endless plain. Worse still: horde territory. We deliberately moved off the beaten track so as not to attract the attention of any opposing faction members. To no avail. Tauren and orcs started hunting us. Adrenalin. It was the first time we had encountered enemy Horde characters. Fear. I can still hear my mate shouting on the Teamspeak server today: "Lauuuuuf!"
.
But we escaped. Somehow.
It was late, the moon was at its highest point. We finally entered Ashenvale. The most beautiful and magical place in all of Azeroth, with all its lovely musical sounds and forest noises. Without a horde breathing down our necks. We felt exhausted. But the harmony in this forest, the satisfied feeling of having arrived and having successfully completed a huge adventure - we were simply happy. So happy, in fact, that I still remember that trip like it was yesterday.
"Luca, I think I want to stay in this forest forever," I think I can still hear my buddy mumbling through the headset today.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
