your 20s changed forever when this came out all the way to WotLK.

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RaphaelSolo@reddit

I started during Sunwell patch, was playing EverQuest before that. In comparison WoW was just too easy. But I was gifted server time so I switched over.

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Cubelock@reddit

I played it for... 16 years? All the way from the original game in 2004 to Legion, when I finally left permanently. I often put on classic wow music on Spotify while working. It feels like home.

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Started early in BC (in my mid 30's), although I dabbled on friends accounts in Vanilla, it just didn't hook me at the time. Quit at the end of Legion and haven't been back. WoTLK still has the fondest memories for me, mostly due to being unemployed for a large portion of the expansion (2008 financial crisis) My mid 20's to mid 30's were dominated by Diablo 1 and 2. Still play D3 and have been playing D4 a bit too as time allows, although I never plan to return to retail WoW, just don't have enough free time to play, nor is my current work schedule conducive to being able to raid with a guild on a regular basis. The Diablo games allow me to play on my schedule, which is fine.

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Sweet_Cable6571@reddit

That's a great idea....

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LongjumpingJaguar308@reddit

Stealing that music idea

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epired@reddit

Ditto

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Rbish82@reddit

Haha I do the same. Waiting to play classic+

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bluekillgore@reddit

I never got into it but ,fun fact, so many dudes in the army loved this game. So much they would spend their whole pass in training playing the game. Also knew a dude who had a smoking wife who was from Canada and guess where they met...... W.O.W.

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xt0rt@reddit

EverQuest was my entrance into the addictive genre of MMOs. Played it for many many years although I wasn't a super serious player. I miss it quite a bit, and have gone back to play many times, but it never has that initial spark like it did in the beginning. Another one of the genre I miss a lot is Star Wars Galaxies. Man what a fun game and awesome soundtrack!

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WhoStoleMyJacket@reddit

EverQuest was my jam too. EQ2 came out around the same time as WoW, and I stuck with Norrath and never ventured into Azeroth.

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jbenze@reddit

I couldn't get into EQ2 and I REALLY wanted to. I don't know why it never clicked for me.

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Lawndemon@reddit

Probably because it was terrible. I loved EQ but EQ2 was a huge miss.

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itsmejpt@reddit

EQ was the ish. Fond memories of the Greater Faydark and doing the run from Freeport to Qeynos. I'd spend whole nights just traveling.

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Hot-Parsley-6193@reddit

inc train zone

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MissKhary@reddit

I did Everquest too. Then went to WoW in 2004 when it launched and played that for several years. Also did Rift, Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2, that short lived Warhammer PVP one, and also we played D&D online and Lord of the Rings Online. Right now I'm doing the Monsters & Memories beta test, which is hugely like vanilla Everquest was way back when. It has been very nostalgic, hell levels and all.

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xt0rt@reddit

I got *every* MMO post EverQuest. DAoC, Shadowbane, LOTRO, ESO, EverQuest 2, WoW, SWG, City of Heroes (so good!) man I tried them *all*. I even went back and tried out UO, but couldn't get into it. One I never tried was Runescape. Honestly there are probably a few more that I'm forgetting lol. I was obsessed with the genre and looking for that next hit of wonder and adventure. ...oh yeah, Final Fantasy Online too! I'd still like to check that out again.

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MissKhary@reddit

Yeah I totally get that, I'm STILL like that and I'm almost 49. Rift was actually really good and I'm bummed that it didn't do better than it did, it deserved more attention than it got. Too bad the company that made it went under and got sold to some venture capital company.

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unicorn-beard@reddit

2002 - 2003 is a missing year in my life because of EQ, literally just played EQ, ate, slept, rinse & repeat for an entire year 😅 I wanted to play WoW soooo bad but knew I couldn't or buh buh real life

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collectinscreamshots@reddit

Ultima online for me. I played that for quite a while and bought a fair amount of gold off eBay to build some pretty sweet gear sets. I did get scammed out of an artifact once and lost another really expensive one because I forgot to insure it. Those were some tough experiences 😂

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nstruct@reddit

Same here, I went from UO to WoW. Those early days of UO were something special

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raff_riff@reddit

Got hooked on EQ for years after Legends of Kesmai on AOL went offline. Had a level 65 warrior, top armor and the warrior epic weapons (among the hardest to get). Main-tanking for my guild raids was some of the most fun I had growing up. The stakes were so high in MMOs back then because one screw up could result in a total wipe and 1-2 hours of recovery. Raids often took many hours and dozens of people to pull off, often for very few gains. EQ was so brutal and unforgiving in that sense. WoW was far more approachable, which I think helped its success. I eventually sold my toon and quit. These games are so insanely addictive.

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screamingcatfish@reddit

I loved Everquest! I met my spouse there!!!!

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jbenze@reddit

Same but I was a serious player. I really enjoyed it more than WoW overall but once EQ2 and WoW dropped, it wasn't the same.

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Longjumping_Phase902@reddit

I was playing WoW and FFXI same time 😭

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JaredUnzipped@reddit

I've played since Vanilla. If anyone wants to come adventure with me, I play on the Cenarion Circle server as Highlander. Come say hello!

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ThunderEcho100@reddit

What’s it like these days ?

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JaredUnzipped@reddit

Honestly, the world content is a lot easier. It's more geared towards casual play, which is fine by me. I don't have nearly as much time to play as I used to. The high-end competitive Mythic stuff is insanely difficult, though. I avoid that sort of content.

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ThunderEcho100@reddit

I can’t play 20+ hours per week but I do miss the difficulty of raiding with fun people. That is what I would be interested in if I played again.

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MoonlitBlossoms@reddit

Oh I played this so much.. for years, too. I still think about going back every so often. Started with The Realm, then UO, Dark Age of Camelot, WoW.. I definitely miss it some days.

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PlutoISaPlanet@reddit

The Realm. Not too many of us I don't think

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MoonlitBlossoms@reddit

That’s very true.. it wasn’t a hugely well known game.

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hecksor@reddit

Nothing comes close to capturing the magic that was DAoC, for me. Look up the menu music on YouTube for a nostalgia blast.

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KoreyYrvaI@reddit

Wow, yeah, The Realm. Loved that game and DAoC killed half a decade of my life, haha.

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Surprise_Donut@reddit

I beta tested wow the raiding crowd came over from everquest, which had an insanely cool raiding community we fed back to designers during beta and helped shaped this game

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Echterspieler@reddit

I played that for 15 minutes, got bored and never played it again. put the game box on the shelf. 15 years later I threw it in the trash.

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Kuroude7@reddit

And even a little bit into Cataclysm, yeah.

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thisbroadreadsbooks@reddit

Flashbacks to working the midnight launch at my store when I worked for GameStop. Lol I did play a little. But my ex and I both worked for GS at the time and it literally ruined our marriage, so, booo WoW! Haha

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Ploosse@reddit

I played from launch and stopped shortly after Cataclysm came out. WotLK was peak WoW. My friends and I had a small guild, so many great memories!

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Malkovtheclown@reddit

Same WotLK was the peak. Tried going back for pandas and pirates but it wasnt the same. It just felt like it ended up on rails.

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Sweet_Cable6571@reddit

We didn't even get to Mists.

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MapleLeafThief@reddit

Alliance on Burning Blade and played the same years. Remember being in awe of the Grand Marshalls back in Vanilla. Made a lot of great memories and friends.

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armchair_viking@reddit

I quit a little before that during wrath, but before icecrown came out. My guild exploded and I didn’t want to make all new friends to play with. I miss it sometimes, though. It was a lot of fun.

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whiskeytown79@reddit

Same. I could never get into Cataclysm. I made a Goblin and messed around for a bit but then lost interest. When Mists of Pandaria came out, I made a Pandaren, messed around for a bit, then lost interest. When Warlords of Draenor came out, I messed around with the garrison system for a bit, then lost interest. Legion was the first expansion that actually held my interest for a while. I liked the class-specific legendary item system, the class-specific secret areas in Dalaran, and the Suramar continent. Ended up playing this one for like six months before losing interest again. Then Battle for Azeroth was fun for a while again. This is where I spent a bunch of time doing Mythic+ progression with friends. It was nice to be able to do "end game" type content without needing a big guild. Even fielding 10 people for a 10-person raid was a challenge at this stage of our lives. Most of us had kids and other commitments. But I haven't dipped into Shadowlands or the Dragon one or whatever came next. I think I finally lost interest overall.

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wafair@reddit

Definitely. I played some through Panda, but only very casually after wotlk. Went back and did classic when it launched and it was a good time, but it’s just hard to find time to play

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viridiansoul@reddit

Same. I met my husband in 2011 and real life took priority, so I quit. I miss WoW and my guildmates on occasion.

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Sweet_Cable6571@reddit

Playing this now with my 9 year old daughter. My now husband and I played it all the way back in 2005 and we even ran our own guild. Those were the days. Raiding for hours on end (Onyxia's tail swipe!). I don't think they make games like this anymore (apart from Skyrim).

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rizkreddit@reddit

They did and now my 40s changing too with TBC anniversary!!! Although like all things this time around...there's a miasma of discontent in everything !

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Long-Strike9408@reddit

I played it when it first came out and hit level 60 before the first expansion. Thankfully that allowed the addiction wear off.

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SenorNeiltz@reddit

I was a huge DAoC fan. I could not really get into this or any other mmorpg. Saved some free time I guess.

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Ness_of_Onett@reddit

No king rules forever

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rosephoenix19@reddit

I actually played for several years from burning crusade all the way to warlords. I haven't played in many years but would love to get back into it.

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Sodamyte@reddit

I still play. I'm a "filthy casual" but make enough in game currency that I'm not using real world money to play.

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PlutoISaPlanet@reddit

I wasn't aware that was possible

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Sodamyte@reddit

Oh yes.. they now have "tokens" you can purchase on the auction house with enough gold and get 30 days of access.

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I_like_flowers_@reddit

yep, lost a college boyfriend to this game.

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Louie47253@reddit

My boyfriend and I played together. Then we got married. 😊 I was so sad when I had to quit because the new tiny human had to become my priority. 🙄😜

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Emotional_Site1786@reddit

A girl once lost me to this game. I really liked her too. 🤦‍♂️

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Ms_Rarity@reddit

Hit the job market after years as a WoW-playing SAHM. Could keyboard 92 WPM.

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LongjumpingJaguar308@reddit

I miss my first rogue. Lost her in a breakup, we shared an account.

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hvc101fc@reddit

Unfortunate (or fortunately?) for me it was , didnt have the rig to run it , internet was not up to speed, no money to subscribe. I always have an excuse to not play the game. When the starter edition came out, i was finally able to play it and.. huh.. i guess i was just overhyped. I just played the starter repeatedly with different races but never bothered to sub,

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RoundTheBend6@reddit

Never played it, but Warcraft II, the best game

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

Warcraft 2 was awesome, but when they launched battle.net and made Warcraft 2: battle.net edition, it made online multiplayer SO much easier. On the pre-battle.net edition, you'd have to coordinate the one friend who would create the server, and then call the other friends on the phone with the IP address and port. Then, you'd hang up the phone and start the server. If nobody joined after about 5 minutes, you knew something was up, and you'd have to wait until all of your friends were offline again to call them and figure out what went wrong.

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ThePerfectSnare@reddit

I thought so, but then they made Warcraft III. I played custom War3 games for *years* until Blizzard released Reforged, which made it impossible to play online anymore without buying their crappy new upgrade. At least I have more time now to pursue other... things... I guess...

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gzoont@reddit

Zug, zug.

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TaskmasterOfPuppets@reddit

Facts. Still have this box.

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Caspr510@reddit

Played EQ through Omens as an end-game hardcore raider. Then hopped onto WoW during the great exodus and did the same through Wrath. What’s amazing is that as hardcore as end-game raiding was in WoW it was complete ezmode compared to EQ. Have to say I sort of wish I never played though. As much as I have great memories of those times, it really stole YEARS of my life away that I wish I had spent doing other things. I did go back a few years ago (thanks, Covid) when they relaunched classic and played through Nax. It hit on a bunch of nostalgia and it was kind of fun but I started falling back into bad habits and decided I didn’t need to go through TBC all over again. The game has also changed, or at least the players, and absolutely not for the better.

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MissKhary@reddit

End game EQ raids were punishing, but I wouldn't say they were more complicated than Warcraft raids. As a healer anyways, much of the raid was just me clicking a macro button when my turn in the Complete Heal chain came up. The difficulty was in deciding what delay to put into the macro so that we had mana to last and the tanks didn't splat. Oh, and the magicians cranking out rods, and the necromancers pumping us with mana. Fun times.

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lmpcpedz@reddit

I never stopped playing wotlk lol

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SandSubstantial9427@reddit

Fuck that dude who ninjad my beast stalker boots.

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Dextropic@reddit

Yes... my "twenties" ![gif](giphy|H5C8CevNMbpBqNqFjl)

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ComprehensiveTour278@reddit

I worked at Gamestop, and NOTHING topped the WOW midnight launches. I worked the WotLK launch. I believe this is the one that crashed the credit card machines nationwide. It was wild.

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slothbuddy@reddit

This game legit destroyed my college career

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SCorpus89801@reddit

It tanked my law school grades for sure. I played for about 10 years before I finally quit for good after Mists of Pandaria.

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myuserhasafirstname@reddit

Sold my account for 1,400 bucks 7 days before Burning Crusades came out. Still one of my proudest moments. 😂

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mist_kaefer@reddit

I played it thru WotLK, then again when classic came out to WotLK. Both times with my wife, who pretty much sucks at video games but played anyway.

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Emotional_Site1786@reddit

The nostalgia I feel for 2006-2008 playing this game is ridiculous. Tichondrius Horde FTW!!

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caffeinatedscientist@reddit

There was a guy I had a huuuuge crush on in my college classes and he and his roommates taught me how to play Magic the Gathering. I instantly loved it and they’d invite me over often to keep learning/playing. Thought this was the perfect opportunity to flirt and let things grow between us, too. Maybe one day we’d make out!! And then WOW got released and that’s all they ever wanted to do. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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typically_wrong@reddit

If you dressed up as a night elf he was yours

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caffeinatedscientist@reddit

Hahaha I don’t know if that even would have worked at the time. 🤣

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armchair_viking@reddit

*night elf mowhawk

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Lord_Darlantan@reddit

Started in BC at 27 or so. Still going strong.

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TheGillos@reddit

As someone who got into MMORPGs in the '90s, I hate WoW. Not just because every time I tried it, it felt like a Playschool, chunky cartoon, console game for babies... Its massive success and popularity essentially killed the genre IMO. It sucked up all the air, and every MMO after it tried (and failed) to clone WoW.

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YouMeADD@reddit

Guild wars seemed to have it's own thing going on

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natecoin23@reddit

RIP DAoC, the GOAT

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hardFraughtBattle@reddit

FR. There are freeshards you can still play, but a relic raid with 20 players on a side (if you're lucky) just isn't the same.

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hecksor@reddit

I'm sitting here trying to remember why WoW never clicked with me and I think you've summed it up. I did end up gravitating towards DAoC for years of my young adult life though.

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Aware_Policy_9174@reddit

As someone who didn’t play any games (after early Nintendo) until WoW, I can see that. I liked WoW because it was accessible even in vanilla compared to other games. But it did hold a monopoly on the player base for MMORPGs in many ways. I really liked wild star but it just couldn’t compete when people had put so much time into one game. I don’t know if it was sunk cost fallacy or the actual cost of starting over but many people liked other games but then wouldn’t play them seriously because it was too hard to commit to two MMOs.

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TheGillos@reddit

Also, each MMO cost $15/month or so. So similar problem to all the streaming services today.

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Careless-Ad-6328@reddit

I still play the character I created on Launch Day :D He's now old enough to drink

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Battlescarred98@reddit

Me too! My shaman has over 750 days played

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Hammerhandle@reddit

Day 1 shamans unite! Mine only has 110 days played. I feel like such a rookie, but I've spent way more time on breaks than I have playing. I keep coming back though!

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Battlescarred98@reddit

Hell yeah! I only chose shaman because I was doing a caster/faseer strat in Warcraft 3.

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SteveEcks@reddit

I played Warcraft. Never got into WoW.

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hardFraughtBattle@reddit

I was playing Dark Age of Camelot when WoW came out and sucked away 60% of our players. DAoC never really recovered from that. Mythic getting bought by EA finished the job.

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MurrayGrande@reddit

I was a Dark Age of Camelot guy through and through

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KoreyYrvaI@reddit

Saaaame. Spent half a decade doing RvR and obsessing over pvp builds.

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MurrayGrande@reddit

I started playing right before getting an on-call 24/7 job. So DAoC was pretty much my entire social life for a number of years 🤣

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skeptoid79@reddit

Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, DAoC, and then WoW. EQ and EQ2 never managed to interest me beyond a free trial.

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ken830@reddit

Nope. I was busy with work. And Warcraft kind of turned me off because I was a C&C guy.

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ScroatusMalotus@reddit

I played for about six months. I enjoyed it, but when my then-girlfriend (now wife) heard me grumbling about having to go and pick flowers to get my herbalism skill up she said, "You *have* to do that? Doesn't that sound like work, rather than play?" A light bulb went off, and I never went back. I still remember my characters, though. It was fun while it lasted.

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skeptoid79@reddit

Played from vanilla not long after launch, through Cataclysm, but the Panda expansion was when it lost me. Tried Classic a few years ago, and then TurtleWOW around the same time, but the world and gameplay will never excite me the way they did in the 00's.

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RuncibleFoon@reddit

Never played it, like not even once.

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Moxie_Stardust@reddit

I was at a friend's house and he was on a raid or something and had to go to the bathroom, so he asked me to control his character and click the thing when it cooled down, so I played it for... 3 minutes? It did not seem appealing.

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nucl3ar0ne@reddit

Same fucking nerds /s

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RuncibleFoon@reddit

Oh, I played other mmo dork games. I played Finql Fantasy XI for a good while, and played Tibia for a good long while.

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nucl3ar0ne@reddit

Oh god, don't get me started on FFXI. I was waking up in the middle of the night if I knew the timer for an NM was up.

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RuncibleFoon@reddit

lol! Yeah, FFXI was a grind for sure.

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Great68@reddit

Same. I was never into online play of any game really.

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RuncibleFoon@reddit

I can feel ya on that, I don't really play video games to socialize.

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Kalle_79@reddit

Nope... Never even tried it. Never cared for the Warcraft universe or online gaming, so wow was among the least appealing games to me.

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Moxie_Stardust@reddit

There wasn't any way I was going to pay a subscription fee to play a game, so I never played WoW.

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HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea@reddit

I tried it. I really did. Tried many characters to see if I would enjoy one. The whole thing was just numbingly boring to me. Tried several MMORPGs after, none of them could hold my interest. Granted, part of that is that I just really dislike playing online with strangers, but it was just so boring even when I did. Was never my thing.

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djhyland@reddit

Yeah, I sold my goddamn *Unlimited Black Lotus* so I could buy a better computer to play WoW on. Not to mention falling out of running seriously for a number of years too in favor of virtually running around Azeroth.. I wish still I had my expensive cardboard crask and my racing speed: WoW was fun, but not worth either of those.

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Vegaprime@reddit

Kept getting my account stolen and gave up maybe 7 years in.

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Spartan04@reddit

Even though I was into video games and RPGs somehow I never got into MMOs. I think at the time I wasn’t into the idea of paying a subscription fee for a game. Kind of funny considering how many games, and just software in general, involve subscriptions now.

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HopelesslyHuman@reddit

You dodged a bullet. MMOs consume lives.

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Solintari@reddit

A bit, but I was already malformed by ffxi.

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Street_Breadfruit382@reddit

My people!

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Solintari@reddit

My Reddit username is the same as my character on cait sith I went for solinari from the dragonlance books, but it was taken so i went with solintari because he was a tarutaru. I think I may be a nerd.

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HopelesslyHuman@reddit

Ramyrez, first of Seraph, forced to migrate to Bismarck. I used the name because "Ramirez" was taken. I used the name because that's who I was on the Tolkien-based MUD I played before XI. And obviously stole the name from friggin' Highlander when I was 14. Nerd knows nerd.

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HopelesslyHuman@reddit

Two+ years of playtime from 2003-2016. Lots of good times. Lots of fucking drama. Friends made, friendships ended, friendships rekindled. MMOs are fucking wild.

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Mr_SunnyBones@reddit

I mean more 30s for me , but yeah.

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HopelesslyHuman@reddit

Played FFXI before this came out and continued to play for 13 years. Put over two years of play time in. Glad I finally kicked the habit.

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unicorn-beard@reddit

I got heavily into Everquest for a solid year and quitting it felt like heroin, every fiber of my being wanted to play WoW but knew I couldn't because it would just suck my life away. That addictive personality and such.

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Xander134@reddit

lol - How right you are… it consumed YEARS of my life and almost wrecked my first year of law school. That said, I remember the fun of raids, hearing new friends from across the continent on voice chat apps, and the simple joy of farming herbs while listening to music at 1am. Could the time have been spent more productively? Sure. But even now, more than 15 years later, I don’t think I’d trade any of that time.

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Quatapus@reddit

Leroy Jenkins!!!!!!!!!!

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wrel_@reddit

I'm still playing it; TBC Anniversary server. We raid Kara tonight at 8.

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SuperDoubleDecker@reddit

A love/hate relationship. I wasted like 6 years or my prime 20s. I had a lot of fun and met some cool people, but I should have been out living life and finding irl relationships. I wouldn't do it again.

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TheDukeofArgyll@reddit

So true

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Lowspark1013@reddit

This game blew my mind when it came out. I was in grad school then but held off buying for about a year until I was in the working world. Played from mid vanilla to late Cataclysm. Was in a nice social raid guild and had a pretty great time with it. I stopped playing when my first kid was on the way. Fast forward 10 years and I wanted to intro my son to WoW to satisfy his curiosity. We trialed and it didn't really take for him. But sucked me back in for a while. I had fun again playing some classic and some retail for a couple of years. Then I just got sick of it and stopped playing. After I was out of it again I was happy to have left it behind.

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Dmbeeson85@reddit

I quit the game when TBC came out because I was in one of the top rating guilds at the time and we had been working on knacks and then when we saw the proposed gear that came out, it completely wiped out all the work we had done over the last couple years together as a group and we thought it was such bullshit and such a betrayal that we pretty much as a guild decided to quit... Fast forward to today and I've been playing on tiwow for free but I've refused to give blizzard any more of my money for any of their games at this point

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jorts_are_awesome@reddit

Posts like this always remind what a weird microcosm Reddit can be. I know all of like 3 people in the real world that have ever played WoW. In Redditland experience with this game is near universal.

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Youasking@reddit

I still miss playing Warcraft II.

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PvtHudson093@reddit

Been playing the same Human Paladin I made on June 5th 2005.

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TenBear@reddit

Me and my work mates all played Star Wars Galaxies together and then we managed to get into the WoW beta together. It all changed after that.

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DarksunDaFirst@reddit

I never dipped into it even though Warcraft was one of my favorite series. I jumped into SWG and SWToR when they came out though.

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Demetan2016@reddit

The feelings.

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867-53-oh-nein@reddit

I played EQ which I loved. When wow came out I didn’t like it. gave it a try years later and got bored with the grind feeling.

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emerican@reddit

10 years for me, gaming has never been the same as that period (for me)

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GravyPainter@reddit

I only played like 50 hours a week... Cataclysm ruined it imo. I never looked back.

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Late-Arrival-8669@reddit

Oh this got me good. 2004-2012ish. Ozzy Osbourne, William Shatner (Im a shaman!), what wonderful days these were! (thank you OP!)

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imhereforthevotes@reddit

I picked this up just after leaving my fiancee. Mainlined it for a while (no raiding!) while finishing my Ph. D. (yeah, that was not good...). Somehow quit cold turkey. Later diagnosed with ADHD.

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wetfloor666@reddit

Hated WoW with a passion and still do. Give me Warcraft back. We got to 3 and it was heading in a great direction and then wham... no more proper Warcraft. We got this money siphoning game in its place instead.

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Reportersteven@reddit

![gif](giphy|1lOveNsm9zIE298Xhg|downsized)

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brainfreeze77@reddit

I played a little EQ then DAoC first. Started WoW in the middle of BC and played all the way to Cataclysm. Weirdly I only played with my IRL college friends and we basically never raided. Iwas the richest person on my server though.

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KoreyYrvaI@reddit

DAoC was my game, I never could get into WoW but I played DAoC for five years.

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blixxic@reddit

I met my husband playing WoW.

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BogOBones@reddit

Never played it. I did play a lot of City of Heroes in my 20s.

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KoreyYrvaI@reddit

Hell yeah, City of Heroes was a gem.

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DickBurns01@reddit

I never played until my son started playing

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Intelligent-Camera90@reddit

I put my time in - a few years in EQ (65 halfling ranger with Swiftwind and Earthcaller), played some EQ2, too many years helping run a raiding guild in WoW, then swapped to ESO and GW2, since I can be way more casual there. I recently logged back into WoW for the first time in 8 years or so - my legacy guild is there, but no one really plays anymore. I wandered around Stormwind a bit and then logged out and played GW2, where I don’t need to worry about killstealing, everyone shares loot, and and there’s no subscription.

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hjeff51@reddit

My 20s were only effected by this game due to neighbors LAN parties. I was still playing multi player Quake 1 at this point.

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IllustriousHistorian@reddit

Played vanilla and the next two expansions. I found the game to be boring.

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platypus_farmer42@reddit

I never played the MMORPG but I did play the original Warcraft a lot.

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pawogub@reddit

I stopped at Warcraft 3.

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PilotC150@reddit

My intro to MMORPGs was Star Wars Galaxies. I enjoyed it but didn't get obsessed. I played it with a friend for awhile. Once WoW came out my friend got obsessed with that. He ditched SWG and only played WoW. Then we finished college and a few months later moved in together (we had been friends for 12+ years by then). Ended up barely socializing because he spent all his spare time playing WoW. All evening during the week and pretty much non-stop all weekend. He tried to get me into it but I just didn't get any enjoyment out of it.

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TinyDogGuy@reddit

Ended with Pandas for me. WotLK was so fucking great…minus Archimonde fire trails and the orb clicking boss, that lag affected precision orb clicking lol

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don51181@reddit

I’m glad I did not play it because I probably would have been addicted. It was hard enough to not put to much time into console gaming.

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DarwinGoneWild@reddit

Pretty much. The idea of an MMO was wild to young me and my friends and I certainly had some amazing times with it.

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ZedArkadia@reddit

I loved WoW for a time, but eventually got tired of MMORPGs. I definitely had some good times with it. I tried going back to it a few times but I could never really get back into it. I actually started with AD&D Neverwinter Nights on AOL as my first MMO experience, and really got into Everquest. Dark Age of Camelot was my jam, though - I loved the realm vs. realm mechanic and the little quirks, like the lag stutter radar when another large group was close. I couldn't do that leveling treadmill today, though.

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Enge712@reddit

In th middle of writing my dissertation lighting hit the shitty house I was living in a fried my PC I played WoW on. I’m not superstitious but I gave my raiding guild all purples Druid to a friend and nevr played again. That was just prior to Cataclysm My anxiety made the grinding and raiding schedule feel like a second job at some point

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2099AD@reddit

I played WOW for a one-week free trial at the behest of my then-girlfriend, and then never again. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I was working and going to college, and I knew that if I got caught up in WOW, both of those would suffer. NOT playing eventually cost me that girlfriend, but, respectfully, she and I weren't a good couple we're better off apart.

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DigitalxDevilx@reddit

Also known as "The EverQuest Killer"

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cupcakesparklies@reddit

I played this for too long until they nerfed my SM/Ruin warlock. I quit and never looked back. Started playing FFXIV for a billion years after that.

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EmberDione@reddit

It changed my life for sure. I already knew I wanted to make games, and I definitely wanted to make WoW. It took 12 years but I got that job and made some fun stuff! (Sorry about Xal'atath.)

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Fun_Budget4463@reddit

The single most addictive substance I have ever laid my hands on.

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spaceporter@reddit

I still play WCII. I owned the "battle box" that came with WC, WCII and the WCII expansion. Warcraft II, Colonization, Civilization II, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sim City, Sim City 2000, Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer Red Alert, and Age of Empires were the games of my youth and I still play many of them today. In fact, I've played six of them in the last month.

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Atillion@reddit

Man, I remember epic days-long battles between Southshore and Tarren Mill, long before they implemented honor and pvp rankings. Just for nothing more than the fun of it.

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UbiquitousBot@reddit

I played seriously, I mean rated raiding, from vanilla until early cata. I come back for a few months every new expansion just to look around. When I married my husband in 2007, we logged in after our real reception to have a guild reception because those nerds were our second family at the time. That culture is long gone. We've been playing Midnight with our tween son, and guilda aren't the same. It's like herding cats. No one socializes and Ive got achievements older than some of the players.

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Esc1221@reddit

It came out right as I graduated university. My WoW addiction cost me about 8 years of my early career development. Good times. I managed to quit because of cataclysm. My life picked up at 30 where it should have been at 22, but I got it back on track.

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soclydeza84@reddit

I started in WotLK, burned out and left in MoP. Got curious and went back to play MoP classic last summer and picked up where I left off with a new char, played for months (obviously a lot less weekly time than when I was younger) and stopped for a bit a month or so ago after burning out again, I may go back soon. The game is still highly enjoyable (moreso than before in some ways) and still has that suck-in factor; the only downside is the social element isn't the same and it feels a lot lonelier to play these days, even though loads of people still play it.

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thundrlipz@reddit

I played until right before WotLK; gave my account to my brother who eventually traded it away. This was my paladins name lol

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edasto42@reddit

I was closer to 30 when this came out. And was full into owning and operating a small business and video games were not on my radar, at least home gaming ones that required a heavy time investment. But, I remember the OG game coming out in 94 during my senior year. The computer geek acquaintances lost their shit a little bit playing it.

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ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit

And then it changed my 30’s, too, when I went to work at Blizz. Wow has had an outsized impact on my life.

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frougle_mcdugal@reddit

More of an Oblivion guy, myself.

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MirthRock@reddit

Wrath is exactly when I stopped as well. Realized I was spending WAY too much time playing.

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Crans10@reddit

Then it came for your 40s with Classic.

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B4SSF4C3@reddit

Damn near derailed my life this game. Never touching MMOs since or again.

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xekari@reddit

Same.

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KamuiT@reddit

I played for about 10 - 11 years (MoP) until my daughter was born. I had promised my wife I would end my subscription when we had our daughter and I did. Very thankful that I did too.

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maximian@reddit

I know a free hit when I see one. DARE saved me from MMORPGS, if nothing else.

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lykouragh@reddit

Free???? This was all of my spending money in college :)

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doompines@reddit

I let that shit eat up about a decade of my life. I try not to think about it.

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Lcky22@reddit

I played with a guy for two years; imagined him as old and living far away. Randomly found out one day he was my age and lived nearby so we hung out a few times but didnt get along in person whatsoever. It was very disappointing.

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Comfortable-nerve78@reddit

Built my first computer to play this game. Wasted so much time playing this game. I quit playing when the first expansion was released. Horde all day. I was a lvl 60 troll mage with a deadly fireball. My final armor was black and my mount was a black raptor. I wish I had kept playing has been too long to jump back in at this point. Lolz. 😂

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FoppyRETURNS@reddit

[Live To Win](https://youtu.be/0SZpzdJlGz0?si=Kjv0XJEAkWYjbCXW)

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JustHugMeAndBeQuiet@reddit

You know what you say to someone who plays World of Warcraft and League of Legends? Wow, lol.

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jbenze@reddit

I was an Everquest guy until a few months before WotLK came out but WoW definitely took up a lot of time in my later 20s.

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ChumleyEX@reddit

I miss my mage.

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goykasi@reddit

I could never get onboard with having to pay a subscription to play a video game. My online gaming addiction stated during the qwctf days. A shareware or cracked version was good enough back then. For years, you could easily find warez or crackz for games. Paying regularly to play online? That made no sense.

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FreezingRobot@reddit

I played the shit out of this game up until shortly after the Burning Crusade release, when I got a girlfriend and she got pissed if I was spending hours playing video games. Years later, I was divorcing her around the time Cataclysm came out. It was nice to spend \~10 months running through the game and seeing the old locations again, but I was done once I maxed out a character. I played it for maybe 5 hours after watching the movie in 2016, but I was done with the game at that point.

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Loocha@reddit

I played launch until the launch of wotlk in 2008 or so. By that time real life started getting in the way so it had to go. I still think about playing it again, but I know I don’t have the attention span for things like that anymore because of the demands on my time.

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drwebb@reddit

I dunno if WoW is Xennial. EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot were my teen MMOs. I'm pretty young for a Xennial, the dudes playing WoW in their 20s were younger than me and definitely "loser" nerds. While I was doing grad school my undergrad flatmates were pulling 10+ hours per day in WoW.

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RogowskiCoil@reddit

I played started with Burning Crusade and through WotLK .. some of the most fun I've ever had playing video games.

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Unruly_Evil@reddit

I played from vanilla to Shadowlands... I only skipped Pandaria.

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Slayton5678@reddit

I started playing when William Shatner told me to.

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RemarkablePaper1798@reddit

I had already been playing UO and DAoC for years the time WoW appeared. This was around the time people started expecting voice chat participation. Not my thing.

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Cinderhazed15@reddit

Played from tail end of burning crusade to pandaria - was in semi-serious raid groups in WOTK and Catacylsm. It was fun starting out with some of the r word Vanilla features - main was a rogue, so gathering materials to craft poisons was a fun little crafting minigame, and you would ration your stronger poisons for group/difficult encounters.

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