So this issue of TBT (err, Fallback Friday? yes, I’m late) is going to appeal to a much different group of folks. If you follow any of Blizzard’s games then you know this week they are celebrating World of Warcraft’s 12th anniversary. People who don’t follow the gaming industry are probably shocked that a game is still thriving after 12 years. The funny thing is, that’s really not all that inconceivable. Final Fantasy will be releasing their 15th iteration of their franchise which began back in 1987. So WoW is a youngster by comparison but, if you will allow me a small pun, WoW 12 years!
It’s not a secret to my gaming friends that I have been playing this game for a long time, however, I have not been playing the entire 12 years. Actually I didn’t start playing until about the fall of 2005 when a friend convinced me to give it a shot. The first character I ever created was a male Night Elf Hunter named Discretus. Around February of 2006 I took a break from WoW until about June of the same year. I discovered that several of my co-workers also played so I created a Human Paladin on Alleria named Anthonius. I still play that paladin to this day. I didn’t forget about Discretus, however, that toon isn’t a male Night Elf anymore. After a few server transfers and a “Bruce Jenner” transformation, that character has become a female Draenai.
Gaming Friends are Real Friends Too
Neither of my two original toons go by those specific names anymore, however my gaming friends still address me by the moniker “Anth”. So who are these gaming friends, you might ask. Yes, most of them I have never met in person, but physical location isn’t required to create and maintain friendships. In fact I believe I have covered that very concept before. We all live in different parts of the continent, with different jobs and believe different things. Be that as it may, World of Warcraft is now just one thing we all have in common.
We were all part of a guild for seven years. When the realm population became meager, most of us transferred to a new server, with a higher population. A couple of us still raid together on the same team in a new guild, but all of us still keep in touch. Social media, chat clients and Discord allow us to still chat with each other. So over the twelve years Blizzard has provided us all with something more than mere recreation. It has forged unforgettable friends.
/cheers