How'd you get started?

I posted this on my guild's forum's a couple months back, but it's still one of those fun things to think about.

Way back in the day my partner got pulled into WoW by virtue of living in a house where all his roommates played. It was a good way for them to bond and do something together that they all enjoyed. At the time we lived a few cities apart and really only had weekends together. But Sundays were football days (still are). So while I was sitting on the couch from 11 to 5:30 watching whatever CBS and FOX were collectively offering that day, he'd be sitting next to me WoWing away on his laptop.

Of course, during commercial breaks I'd lean over and watch what he was doing. I had no interest in playing myself--not because it didn't look fun, but because I swore up and down that I would never pay a monthly fee to play a game I already owned. I could understand paying a monthly fee for a persistent game, but then I believed I shouldn't have to pay $40 for the initial retail offering. Principle. You know. (Yeah, I was young and stupid.)

He kept trying to get me into the game. "Just try it. You'll like it," he said. I, of course, recognized this tactic from my D.A.R.E. days back in 3rd grade and stood my ground against addictive substances. "No," I'd say. But I'd still watch until the commercials were over and I could once again hide in the relative safety of manly athletic activity.

But he never relented in his assault and one day I finally cracked and gave in, secure in the knowledge that if I tried it and turned it away I would be safe from further pressure. This all occurred immediately upon the end of the afternoon game when my defenses were at their lowest. (That's what I told myself, anyway.)

So I took over his laptop and played around the character creation screen until I was set up with a brand new, shiny Tauren Hunter. Several hours later (with barely enough of a break to eat dinner) I still retained control of his laptop and had reached level 12. My D.A.R.E. officer would be disappointed.

I already realized I was going to continue to play this game. The only retail store still open at that hour was Walmart and so that's where I ended up. I used the self-checkout stand so that no one could see my shame, but I still felt every eye in the store watching me. Judging. I had principles, dammit. I wasn't supposed to play this game. And here I was, reneging.

There were many people I knew playing the game that I never wanted to have to worry about playing with and they all played Horde, so I had to abandon the Tauren (unarguably my favorite race) and find something Alliance side. My partner played a Hunter, so to keep things different I decided to forgo that as well. I ended up with a Human Warrior, Maarken.

Over the next couple weeks, I became very unenamored with that Warrior. I still didn't understand much about the game and I had a very "Final Fantasy" view of how a warrior should work: I should be able to take the hits all day long an keep rolling. Anyone who's played a warrior at low levels is laughing at that statement. Blizz's idea of low-level survivability difference between a warrior and, say, a mage is that a warrior can take 7 hits before dying instead of 5 and they'll only find themselves in unmanageable situations every 45 steps instead of every 20. (Despite this, I still think the first 15 levels are the most fun on any toon...now that I know what to expect.)

Add to this that I didn't really understand or enjoy the Rage mechanic and...yeah. Maarken was laid to rest in Westfall, somewhere around level 15.

20 minutes after that, Saniel awoke from the Emerald Dream to begin his defense of Azeroth. He's been going on ever since.

So what about you, readers? How did you get started? What was your first toon and if it wasn't your current main, when did that switch happen?


Incidentally, a few of you may have glanced at my character roster and noticed that Maarken isn't quite as dead as I left him. Apparently the Lich King saw more in him than I did...