Feburary 21st, 2006. That was the day I created my World of Warcraft account. Although the game is rated T for teen (ages 13+), I was only 11 years old. My parents did not know anything about the game; to them it was the same thing as buying me the most recent Dragon Ball Z Budokai game (which were awesome games!). We got home, I installed the 5 disks required to play the game (there was no online download yet), and proceeded to play. Meanwhile, my parents made a phone call to check in with my older brother who was in college at the time. He, being the nerd that he is, knew of the addictive dangers of World of Warcraft, and warned my parents accordingly. Boy was he right...
By the age of 18, I had been playing on and off (mostly on) for a long time. There was this dreaded in-game command you could type in called "/played." This command returned exactly how much time you've spent online. I learned to never type this command because I would cringe at the site of "286 days played." That's close to 7000 hours of playtime, or in other words, 11% of my teenage years. There's so much I could have done with that time: became a great musician, became a great athlete, or actually read a book. But no. Instead I had a top gear-score tank, killed The Lich King, triumphed in countless battlegrounds, and learned camaraderie and responsibility by leading my guild to countless victories. Doesn't sound too bad right? While many people look at being addicted to World of Warcraft like the worst thing in the world, I wanted to share my experience and some of the positive things I learned from it.
Responsibility
You don't miss raid time. If you miss raid time, you must notify an officer 24 hours prior to the raid so they can find a substitute. If you miss too many raids in a month, you're removed from the A team and replaced permanently. You have a responsibility to your guild to be there on time, and ready to raid. And I literally mean you have to be ready. There's about an hour of prep before each raid to make sure everything is perfect. You have to fix your gear, prepare feasts, prepare potions, and get upgrades on new gear so they are raid-ready. theres 24 other people depending on you, so you can't let them down. Once you're in the raid, you must be attentive, especially being the tank that I was. For those of you that do not know what a tank is, he is like the quarterback of the team (other players reading this are definitely going to disagree with that, but I'm biased). He takes all of the damage from the enemies while the rest of the team beats the crap out of them. The tank is in charge of making sure everything is attacking him, standing in the right position, and starting the fight at the right time. I was the first in combat, and the last one out of combat every time. If I died, everyone died. So yea, that's a lot of pressure for a 12 year old. And I'll admit, there were days I was the one being replaced or removed from a team for mistakes I made. Often, I did stuff like Leeroy Jenkins (video below). But it was all in good fun, and I really did learn important skills I carried with me through my college and professional life.
Work Hard to Achieve Your Goals
I remember when I was just learning what a tank was at the young age of 12. I was invited to a group to tank Hellfire Ramparts, a relatively easy dungeon. I proceeded to do the whole thing with a 2 handed axe (that gave agility) and in battle stance. For those of you who never played the game, that makes no sense to you, so let me explain. I had no shield and was not in defensive stance, so basically I was running into immediate death every time. I was quickly kicked out of that group. But I never gave up. Slowly but surely, I learned how to play the game. I made a lot of enemies and a few friends along the way. Eventually I perfected my art, and by 2013, I was one of the best tanks around. I never gave up on my goal of being an amazing tank, no matter how many people told me to quit.
Teamwork
As a guild, we faced many challenges as a whole. We never gave up, no matter how hard a boss battle may have seemed. There were nights where we literally made no progress at all, just failed over and over. But we learned from our mistakes, and together came up with a plan to do it next time. There was no single correct way to handle a certain battle. But there were plenty of wrong ways. We had to figure out, as a team, what 25 people had to do exactly in order to win. There was lots of debate, lots of disagreement, and lots of trial and error. But we always managed to succeed in the end. And yes, this is actually a video of my old guild winning one of our most epic battles (I can't believe I just found this video!).
Interacting with People
Yes, I learned how to interact with people by being seemingly anti-social and staring at a computer screen all day. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I swear its true. I was 13 years old and in one of the most professional guilds in the game. I had to go to the guild's website (I cannot find the website anymore unfortunately), and apply to be in the guild. Literally, there were interview questions you had to fill out asking about your age (I lied), what you did for a living (I lied), and how often you could play (I did not lie). Once I was in the guild, I said and did some stupid stuff. I remember I was not invited to a raid one night, and was labeled as an alternate. For the rest of the night, being the annoying kid I was, I messaged the guild over and over again, saying "don't mess up." I was quickly kicked from that guild... But I learned how to talk to groups of people, interact with people older than me, and eventually lead these people all whilst being their friend in a fun group environment. I have since learned to be a fun leader in whatever social setting I am in.
Today
I do not play World of Warcraft anymore (mostly Rocket League). But I do have fond childhood memories in the world of Azeroth. I will never forget my time in this fantasy world, and although I spent a large amount of my life in this game, I turned out okay.