World of Warcraft is more than just a game for many gamers. Azeroth has long become a piece of home – even for MeinMMO demon Cortyn.
Video games have a great influence on our daily lives – no gamer would deny that. After all, they are our favorite hobby. And the games are often the biggest time wasters beside work, the thing we spend most of our waking lives on.
But only a few games have had such a great impact on me as World of Warcraft did. It is time for a tribute to the game that has moved me more than any other game before it.
Note: The article originally dates back to 2017. We have updated it for Easter 2023.
A world known inside and out
If someone were to drag me out of bed at 4:00 AM, I could explain exactly how to navigate through the Blackrock Depths to reach the final boss as if it were second nature. I could still explain how to complete a tribute run in Stratholme and still know exactly which tent in Thunder Bluff to find the vendors I am looking for.
However, if someone were to ask me how exactly to get to the nearest savings bank, I would have to think for at least a moment about the directions.
I believe this is exactly why “Cataclysm” was a problem for many long-time players. The overhaul of the old world did WoW good and made the zones more sensible and exciting. But it was indeed a piece of home that was changed. People no longer knew exactly where everything was, and a few cherished memories began to fade.
It’s a bit like the old kitchen where you used to munch on your mother’s delicious pancakes after school for years. When the money was finally enough for a new kitchen, the pancakes were still just as delicious. But somehow the old flair was missing. And that the cutlery now lies in the second drawer from the left instead of the first, one will never really get used to.
WoW players: Loyal, foolish, and blind to mistakes?
Time and again, you hear that fans forgive too much after so many years of WoW. Some players are only still attached to WoW because they have gotten used to it. And to a certain extent, that is true.
However, that does not mean one loses sight of the mistakes. Because I know WoW so well, annoying bugs immediately stand out to me that I would not notice in other games.
One example? The face tentacles of female Draenei characters clipped into their bodies during a patch. I could be annoyed all day about how Blizzard could overlook such a bug. When I look at my character and see that the tentacles are now fused into the shoulder instead of resting lightly on the collarbone or swinging back and forth slightly while moving, it makes me sad. It’s such a small detail, and yet it suddenly wasn’t “my” Draenei anymore.
Yet, it is exactly this feeling that WoW still evokes after more than a decade that makes WoW special.
I can still get caught up in a hype when a new expansion is announced. And I can still grind my teeth when some feature has been cut or a mechanic is no fun.
The second home, Azeroth
No other game manages to pull me back in time and again. Then I return and sink into the world for a while even after not playing for half a year.
The 24-hour sessions in role-playing games, the great successes as a 40-person raid, the laughter on TeamSpeak when someone gets killed by the elevator boss again. All these memories stand on equal footing with “real” experiences, as they also came about with other people.
After all the time I have spent in World of Warcraft, and with all the friendships that developed over well over a decade first in WoW and then in the “real world,” I can only come to one conclusion: Azeroth has become a “second home” for me – one that is always accessible, even when the address in the real world changes.
All of this makes WoW more than just a game for me.
Have you also built such a bond with WoW or another game? Or are all games just a temporary diversion for you, in which you don’t really want to lose yourself?
