Today I thought I'd do a bit of an off-blog topic storytime post. I was inspired by Stef Sanjati on YouTube, you can check her post here!
If you have been reading this blog a bit longer, you might know that I play one of the world's most popular and successful games, World of Warcraft. Hearing the name can stir mixed feelings in many people's hearts, I am really used to it. But still, although those who don't like the game, I will write this post. I have been playing the game for almost five (5) years now, so I believe now is the very best time to share my journey. Some may think five years is a short while, while other may read it as an eternity. For me, it's a time period of nothing wasted.
For this post, I will throughoutly go through my journey as a player in the Warcraft universe. It includes precise moments that I savour and will for all infinity savour, but also glimpses of my personal life off the keyboard - something I have never, ever talked about in this blog.
Don't worry, I'll leave the nastiest bits off, mainly focusing on my gaming experience instead of the circumstances, so you don't have to be too much concerned! After all, this is a feel-good blog, and so I will write just as much as I feel comfortable with.
So without further delay, let's begin!
The Most Beautiful of Nights - The Beginning of My Journey
The beginning of my journey... Oh, I remember it like it was just yesterday.
A few days prior to that night, my father told me he wanted to try out this new game, World of Warcraft, and asked if I wanted to try it, too. So after a few days of research, and a few hours of installation, the night was young and I could create my first character.
Back then, it must've been 2012, I was on the 6th year of primary school, on my way to secondary school. Even now, I cannot clearly write what was going on back then, it's still a mess in my brain.
I was lost in a maze of human relationships, as my friends treated me like I wouldn't really be their friend. They treated me like crap, because I was so lost in other video games - that of Super Mario, I can say without shame. I was so deep in the fandom of both Super Mario and South Park (yes, as funny as it sounds), my friends stopped caring. Not only caring for my silly obsessions, but also ceasing to care about me as a person. That made me severely depressed, which I already was when I couldn't escape reality full-time. I had school to attend to, and a life to be pretending I was okay. My parents had sought help for my constant emotional pain that I once or twice opened up about, but the help didn't come until spring or early summer.
The psychiatric help was too late - for all the luck in the world, I had already found my saviour.
Enter World of Warcraft.
Jumping back to the night of the very beginning, I sat at the desk of my old room, the dreamy stars shining outside in the black night, while I pondered which faction, which race, which class and of what name my very first character would be.
Ever since I had discovered Nintendo games, I was on the villains' side, simply because I thought they were far more interesting and epic than the 'good guys'. I had also already learned that the colour red was the enemy's colour, so I wanted to create a Horde character at first. Maybe a blood elf? The preview of the blood elf character and its background of gold and red made an amazing first impression on me. But my father said, "don't make a red-sider, I am on the blue." So I went over to the Alliance side, to search for races I didn't know from before. Humans and dwarves were not new to me, but night elves were another thing...
And the draenei.
My first character was a draenei. Her name became in just a few failed attempts to name the character. Her name was Morsokiller, the killer of the scariest children's show protagonist on Finnish television, Morso. And she was a mage. I had been in love with magic, wizards and sorcerers ever since I was little, I had always wanted magical powers that were found in my favourite fantasy books. So it was obvious my little Morsokiller would be a mage.
So the character was created, and I could enter the world... of Warcraft.
It was night. It wasn't as pitch black as it was outside in the real world, no; this night held a tranquil aura to it. It was also lighter than outside my window: a purple-turquoise glow emitted through the ebony trees, and around me were huge, pink crystals that enlightened the view with their occasional lightning across the night sky. I heard the sound of water coming from somewhere... Maybe from around this surface I was resting on.
I picked up my first quest. "Nevermind my injuries, sister. It's a miracle that any of us are alive!"
So began my journey, through exploring the Ammen Vale, in the Azuremyst Isles. Apparently the draenei had fled the demons of their home, and crash-landed on this world. Many had died. No longer did only the crystals radiate their peaceful light, my heart radiated grief for these people - though to my knowledge, fictional they be.
 |
| These "posters" are from almost five years ago! |
Over the days I did my quests as a draenei, not too many because the Murlocs had scared the crap out of me during the very first encounter. I created the silly blood elf I had wanted to create. Her name was Xaphira; red hair to display her fierce rogue skills. I fell in love with the glow of the Eversong Woods, autumn leaves decorating the golden trees, and the most beautiful architecture I had ever seen. The elves were an elegant but arrogant race, but I loved them, I loved Xaphira, nevertheless.
Around the time I had created my first night elf and human, I lost all my friends. Not to World of Warcraft, but because we grew up to face separate ways in life. And besides, I thought, I didn't need them. I had World of Warcraft. Because of severing the old, infected relationships, I quickly found new friends, my dear friends to this day. I also got the help my parents had sought, and my second psychiatrist after the one that left all of a sudden understood how just a beautiful game had helped me get through this darkness, though short but extremely tough.
Nothing of that could've happened without World of Warcraft. I wouldn't even be here.
I created my first gnome character, a girl mage named Lathoya. Afterwards came my first male character, a gnome warrior named Deathcoke (a nod to Coca Cola, to relieve your shock). I fell in love with the cute gnomes, both female and male. Then I went to the dwarf capital city of Ironforge and found a gnome vendor walking around the Great Forge.
And so I had my first serious fictional character crush. Sraaz, <Pie Vendor>, from Ironforge.
 |
| Sraaz ♥ |
The time was 2012, around the time Blizzard developed a new expansion for the game. The upcoming expanison was to be what we know as Mists of Pandaria. The version I played was Cataclysm, an expansion where all changed, a cataclysm raged over the world of Warcraft as seen in the trailer below. I didn't notice this change all, obviously - I had nothing earlier to compare it to.
Though She Be But Little - Through the Dark Portal
The last paragraph was valid up until my father introduced me to a private server (I had played the Starter Edition on retail/real WoW) called Feenix - my first private server, to my current favourite expansion, The Burning Crusade. My father told me it was a much older version of the Cataclysm I had been used to, but because I had been playing old Nintendo games through emulators and online sites for the past year, I didn't mind at all. In the trailer down below, you can see Illidan Stormrage during the last twenty (20) seconds of the cinematic, with his distinguished quote of "you are not prepared".
In other words, let me introduce you to a fictional crush I haven't, still to this day, gotten over.
Oh, Illidan.
My oldest youngest brother also got introduced to World of Warcraft, and through Feenix we could play together, my brother, my father, and I. My first characters were ones that I had fun with, while playing together with my family. We called it quality time, my family style. But my first independent character was a gnome mage, obvious as it was. Her name was Daphnya.
And she is still one of my all-time favourite characters I have ever created.
 |
| The little wanderer ♥ |
Through Daphnya I found new friends - online friends. I had many from around the world, some fun to quest with, some close and dear friends, but all that ended in heartbreak as they stopped playing. I had held it all inside for many, many years, and only recently have opened up about my second life as an online friend to other online friends. I was super scared my parents would be frightened and angry, and would ban my computer so that I couldn't be with my friends (my new friends from school are one year younger than what I am, and so they stayed for one more year in primary school).
I found three of my closest friends back then in World of Warcraft, and I got the nickname "Daph". I don't want to say names, but those friends were the first real and wonderful friends I had had in the longest time. We were friends for an extended period of time. I was an angry 13-year-old, who was bullied and discriminated in secondary school. I found World of Warcraft, both in its online friends and in itself, the only true thing in my life.
Now that I look back to the past, I see that none of the relations I made back then have lasted, yet. At this point, would I have chosen not to have online friends in this game, that would still disappear at some point?
Nope. It was worth it.
Unstable Reality, Stable Fantasy - The King's Rise and Fall, The Lair of the Fire Dragon, & A New World
I quickly filled the character slots on my account, and with only one realm available, I made several accounts. I did play with all of the characters on them, but my pure purpose why I had so many characters, was and still is for writing stories. I found my inner author because of World of Warcraft. I don't need to work too hard on getting ideas, they come to me while I play. To this day, I have more unfinished stories and even more unwritten plots and character biographies than I have acquaintances. Yet another thing to be grateful of, because of this game.
Next expansion I became absorbed in was Wrath of the Lich King. Believe me when I say that this expansion has literally made me cry. Many, many times. Because this was the expansion with the chilling epic cinematic that still sends shivers down my spine and tears to my eyes. Because of Arthas', the Lich King's, story, which made me sob myself to sleep every night back then. Because this was the last expansion I saw my three closest online friends. I faced my toughest 7th year experiences with WotLK by my side. It was still my escape.
When I went to 8th year, my friends from primary school found new contacts, and I was lost again without anybody. I played Cataclysm again through a private server, but because of Mists of Pandaria, the expansion I generally like the least, I lost my touch with the game. In fact, for a long time, I lost my touch with life. I'm not comfortable enough to tell you more, I am sorry.
Breathing the New Life - An Old Home
But then came the 9th year and the launch of Warlords of Draenor. The year was still tough at some points, but when I finally had collected all the expansions as private servers on my laptop, I was good to go. I tried out the very original of World of Warcraft as well, and fell in love with the nostalgia beaming like sunrays from the older expansions all the way to Cata and MoP. By my side came The Sims 3, but to be honest, World of Warcraft outnumbers The Sims, by far. To this day as well.
I gave rise to Symphonicats in summer 2014, around which time Kobain, my Wrath of the Lich King private server character that I played as a main character, was born. I created her in every expansion pack private server I owned, and finally, she is now part of the retail World of Warcraft, going on new adventures as the name Jíllìan. Now you know both the sides of my Google name - Daphnya Kobain!
During summer from 7th to 8th and 8th to 9th year, I also played a little bit of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. And I. Fell. In. Love.
Over and over again.
If it wasn't for the lore I learned from the strategy game, numerous plots to stories wouldn't have been born. Now, my creativity knows no limits, thanks to this massive, terrific fictional universe. I desperately want a time where I can fully absorb myself into that fantastic strategy game.
Now I have played all expansions, my current main one being the paid retail one, Warlords of Draenor, though I have never even visited the zones in Catacysm. I can't wait to go on such big adventures in the beautiful game, knowing there is more to come!
To be short:
World of Warcraft is one of the most popular computer games in history. But WoW and the whole Warcraft universe is not only a set of pixels and rapid mouse-clicking: it's so much more. It just has so much more to give.
World of Warcraft is an online game played of millions and millions of players. Millions. A million twinkling stars above the skies of Azeroth. So many people to meet, so many possibilities to meet them - either if you're Mr Raider or Mrs Roleplayer, or both or neither, you'll be sure to meet people there. And I mean a lot of them.
World of Warcraft is a roleplaying game, where characters, places, quests and items have each their own history and lore. It makes it way more interesting to play, but also, like the miracle works of the late Terry Pratchett, you always have room for your own fantasy. Form the lore, shape the history, make it your own. My creativity knows no limits; so should not yours.
World of Warcraft is connecting people through art, as the artwork by Blizzard Entertainment has and still inspires many young artists. You can draw your favourite lore characters or even your own characters; claim them to yourself by giving them your magic touch. You can read novels and books and even comics that are set in the Warcraft universe, or write and create your own. You can listen to the game's music, and you can then work it forward by trying to play it on an instrument. But you can always stick to just listening: researchers have found that listening to game music should make you focus more. And Blizz does some hella' good music.
In short, we members of the Warcraft universe are brought together by a common factor: to play the game. Either you're a lost soul, like I was, or you just like to try out new stuff, it doesn't matter. We all have our stories to tell and kegs to empty, so to speak. We are all part of a huge family, a wonderful community, and so much glory can be found in just one game, that is not only a game, but a life-changer and a life-saver. I have been proven it can be both.
And that, my dear friends, is my Warcraft Journey, or How World of Warcraft saved my life.
So now that we all wait for the next expansion, Legion, to be launched tomorrow, 30th of August, I want you all to give a minute of stillness and just be grateful of what you have. I don't know half of you who read my blog, but I still wish you'd do one final task after reading this post: give some thought, give some love to things that you now realise have changed or saved your life for the better. Just so you could get a good night's sleep. Tell me about your experiences in the comments, it would be absolutely delightful to hear your stories!
I want to thank you all so much for reading this, this post literally took me all day - I worked on this at school and now it's almost 10 o'clock in the evening! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, and I hope to hear from you soon!
Take care lovelies! I love you! ♥
See you!
