10 days of World of Warcraft from a complete newbie's perspective during the Burning Crusade

primesuspect

Six years ago I decided to embark on a weird adventure: I knew absolutely nothing about World of Warcraft, and I wanted to learn more. Quite a few people in my circles had been players and they spoke a language that sounded like moonspeak to me: Talking about raids, DPS, tanks, Lich Kings, Azeroths, and Orcs. I wanted to learn the lingo and so I downloaded a 10-day trial to totally immerse myself. I wrote about my experiences every night. The site has changed over the years and the links are hard to find so I've collected them here for new readers and for discussion.

I came into WoW six years ago with a very negative bias. I had lost friends to the game, and 2008 was the height of the WoW-shaming era (South Park: "Ma! Bathroom!", etc.) WoW still has a social stigma today (even amongst nerds) but it's not nearly as bad now as it was then. I have to admit, looking back, that I was being cynical as hell about the whole experience... and even despite that I fell in love with the game.

I stopped playing for several years, but recently picked it back up last year and I have no regrets. It's a tremendously fun game that a big group of us play several times a week. The Icrontic guild is growing, succeeding at various things, and having a blast. We would love to have more friends on-board.

If you've ever been curious about World of Warcraft, this is a great time to jump in. A big new expansion is coming in a few months, and this is a great time to level up, learn the game, and gear up with a very supportive, extremely helpful group of people for whom "there are no stupid questions". Just ask @mikquattro, for example. He was a total newbie two months ago and now he is progression raiding with the guild and having tons of fun with us. He's even coming to Expo

If you want to be invited, let me know! We're on Kel'Thuzad. There's even an Icrontic badge for it!

World of Warcraft Experience: Day 1
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 2
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 3
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 4
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 5
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 6
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 7
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 8
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 9
World of Warcraft Experience: Day 10