First Steps

It is a very early Tuesday morning, the rain a heavy drum on my ceiling. I open World of Warcraft, apprehension and anxiety coursing through me. My friend sends me a text, advising me of the correct course of action to create my account -- he had been kind enough to install the game for me. It takes me about 10 minutes, if only because I keep re-checking things to make sure I have them right, but I’m finally at the part where I can create a character.

And I freak out!

What is the side I should choose? What creature type should I pick? What class is the best to use? All sorts of questions flew out of my mouth, and were translated into text as I messaged my friend for help. Encouraging me, he helped me create the character I would focus on, a blood elf priest. As I clicked the arrows to adjust her appearance, he told me about some of the spells that I will get to use. Healing and resurrecting were the ones I was really excited about.

As I click the finish button, he springs a surprise on me -- he created a blood elf character, too! As I appear on the steps of my starting point, he joins me with his character. Walking me through, step by step, I learn the basics. Simple things like walking, jumping, and using the basic spells I started with. Although his spells are different -- he created a hunter instead of a priest -- he had done his research so that he could help educate me in my baby steps.

As we embark on the first mission, killing mana worms, he’s shocked at how fast we’re gaining experience points! After only a few minutes, we’ve reached level 2 and are steadily moving to level 3. He is excited, which makes me excited, and we go around and complete another mission. I was scared when I suddenly died, but my panic attack was short-lived when he mentioned to me that I just needed to run back to where I died so that I could be resurrected.

After several hours of playing, I realize that it is time for me to get to bed, especially if I want to go to work awake later in the day. He imparts a few final words, as well as telling me how great I did, and I log out of the game.

And that was the first time I played World of Warcraft. Since then, I’ve played enough to level several characters and found other people who enjoy the game with the same passion I do. But I still find a few hours every week to spend specifically with my friend, and we reminisce about old times where I was still a newbie and we killed mana worms. Those are always the good times, and I have World of Warcraft to thank for it.

Thank you!