Being a WoW LoreNerd

I am an avid player of World of Warcraft.

Warcraft : Orcs and Humans was probably the first game I ever owned for a windows machine, and to this day it holds a special place in my heart. Warcraft II was the game of choice when I got to high school, and it was not uncommon for me to spend happy afternoons playing against friends in direct-connect sessions which would invariably be disconnected when one of our family members picked up the phone to make a call. When Warcraft III was announced I quite literally did a happy little dance around my college room and called every person I knew to tell them how thrilled I was. Finally, World of Warcraft was released and tempted me to break my personal ban on MMORPGs forever.

One of the reasons that I love WoW is because I've always felt like the Lore of that world was excellent. Even the first struggling steps of the Lore way back in WC:O&H was great compared to what was available for most other games. With each iteration of the franchise, the Lore has expanded and deepend and occasionally rewritten itself, and each time I found myself more and more committed. I bore my friends, family and even sometimes total strangers with esoteric details and analytical conversations about the Lore, and my knowledge and love of it is both a source of pride and of shame. It is my contention that the reason WoW is so popular compared to many other MMO games is that WoW is not, in fact, a game. WoW is a story and a world and a group of people that lives in the hearts and minds of it's creative team, and their love and dedication to the game world is what makes their players care about it. WoW is a labor of love, and that love shines through the mere mechanics of an online multiplayer game and involves even the most oblivious player on a deeper level then they realize.

More then ever I felt the need to have a seperate and unique location from my personal "Out-of-Game" thoughts about the Lore. I am a casual player of WoW (usually only weeknights, and even then I make an effort to be realistic and balanced in my approach to this hobby) and I think that allowing these discussions too much leverage in my life would be a mistake. So this blog is a place for me to dump my thoughts about WoW and then link them to friends, family, and sometimes total strangers to bore them without having to actually watch them nod off. Maybe someone who reads this will be interested or have their own comments, but even if that never happens I will be happy just to get my thoughts out on paper.