I'm curious to when was the first time you heard of WoW and when was the first time you heard of Warcraft in General. And if anyone has ever played the table top RPG of Warcraft from 2003 or the read any of the Warcraft novels from 2001.

My first experience with warcraft in general was back when Warcraft II was just released. I got it for my Power Mac 66 (the 66 stands for 66mhz, lol). From there I learned of Warcraft I which I only got to look at and saw the road builders.

My first time I heard of WoW was a bit after War3 as I was interested in the Warcraft genre (and Blizzard for that matter), saw there were going with a more RPG style game.  Then they announced how WoW was really going to be an MMO.

I never had the pleasure of playing the table top game nor read any of the novels.

i read about it in a gaming mag back in 02 (for memory)  i was much more enthralled by the Icewind Dale 2 review though.  WoW got a small little snippet in the news section along with a picture.  The game did not appeal to me at all and i remember thinking what an ugly game it was (so cartoony).

First time i played was Christmas a few years ago.  Saw it in the shops almost every day, heard all the hype and thought why not.

 First time I heard about Warcraft was in a gaming mag in 2001. then I kind off fell off the gaming wagon for few years. I came back in 2004 and one of the few games I played was Warcraft 3, I didn't realy like the RTS side of it that much but story and cinematics alone were enough to make me finish the single player and expansion.

After that I tryed to get into single player RPGs, I tryed Baldurs Gates, Vampire, few others but I could never get over controling multiple characters at once. I always wanted to be just one guy and do my thing, not having to pause and set spell ques and such. So I played FPSs for a year.

When I started thinking about RPGs again, I wanted to play something where I could be one guy and other people would control other party members in a huge world. Mind you, I didn't even know about MMORPGs back then. Not until I met a guy who was playing Final Fantasy and he told me all about the wonderful world of MMORPGs. 

I tokk it upon myself to explore the posibilities and I found out that there was Warcraft version of an MMORPG. All the reviews I found were extreemly positive and I decided, this was the game I wanted to play. Few month later I got broadband and the same monrh I bought the game. Rest is how they say history.

I bought the first Warcraft game around the mid 90's without knowing anything about it. Game was pretty good, bought the 2nd and 3rd. Probably played each of the games for only about a week each... was never really into it that much.

I was playing SWG before WoW came about. I went on test center to test the combat upgrade and I knew that it would ruin the game for me... WoW and EQ II were coming out. I chose WoW. Played it since launch off and on. Waiting for a decent mmo to come out....

No more stories? Very interesting to read these. I like to hear about the path people had to eventually get from one point to another. Thanks you three for sharing

Originally posted by spLagger

No more stories? Very interesting to read these. I like to hear about the path people had to eventually get from one point to another. Thanks you three for sharing

It depends how far you want to go back?:
 

Short: First video game I ever played was Crazy Climber (I think it was '77/78?), if you don't count Pong.

First home computer game was amazing... Star Raiders on the Atari Home computer back in 1980. It was better then Eve back then :))). Amazing what they could do on a 8K Byte Rom system.

---- RPG Games --- started even earlier.

As an old wargamer I wanted to feel like a commander, but as a Fantasy player you had much more power over your battles (magic, odd creatures etc). I would say this started back in 1976 for me with (almost forgot) Chainmail fantasy miniatures rules and Sword and Sorcery, Lord of the Ring wargame, Traveller (my first real RPG in space). The best experiences were with newbie friends and the D&D intro kits with CD Rom audio play in the late 80's. We had so much fun following it into Ad&D. Warhammer 90's followed.

----Computer Adventures/RPG/wargames--- Zork series, Ultima (no not on line) but the very first beginning series. Compared to RPG pen and paper a let down really.

The problems with computer games were mostly they ONLY had the fighting part, while worlds in Ad&D settings were so much more (Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun was a beauty...), Ravenloft.

The first in my opinion who broke with that was Baldur's Gate (to me anyway). Because I had such a bad feeling of Ultima, I skipped the online experience, I was very much more in the Close Combat on line series by then (CC1 is simply the best simulation game of small tactics WW2).

But deep inside I always wanted to be a Knight in shining armor living in a beautiful Ad&D world. So I started with EQ. The shopkeeper warned me it had a subs price. Almost put it back. But the package was too good to put it down. Here I was in a "real" world with other people. The shiny knight in a FR world or sort of... The rest (post 2002)  is history...

---Warcraft itself ----

Very odd, I HATED (and still do) RTS games. Simply because I came from CloseCombat1. An historical and VERY realistic  eagle viewed wargame. I hated C&C kind of games and I saw Warcraft 2,3 pure as utterly garbish in its RTS genre. The error I made was that I didn't even try them seriously (an error a lot of the Wow haters still make today). Now I know they are RTS games .. with a twist...

Then one day I was playing at the local WH TT club, the shopkeeper said he played THE game everyone else was taking about. I couldn't understand what was so special about it. I had already seen it all in EQ. Reluctantly I let them convince me. Played first on the US servers (although it was already 2005). After 5 days I knew it. It was simply the best "game" I played ... ever. So much better than EQ1, you actually ran into a living world instead of a limited version of a 3D computer game. Everthing just seems alive in Wow. I kept playing on the US servers for about 2 months (my characters still have to be there somehow), then was very frustrated I couldn't transfer my characters. Restarted on EU servers.

The most frustrating thing is that since then I tried dozens of computer games (not talking even of mmorpg's) and ... oh boy the difference is awesome. Off line RPG's? What's the use : you are the hero of an NPC patato world. Shooters? Pfff a 1 week time passing? Other MMO's? I never have that feeling of a living world. I see my avatar walking but I am not IN that world. Controlling my puppet yes, but I am NOT my character. In Wow I AM my character(s). Very very odd...

As a sidenote: in fantasy mmorpg's you still have to be convinced you are your character. Wow has that magic that lets you feel you are your character, despite of the cartoon graphics. I think it's the detail and (fighting) polish that makes it "other" than all the MMORPG's I tried. Even the Witcher or Oblivion had this little bit lack of "control" and being your avatar, altough their worlds were marvelous of course. The latest 3 years in MMO's were a real dissapointment (by far the biggest letdowns were D&D online (because of the raped Lore (a "City" to play Ad&D ???), AoC and War. it just keeps getting worse since LotrO.

The moment another game gives me that feeling I will support it like I defend Wow. But the other dozens I tried just fell (very) short of this feeling. I even gave up historical wargames, which is kind of sad now. The only thing that reminds me of my background is that I name my avatars after famous historical battles.....

PS: I will indeed skip SC2 :))).

Was that enough history line to you OP ? :)))))

first time i ever heard of warcraft was through orcs and humans

get really into the lore played WC3 wrote a couple of short novels even one over ashbringer (best one i wrote)

got into wow beta played through that met up with inner sanctum worked my way through the ranks made MT made high world rankings

relised where the game was leading me not only in warcraft life but RL too so jumped out when i could..never looked back but still look over my shoulder now and then..my love for the lore will never die ;)

short but sweet

thanks for reading

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Was that enough history line to you OP ? :)))))

Yes that was great =) Paints a beautiful picture

First time I heard of Warcraft was with the RTS but I didn't play as I preferred Age of Empires II & Empire Earth. and  Then I came across WoW about 2 years before it launched. I followed the development and liked the idea of it but didn't like the looks much. They took some getting used to.

I didn't play until a month or 2 after it went to retail in EU as i was neck-deep in Lineage II at the time. Some friends had subscribed and wouldn't shut up enthusing about it and brow-beating me to join them. So I gave in to peer pressure and went out and bought it. That was around April 2005. I've taken breaks from it like most but it's the longest time I've spent with any single MMO. The downside to starting late was that they had already chosen the serve and side so I was pretty much stuck with alliance when I really wanted to go horde.

It's weird cause i followed mmorpgs for many years previous and played Planetside, EVE and SWG the year before. I've been playing games since the late 80's and I've only ever played on the PC. However I never heard of WoW and I never heard of Blizzard until I saw on Fileplanet that there was a mmorpg beta and back then I used to try them all. I got into the game but I didn't like it at first because I had been in EQ2 beta and I prefered the gameplay in EQ2. However once EQ2 launched it died and suddenly the game turned to crap because the only thing that made it good was having a single packed out server where everyones grouping and talking.

I came upon WoW.... sheepishly in the dark. Queue drums!
 

Being a good Blizzard Fanboy, I bought WoW the day it released back in 2004.

It was and continues to be a great game, even if it's not so much for me anymore (I quit about halfway through TBC).  I'm very much looking forward to SC2 and Diablo III... D3 more than SC2 but SC2 will come out first ;)

coo. When did you first find out about Blizzard rast?

South park really put me into WoW even more

I tried it in 05 then quit then went back in 07 and loved it for some reason,it was hard to quest at first because of the zombie infection in 08 (which almost made me quit again) but south park pulled me all the way in :D

Now its the most enjoyable mmo i ever played.

warcraft 2, played along with dudes in lan parties and stuff back in the days ;)

and got up with world of warcraft beta later.

retired now.

I heard about Warcraft when my friends used to play it but I don't like RTS games so I  never played it.  I heard about WoW when some friends quit FFXI to play WoW. I ended up trying it played like the free month and went back to FFXI. They said it was so much better but I liked FFXI leaps and bounds better.  I guess maybe I didn't like WoW so much because I never played the original Warcraft game nor Diablo. WoW was my first Blizzard game.

When u know that every Blizzard product is a hit,and as most ppl knew the warcraft strategy series all that was left was a friend of mine that bought and me and some other friends saw it in his home.

So i thought to try it. After 4 y and a half almost im still playing wow it is getting tiring though due to Bliz's politic to stick with the youngest base of fans mood and choises..

What i mean is that is targeting always a group of age 12-20 which mostly doesnt actually demand many things as when u r 12 y old u have only played moo online and u get fucking impressed by wow.

Prob is that higher aged players that have seen great games are expecting more..brave moves from blizard which sadly blizard will never do since :

1.the sales/subs are going well and when they see in forums the demands from community are only like: nerf this ability ,or empower this skill of this class...They can only oblige to the demands of their clients which insteaad of demanding more serious changes and additions to the game they only demand minor changes to each class so they can pew pew more dmg ...lol

2.Lack of serious competition that would make blizz to think otherwise with a serious drop of subs,all praise aoc,ddo,Lotro,(DF ?) 's failures, which instead to do some serious products each one helped wow to get stronger instead of putting some serious competition to the market.

All in all wow after all these years should have taken more steps that where wotlk looks like today.

I heard about Warcraft 2 in 1996, people were talking about how clicking on the the unit what make them say funny thing
I didn't get to play it 1997 and didn't get to play it much, cause at the time I didn't have a PC.
I got a my PC 1998, and shortly there after Starcraft was released.
At first I didn't play it online until the xpac was released.... and played that online religiously, for 8 months, then stacked off.
I pick up Warcraft 3 when it came out... but it didn't quite hold my interest for long...
I didn't like the fact the hero classes were what more or less decided the outcome of the matches.
That kinda killed it for me.
 

I'm not sure when heard about WoW, but I know it was when I went to download a patch for Warcraft 3 off the main site...

I had already tryied EQ at that point... play that for all of 6 days before uninstalling it.
Then in 2004 I got FFXI... the group heavy aspect of that game slowly started to rub me the wrong way.
Finding a group was hard as hell, and usually by the time I did I had to log...
After 3 months I left FFXI, jaded and with utter hate for it... Hate for forced grouping...
Before WoW was release I decide it would the last MMO I try... If didn't like it, I would never play another, ever.
Well... I liked it enough to play it from most of it's retail life...
I looking to replace it, now, but I won't leave WoW with the utter hate, as I did for FFXI.

 

nice stories everyone. I really dig them. Anyone else care to share?

Went to a local cyber cafe in downtown out of bordem and played some Call of Duty 2. Some fat old guy ( ponytail included ) was playing some game I had never seen before. He looked at me and asked if I would watch to make sure he didn't die while he went and bought a drink. So I sat down and looked at the game for a few minutes saying... "What the hell is this and why am I not playing it?" I had never seen an MMO before that and it blew me away. He quickly rushed back at me yelling I was tying to get him killed. :/

Bought the game a few months later, played until a month after Wrath launch. Blizzard slaughtered their own game. Sad day... 

lol, short, but awesome story. Was that the first time you've heard of Warcraft in general?

i heard of it after it came out. for some months, i avoided the game. i was too busy with guild wars. around september of 2005, i became sick and tired of guild wars and decided to give wow a shot. it was a decision that i've regretted since. i now find myself wishing i hadn't opened the pandora's box of gaming.