What is your earliest World of Warcraft memory?

Whether you’ve been on the front lines of every battle on Azeroth for two decades or you’re not even as old as the game itself, everyone has their own first memory of playing World of Warcraft. Let’s open up the mental archives and try to recall those first impressions and earliest core memories.

I can remember sitting around with my friends in the summer of 2004 playing The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind on our laptops, followed by Guild Wars in the summer of 2005. When a friend suggested trying World of Warcraft in the fall of 2006, I can remember knowing enough about the game that I was willing to give it a try.

I can visualize my on-campus apartment, the desk I was at, and crossing my fingers that my 3-inch-thick Dell laptop wouldn’t explode after installing all four discs and attempting to launch the game. I know my first character was an Orc Warrior, but my very first definitive in-game memory was standing at the forge in Razor Hill trying to work out how to maximize my Blacksmithing returns (as if I was going to get rich from vendoring Copper Chain Pants for just under one silver each).

After about a week I connected with the friends that were already playing and found out that they were on a different server. Twenty minutes of research into what that even meant led me to creating a new character to play with them. This time I rolled a Gnome Mage (named after a hockey player, just like most of my characters since), who served as my main for the next three years.

The very first warm fuzzy Azeroth memory that comes to mind is exploring Dun Morogh. In the early days of World of Warcraft, it wasn’t unusual to have to run for several minutes at a time just to get to the part of the zone where the next set of quests were. I don’t remember anything specific, but I do remember thoroughly enjoying the vibe of the game. The frozen lake, snowy landscape, and peaceful music are where I’d put the “started falling in love with WoW” pin on my timeline.

I have plenty of other early memories playing World of Warcraft on that shaky laptop with that questionable internet in my first true apartment: leveling through the Redridge Mountains, running from packs of zombies in Duskwood while my guild talked about Karazhan attunement, and spending so long in Stranglethorn Vale that I earned voting rights in Booty Bay elections.

Maybe your origin story is less clear in your mind, but you have a distinct memory of an early time in your Hero of Azeroth career. I loved playing during Wrath of the Lich King, and I very fondly recall summer nights with storms rolling in and a few guildmates grinding Thrallmar reputation after our raid on Icecrown Citadel stalled out on Rotface.

So how far back do your memories go? Even if you’re a fairly new player, those first recollections can be just as unique and meaningful as someone who has been exploring Azeroth since the very beginning.