I apologize for using the name of one of my favorite movies for the title of this article, but nothing captures my feelings better on the present subject. (Thanks Kevin Costner)

In 2001, I was introduced to First Person Shooter gaming with The UBI game series Ghost Recon. As that was 28 years ago, many of you were still in elementary school. Some perhaps not even born. In those days I was playing perhaps 8 to 10 hours a week for entertainment and the comradery of the modding community I was linked in to at the time. Much has changed in gaming over those near three decades. Today’s games are extremely fast paced and in this author’s opinion, over compensated. I can easily compare the online gaming community to today’s youth sporting events. You know, those games where every player gets an award for participation. In other words, you don’t have to earn it, simply show up. Case in point and the subject of this article, World of Warcraft.

In January of 2005, I began a journey in the online game World of Warcraft. What I quickly discovered was a massive community of people interacting in an incredible realm of gameplay. The closest I had ever been to such an online gathering was Joint Operations in 2004, and they were struggling to insure 100 people didn’t lag in a gaming session. That of course was still an incredible improvement over the 12 players that could play on a Ghost Recon or Raven Shield server. Like I said, much has changed.

Over the course of the next 14 years, I engaged this online world. Sometimes more than I should, sometimes divorcing it for a time, but always returning because of the love I had acquired for the experience. Yes, I said love. I loved the people I gamed with in my guild. I loved the never-ending struggle required to achieve goals that most players were chasing. I loved the fact that there was always something else to do, something else to take my mind off of my lackluster existence. I loved that once I obtained those goals I chased, I was elevated to a position of honor and recognition amongst my peers and rewarded for my effort by Blizzard. I loved that as a Protection Paladin, I was nearly untouchable in Ice Crown Raids. I was a king; nay I was a Demi-god, and I controlled my destiny.  A far cry from real life for this simpleton of a man.

Sometime later I started noticing players at my level that hadn’t the faintest clue how to play their character. Actually, they knew nothing about their race, let alone their abilities. It was shortly after that I discovered you could buy a character close to the max level currently in game play the moment you started playing the game. No effort, no journey, just buy and play. Though I played for several more years off and on, the relationship was never the same. I went on a year hiatus only returning to try the Battle for Azeroth expansion. I have no words for what has happened to the world I loved. In all honesty, I am surprised that it still exists.

There is hope for you, if you have even remotely experienced what I have with regards to this game. There are private servers available and today I entered Dark Zen Gaming’s World of Warcraft server which was recently re-established on this website. It is a little quiet at the moment, but I have played solo for a little more than 2 hours, and I have experienced some of the old feelings I had grown so fond of. So, if you see a level 15 protection paladin running around in Goldshire, be careful not to anger him. Rumor has it he is a Demi-god.

PharoahX