My dear daughter,
I must have started playing World of Warcraft around 2006. I still have the official game box I ordered online from the USA. They were about to release the first major expansion, The Burning Crusade.
I played practically non stop till 2009. During those 2 and a half years I rarely played anything else.
I got home from work and went to play. In 2006 when the PCC (a criminal organization in Brazil) started attacking the streets, killing cops and burning buses, they released us earlier from work, and the minute I got home I went to play World of Warcraft. Let’s call it WoW for shorts henceforth.
I was already dating your mother and got her to play WoW. She didn’t play anything since her Master System’s Sonic, but she got to like some parts of WoW. I also got Marcelo to play WoW and he became even more hooked to it, only recently he got rid of his addiction.
I remember I was in a 5-man instance in Outland when I first got a character to level cap, which was 70 at the time. Soon after your mother called me to say she was going to get surgery to remove her appendix, so I quit and ran to the hospital.
At some point I was already studying for the public exams for State careers, and I used to think I was going to be the first judge in Brazil to have a WoW account. How naïve.
World of Warcraft presented us with a huge planet to explore (then it was two planets because you could go through the Dark Portal to Outland. The graphics were awesome, so was the gameplay. You could personalize your UI by downloading third party programs. I met lots of nice North American people; it was fun playing with them and becoming immersed in their culture. And the story built upon facts and characters we already knew and loved from the real time strategy Warcraft I, II and III games.
Leveling up your character(s) became the most important thing in the world, or doing raids or PvP events to get epic gear. Doing daily quests was almost like a religion. The game was often frustrating but we kept on playing. Your character was an extension of your life and his goals became your goals and replaced your real life goals.
I used to call your mother every night, and after that I was already sitting in front of the computer and playing WoW. I got late to several of our dates because I was playing WoW before leaving home.
It was endless. When you finally explored all areas and got all the gear you wanted, they would release new content and gear with slightly better numbers, or raise the level cap. You had to pay monthly and you did so eagerly. My main character was a Tauren warrior who was a tank most of the time. His name was Bronyaur, because of the Led Zeppelin song Bron-Y-Aur. He was quite popular on the server I played on. But I had dozens of characters, both in Horde and Alliance, across multiple servers.
I played it and followed its never-fulfilling goals till the frustrations built up and I finally woke to the reality that it was getting me nowhere. It was just a black hole for time and money. I finally managed to quit completely in 2009 after failing to acquire an important piece of gear for tanks in a Need before Greed roll after completing a raid for the 100th time. It was a close call, I think I had gotten a 93 and the off-tank (OT) got a 99, and that was it for me. It was for the best.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 