World of Warcraft Stories: The Spirit of Sharing

WoW Player Stories

November 15th by Lylirra

Throughout the years, World of Warcraft players have opened up their hearts to the community and shared with us their inspirational stories of romances found, friendships built , and hardships overcome.

With Pilgrim's Bounty just on the horizon, we've selected three uplifting stories to share, submitted for your reading pleasure. These are personal accounts from your fellow World of Warcraft enthusiasts that touch upon the importance of family, love, and laughter and remind us that there's so much in our lives for which we should be thankful.

A Family That Plays Together...

I am a 50-year-old grandmother living in Kentucky. I have two grown sons; my youngest lives in Florida and my oldest lives in Georgia with my grandson. My youngest and I have always been close -- he's the "mama's boy." My oldest and I, however, had not been very close for a very long time.

On a few occasions, either when I went to visit him or when he'd come to visit me, I observed my oldest son playing World of Warcraft. It looked interesting, so I'd ask questions.

In January 2010, he asked me if I'd like to learn to play. Since I'm on a fixed disability income, he said he'd pay for the games and the monthly fees. If I liked it, great. If not, then he could just cancel the account's subscription, no problem.

I was hooked immediately, but frustrated at trying to figure it all out. I know my son was wondering if I'd ever "get it," especially since it took me four hours just to get to level 10 -- and that was with the Recruit-A-Friend triple experience! (I'm surprised he didn't just close the account right then!)

Well, we finally got past all of that, thankfully. And, in the meantime, my oldest son and I have gotten to the point where we miss each other if one can't or isn't playing. At one point, his budget was extra tight and we had to stop playing. When we finally got back on, it felt like it had been forever. It felt great to finally "see" each other again and talk on Skype on a daily basis. The time frame that we didn't play? Less than two weeks -- 12 days, to be exact!

So, I just want to thank World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment for giving my son and I something in common and, as a result, bringing us closer.

---

Viktorija (Kentucky)
Achimi - Blackwing Lair

We All Have Our Moments

We've all had our embarrassing moments in World of Warcraft, whether they be from a misunderstanding or just a momentary lapse in brain activity. I thought of all the stories I've seen posted, it might be fun to make fun of myself and share a few of my most embarrassing moments in World of Warcraft.

My first embarrassing moment occurred one day as I was sitting at my computer healing in a random Heroic dungeon. I was eating Pringles while I was doing so, and we all know how, as your hand gets farther down the tube, it tends to get a little stuck and you have to pry the chips out of the bottom -- at least when you are eating them one-handed you do. I reached into the canister for another wonderful Pringle when the tank took an unexpected dip in his health. I scrambled to heal him, but unfortunately my hand had gotten wedged in the Pringles container and the entire group met a terrible end....

I blamed lag. >.>

My second embarrassing moment happened on my priest. I was roaming Dalaran and decided to go down the well to the Sewers. I was mounted on my bear and jumped into the well. Something odd happened, though, because instead of hitting the floor of the Sewers, I hit the floor of the well. With my Hearthstone on cooldown, I panicked. The Unstuck button wouldn't work, I couldn't jump up far enough to reach the portal -- nothing was working. People started to notice and were pointing and laughing at me.

I was Alliance then, and people from the Horde side would log onto their Alliance alts to tell me JUST how funny my situation was. I was so embarrassed! Eventually, a warlock grouped with me and two others and I was summoned out of the well. People actually clapped when I got out. >.<

But we've all had embarrassing moments, and I look back on mine now and laugh. You can't help when things go wrong sometimes and it's best to laugh at yourself because it's a very high possibility that others already are. ;)

---

Jenna (Pennsylvania)
Keryana - Wildhammer

Of Love and Family

World of Warcraft is a game where 30% is the appeal to me is the gameplay and the personal feeling of achievement, and 70% is all about the community and the friends you make. We all know that good feeling we get when we accomplish something amongst friends, rather than with a group of strangers who found you by spamming the trade chat looking for ANYBODY to help them out. It just isn't the same, am I right?

Finding friends on World of Warcraft is great. I've met friends there who I later met in real life and they're still solid friends even after three years -- even if some of them have stopped playing for whatever reason. We are still unbreakable friends, and we have World of Warcraft to thank for that.

I, however, found SO much more than a few friends.

I used to play on Hyjal as a night elf warrior. My friend, Ezekielx, used to ask me to help him out with quests a lot, and one day he asked if a friend of his could tag along. Of course, I said yes, and that's when Vytala came into my life. I helped her and Ezekielx MANY times after that, but I found Vytala to be a very interesting person.

We spoke and played together for almost a year, adding webcam, cell phone numbers, and email addresses along the way! I soon found myself falling in love with this woman and, as one thing led to another, I discovered that my feelings were whole-heartedly returned!

Before I knew what hit me, I was in the airport waiting for her... and there she was. On September 1 2007, I met the woman who would make me the happiest person on the planet. I lived in Denmark and she in Florida, and there were almost 4000 miles between us, but it made no difference to us. Soon, however, the ticket prices were piling up and Vytala decided that she wanted to come live with me. I was incredibly excited and we spent a wonderful year in my home country, running a very successful leveling/questing/PvP/casual raiding guild named Divine Oath (sucky name, we know! -.- We regretted it the moment we took it!)

Things changed, though, when she discovered she was pregnant! She decided to take a break from playing and wanted to go home to be with her mother. She hadn't been home for three years and missed it. (Hey, she travelled to a foreign country to be with me and I was more than ready to do the same for her.)

Today, we still live close to her wonderful mother in Oregon and we've been happily married for a year! We have a wonderful seven-month old daughter named Elena, who is growing faster than we can keep up.

Thank you, Blizzard Entertainment, for helping me find all that I hold so dear!

(I am Sapphirea/Sapherion/Sapphestis(A) *Darrowmere* Ecthelion(H) *Hyjal*, and I found love in World of Warcraft. My daughter is very thankful!)

---

Sapphirea - Darrowmere

Winter Veil Stories Wanted!

The coming of Greatfather Winter has long been celebrated as a time of change and rebirth. Blanketed in snow, the lands of Azeroth are able to replenish their strength and prepare for the re-awakening of Spring. The Feast of Winter Veil honors this spirit of renewal, encouraging generosity, charity, good cheer -- and good eatin'.

For our next edition of World of Warcraft Stories, we want to explore these themes with you and learn how they may have influenced your life. If you've been blessed by the tidings of Winter Veil and have your own heartwarming or humorous story to share, head over to our submission page. 'Tis the season, after all.