World of Warcraft Stories: Tidings of Winter Veil

Reason for the Season

World of Warcraft has always been a family thing for me. My younger brother and sister and my father all played a year before I did. At the time, I was living 300 miles from home, and it turned out that a subscription was cheaper than a phone to talk with them! We've had a blast playing together over the years.

Times changed, though, and my younger siblings moved in with me to go to college. As Christmas got closer, our budget seemed to get smaller. It's a tradition in our family to spend the Christmas season serving others, but we were stumped as to how to help anyone when we were just getting by ourselves.

That's when my brother -- Tooph, the dwarf warrior -- came up with a brilliant plan. To my sister's and my surprise and delight, we logged in to find Tooph dressed in a complete Winter's Veil outfit, handing out gold to new players as they appeared. Five, ten, sometimes fifty gold, and offering help with any quests they needed. He'd even gone to the barber shop to dye Tooph's beard from red to white. He looked like Father Christmas himself!

My sister and I had to get on board, and it wasn't long before Tooph was joined by a pair of (human and night elf) helpers. We spent our mornings farming gold and the rest of the day giving it to any new player we could find.

It was the most fun I've ever had at Christmas, and I'm currently farming as much as I can on both of my level 80s so they can to have plenty to give away this season. Hopefully, we're giving a little holiday cheer along with it.

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Yuukiko, Silverhand

An Unlikely Friendship

Just after moving to a new city to start grad school, I found out my entire program was online. I spent most of my time in my apartment working on school stuff and playing World of Warcraft in my spare time. One evening, playing as my Holy priest, I ran by a rogue in Hillsbrad who was about to die, so I paused to heal her before moving on. Just a few minutes later, as I was being overwhelmed by mobs of my own, that rogue leapt into the fray and saved me a corpse run. We decided to quest together for the rest of the night, which we continued to do for the next 40 levels. We did everything but run instances together, since she gets frustrated in those; however, I made sure to give her the good BoE items I found in them.

It turned out we lived only a couple hours apart, and we made a pact to meet for lunch upon hitting 70. About six to eight months later, we did indeed meet. I have gone to visit and stay weekends at her home many times since then and we always have a great time!

If not for this game, we would never have met, and the unlikely friendship between someone in their mid 20s and a grandmother would never have begun. We still enjoy questing together in addition to meeting in real life.

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Praela, Argent Dawn

Sometimes We All Get a Little Lost

One morning I woke up early to play World of Warcraft and I found a beautiful world waiting for me in-game! Holly wreaths had been hung and Greatfather Winter was in Ironforge with his presents. At one point while I was playing, I looked out the window in my room and saw snow on the ground, swirling and whirling white.

And that made me realize -- even if Winter Veil wasn’t a real holiday, I could still celebrate it with my family! (My mom is the only one who's refrained from playing World of Warcraft, so I only had to explain it to her.) So, I dressed up as my character, made some cookies, and poured two tall glasses of milk.

Then, I burst right into my parents' room and shouted “Happy Winter Veil!” They both sat upright in surprise, and that's when my mom caught sight of me. I was standing in the doorway with a Christmas hat on my head and some medieval-looking clothes, my arms full of cookies and milk.

She took one look at me and started laughing her head off! It was so contagious that we all started laughing. My brothers got up from bed, still dressed in their nightclothes, and gave us a confused look -- until they had to laugh, too. We all had a very happy Winter Veil!

Thanks, World of Warcraft, for reminding me of family in such an important way.

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Tabby (Colorado)
Seaspray, Emerald Dream