https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/kak-world-of-warcraft-sdelala-iz-menya-cheloveka-nostalgicheskaya-istoriya-iz-2007-goda

Hey, do you want me to show you what WoW is?

On that day, my friends and I once again came to the local computer club to play “counter” and Warcraft III “for development.” However, after the first hour, our company unexpectedly quickly disintegrated: Mom called someone home, and someone simply lost their enthusiasm. One way or another, there were two of us with a friend left, and we could not decide what to do with ourselves – we did not want to join other people’s companies, and it makes little sense to enter singles from the club. At the computer next to me sat a guy about four years older, he non-stop throwing fireballs at dinosaurs. Despite the uniformity of his actions, I was hypnotized by this process. After some time, the guy saw that I almost buried my head in his monitor, and, instead of sending the stuck “trifle” to hell, offered to start the game myself. As you can imagine, that game was World of Warcraft. The guy registered an account for me – the password he created for me then, I still use on all accounts.

It was at that computer club that I first launched World of Warcraft, and my orc warlock took the first step in Azeroth. Taking each level was a small victory for me. I went to the computer club several more times – already alone, without friends – and in the end I got to the 11th level. A month later, for my birthday, they gave me a new computer, and with it a box of World of Warcraft, which I still keep. As many as five discs were intended to install the game, and the box art depicted a dwarf hunter and a beautiful elf. Then I realized that in the computer club I had clearly chosen the wrong faction, and I switched to the Alliance, which I faithfully serve to this day.

For the next year and a half, I played a little every evening (not counting weekends and vacations), after all, the time at the computer when you are in fifth grade is extremely limited. During this time, I never reached the maximum level – I liked creating new characters much more in order to evaluate all classes, run around the initial zones of other races and master different professions. However, that all changed in May 2006. Mom brought me a new issue of review Addiction, where on page 204 there was an article: “World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. The era of the sixties ”. In it, the author talked about the features of the first upcoming expansion in the history of WoW, the release of which was supposed to take place in early 2007. I re-read that material countless times, and the very title about “The era of the sixties” was imprinted in my head for life. Then I decided that it was time to conquer new heights and finally get to the maximum level. And it was in The Burning Crusade that my hour-long night out at the computer was replaced by a longer and more conscious gaming. Actually, then my really serious hobby for games began, which eventually led me to this industry.

I have learned to communicate with strangers

As a child, I was not a closed kid and I had enough good friends from school, so this is not the case when online communication has replaced real socialization. However, I lived in my own small and cozy world. I did not go to summer camps, but went to football, to the cinema or computer clubs exclusively with friends, so I had practically no experience of building communication with strangers.

At that time, social networks practically did not exist in my life, except for VKontakte, where I flirted with girls using fence posts on their walls. My world was limited to Moscow, or rather to one area, but with World of Warcraft the boundaries of this world expanded. Azeroth introduced me to dozens and hundreds of people from different countries, of different ages and different levels of upbringing. Moreover, the gaming world forced to interact and communicate with them.

If in the current World of Warcraft, if you wish, you can play as a single player (if you abandon conditional keys and raids and just go through the plot, locales, etc.), then in the original version even pumping without cooperation with other users was extremely problematic. Chat rooms in cities were always packed with messages: people bargained, asked questions, shared advice, discussed bosses, and looked for teammates.

At the time of the “classics” I was an absolute noob, that is, I had not thought about any bosses yet. My needs were much simpler – I needed gold to finally pump new skills for my elf robber of the ninth level, and at the same time fix artifacts. When the financial situation of my character became completely critical, I went on a race around Darnassus, looking for Russian-speaking high-level users from whom I could beg for a couple of gold coins. I could not count on a big catch (after all, not many people spent time in Darnassus), and most of the players tactfully refused me. But I remember one incident perfectly. I ran up to a level 60 gnome magician in cool gear, and he turned out to be Russian. Pictures have already appeared in my head, as I finally learn a new level of “Stab in the back” and “punish” all the mobs in the area. However, to my request for one gold dwarf, he answered with an angry tirade that people like me are Azeroth’s trash and that I am an idiot if I cannot earn money myself. I did not make a scandal with him, but the mood, of course, significantly deteriorated.

After 15 minutes sadness near the bank on the main square of Darnassus, I saw a level 60 warrior and decided that I would try my luck one last time. I started with my usual address: “Hello, are you Russian? Can you help a little? ” The warrior replied that he was Ukrainian. At that time, my knowledge of Ukraine was limited to greasy jokes from television programs. So, based on clear stereotypes, I already decided that I shouldn’t count on this guy. However, after a minute, the warrior added that he was ready to help. He not only gave me ten gold instead of one coin that I asked, but also gave 20 minutes advice on the future choice of talents, the sequence of passing locations for pumping and other things. I remember when my mother returned from work later, I ran to her to retell this incident, joyfully exclaiming: “Look, Ukrainians are the same as we are, today I met a warrior, and he is so cool …”.

After a while, I no longer needed to beg, although my robber did not advance much in leveling (she was only 16th level). I continued to swing in Darkshore, where I met an elf hunter on a mission. He turned out to be exactly the same noob like me, with the only difference that he was 28 and had a wife and a child. The age difference did not prevent us from then spending hours of fun together on Darkshore, periodically dying from large bears or a large pack of ghosts. And we discussed not only the game itself, but also something in common, I complained about six days of school, he about his job, we argued about football matches and so on.

Soon, Darkshore bored us, and I remembered that a warrior from Ukraine advised us to go to Redridge and Darkshire. However, getting there from Kalimdor was very, very difficult. After overcoming the sea on a ship, you found yourself in the Swamp, where the mobs were level 20-30, and they did not hesitate to walk right along the road, so it was impossible to go unnoticed. Another 40 minutes of net time would have been required to get to Stormwind in transit through Ironforge, and from there – to the cherished Redridge Mountains. My new friend also got the idea to make such an incredible race (all on foot, without a mount). However, we decided that the probability of successfully accomplishing this together would be lower than if only I went, because I had invisibility, which, of course, did not work very well against enemies 6-10 levels higher, but still left some chances , as well as the Sprint ability, which accelerates by 50% for 15 seconds.

My hunter friend equipped me on the way: he gave me some of his health potions, food, sewed spare pants and a breastplate so that I could replace the broken equipment after another death. And so I stepped on board the ship sailing to Bolotina, and then … there were more than two hours of running and constant death. However, it was fun because I was streaming my adventure live to the hunter. I talked about the large swarm of orcs camped in the mountains, the more evil murlocs, giant crocodiles, swamp monsters and dragons. When I finally got to Redridge Mountains and opened the flight point, my correspondence with him just exploded with a stream of messages. We were happy, as if we were talking about winning the Olympic Games. Later, I found a mage who helped teleport my friend to Stormwind, and we continued together to explore Redridge Mountains, and after him – Darkshire. A month later, a friend of mine wrote that he was finishing up with World of Warcraft, as it got very tight over time. He wished him luck in his studies and in conquering Azeroth, and only then we said goodbye to him.

Having finally acquired a mount and started going into dungeons, I joined my first guild. Its highest level member was a 57th level paladin, and everyone else was around 30-40th. Together we went to the dungeons, completed group quests, saved each other from the Horde gangsters and just chatted about life. At some point, we even created a guild group on VKontakte. We added each other as friends (one of the members of that guild is still on my friendlist), shared photos, someone posted their art, older guys organized meetings and even went to barbecue and cinema together. For me, such active socialization was something new and unusual. However, in World of Warcraft it happened so naturally that the usual tightness and constraint simply evaporated. I began to communicate absolutely openly and calmly with guys ten years older and even give compliments, albeit a little childish and naive, to girls who were good for me as very older sisters.

I started learning English

I’ll be honest right away that now my knowledge of English is very mediocre. I interviewed the same World of Warcraft developers six months ago with rehearsed questions (with a funny accent) and shaking knees. However, all that stock of knowledge that I still have was largely developed in WoW. At school, in English lessons, we more often discussed the teacher’s family life than the subject itself, so I did not have a special need and motivation to prepare for classes. But the original World of Warcraft gave this motivation.

Before I learned about the existence of the Questhelper add-on, which helps with finding the necessary targets for quests, and a crack, I was in Azeroth like a blind kitten. Sometimes there were cases when it took me almost an hour to complete one task. After all, first it was necessary to understand what they generally want from you, and then determine exactly where to move – in the original WoW, the developers often sent the gamer from one zone to another, and then go and figure out where that cave is hidden in which the one you need grows fly agaric. Therefore, my adventures were not complete without an English-Russian dictionary.

Every week my vocabulary increased, albeit filled with very specific vocabulary. For example, I perfectly knew many types of weapons in English, geographical terms, as well as a dozen varieties of expressions that can describe the infliction of physical harm on another person (or orc). The names of abilities, talents and equipment were the easiest to remember – they were constantly used and were in plain sight. So already in the fifth grade I knew phrases such as Cheap Shot and Slice and Dice. True, the teacher at school was not particularly inspired by my successes, and on the tests she already cut me to pieces in the most mean way. Next came the knowledge of mountain materials and types of fabrics. It may not be the most useful vocabulary for someone who knows little about English, but it’s better than nothing.

Complex quests proved to be much more effective for my learning English. The usual tasks like “collect ten fangs” and “kill 15 boars” are quite simple to understand – you just need to decide where to go. However, in the original WoW, especially when playing as the Alliance, there were more inventive quests. In them, sometimes it was necessary to perform a whole sequence of actions using auxiliary artifacts. Therefore, it was necessary to manually translate the entire text so as not to lose some important detail.

In addition to the fact that I studied English, exploring the world, language practice was also developed through communication. Even though I was able to find Russian-speaking friends and a guild on my server, I was still surrounded primarily by foreigners. Therefore, I had to quickly adapt to slang, which is ten times more in World of Warcraft than in Dota 2 and CS: GO combined. The battles in Arathi Basin taught how to quickly coordinate the actions of the team and give information about the movement of the opponent, and trips to the “Scarlet Monastery” – to discuss the tactics of killing bosses and argue over loot. In addition, the “classics” community was so vivid that often after completing a joint quest or dungeon, a dialogue with one of the teammates would start by itself. And being hidden behind the avatar of the character, I was not ashamed to make a mistake in grammar, so with interest in broken English I asked people about their countries. Yes, I never became an expert in a foreign language, but I got the necessary base, which can be attributed to the definition of Intermediate, in Azeroth.

I loved books

I have a master’s degree in journalism (and a red one) and my own mini-library. That is why now it is funny to remember that before I met World of Warcraft, I tried in every possible way to avoid any literature. In the first or second grade, I read quite actively, and then it seemed to me that I stopped liking it, and for the next three or four years I opened the book only under a stick. Well, or out of strong necessity.

The original World of Warcraft attracted me with its immensity – I liked just exploring the zones, finding unusual quests, hard-to-reach places, and so on. The Burning Crusade add-on changed everything – it breathed a plot into this universe and filled it with acting characters. Illidan, Maiev, Kael’thas and other heroes familiar from Warcraft III suddenly found themselves very close. I was not an expert on the lore of Azeroth, so I spent a long time trying to understand what was happening, studying all the descriptions of the tasks and listening to the dialogues.

It all started in Karazhan, my first raid in World of Warcraft. Friday, at 20:00, launched by Ventrilo and the readiness to show the guildmates all the combat power of my SHP (before the release of the addon, I changed the class and finally took the coveted 60th). And now we enter the domain of the great magician Medivh. For me, it was a completely new World of Warcraft, I was fascinated by literally everything – from the general atmosphere of a mysterious castle to direct battles with bosses, one of which takes place on the stage of a local theater, where I will take part in one of several plays. However, the most vivid memory of “Karazhan” for me, as, probably, for the majority, was chess – moreover, a real game, even if the figures in the form of warriors of the Alliance and Horde had several skills.

Closer to two o’clock in the morning, we finished the raid. Turning off my computer and finally going to bed, I could not sleep for a long time. I was not thinking about the progress of my character or the dropped clothes, but about the many tangled corridors of Karazhan, fluttering magic brooms, manasmees, chess pieces, the hell rider, ghosts and spiral staircases leading to more and more parts of this mysterious castle.

I regularly went to Karazhan week after week. And not for the sake of equipment, but precisely in order to touch again the history of the great Medivh, who became a madman. Мне хотелось получить еще больше информации о трагических событиях, случившихся в замке, и судьбе самого мага. И тут как в фильме — прогуливаясь с мамой по книжному магазину, я увидел полку с книгами по играм. Про Warcraft было три книги — мы купили их все. Одной из них оказался роман «Последний Страж», повествующий как раз о падении Медива и замке Каражан. Я проглотил эту книгу за два вечера. Сопоставляя события романа и свои подвиги в рейде, я приходил в восторг — пазл наконец собирался.

Через пару недель я отправился на море. Чтобы не отрываться от мира WoW совсем на эти 14 дней, с собой в дорогу я взял две оставшиеся книги — «Повелитель кланов» и «Месть орков». И вновь на страницах оживали локации, в которых я бывал, или персонажи, о которых я слышал. Все это вызывало бурный восторг, который еще сильнее затягивал меня в книгу. «Повелителя кланов» я даже перечитал дважды — с одной стороны, мне очень уж не нравилась Орда, с другой, невозможно было не сопереживать Траллу. Книга позволяла еще сильнее разгуляться фантазии, придумать свои сюжеты, смешать их с увиденным в игре, добавить в описанные события собственного персонажа и так далее. Дочитав во второй раз «Повелителя кланов», я решил первым же делом по приезде купить следующие книги.

Вернувшись в Москву, я обнаружил, что в ближайших магазинах есть только эти три романа. Но без книги я тогда не ушел. К тому моменту меня уже увлекала не только возможность поближе познакомиться с миром WoW, открыв его потаенные страницы, но и сам процесс чтения, погружения в собственные мысли, фантазии и последующая рефлексия (хотя этого слова я тогда, конечно, не знал). Я начал с фантастических романов, которые были бы близки миру Азерота, — так я познакомился с «Плоским миром» Терри Пратчетта, следом были Стругацкие, а потом понеслось…

Впоследствии я иногда возвращался к романам по World of Warcraft. Они были для меня неким приятным десертом в мире чтения, к которым всегда можно было обратиться как к чему-то родному. И когда у меня бывают книжные застои, когда кажется, что просто невозможно найти следующую подходящую книгу, и все как будто неинтересно, я беру один из романов по WoW и получаю искреннее удовольствие от каждой страницы.

Я понял, что такое ответственность

Когда ты становишься частью статика в гильдии, это, безусловно, учит тебя дисциплине. Ты заранее освобождаешь необходимые вечера для походов в рейды: улаживаешь все вопросы с родителями, заканчиваешь пораньше уроки и домашние обязательства, ужинаешь, после чего бежишь в игру, чтобы похожим образом подготовить и своего героя. Однако во времена The Burning Crusade мой персонаж знавал не так уж много рейдового контента — моя гильдия была заточена на PvP, сам я был, вероятно, не готов трайхардить по-серьезному, да к тому же представители моего класса были не в большом почете. Поэтому я ни разу так и не сразил Иллидана или Архимонда.

Но все изменилось с выходом Wrath of the Lich King. Мама в подарок заказала мне коллекционное издание, которое пришло в день релиза, так что вместе со всем миром я бросился покорять Борейскую тундру. В этот раз я четко для себя решил, что постараюсь по-серьезному заняться PvE-контентом. Мой прист из бойца переквалифицировался в лекаря и прочно занял место в статике на 25 человек. И тут мир для меня перевернулся. На ШП я обычно играл довольно расслабленно, не изучал заранее тактику, не всегда заботился о том, чтобы запастись химией, да и в выборе предметов был довольно неразборчив. В конце концов, что страшного случится, если из-за этого я один раз умру на боссе или нанесу чуть меньше урона?

Геймплей на лекаре стал для меня проверкой на стрессоустойчивость. В ожесточенных и затянутых сражениях у меня в прямом смысле потели ладони и тряслись коленки, а футболку после рейда можно было сразу закидывать в стирку. Я понимал, что любая моя ошибка могла привести к вайпу всего рейда. Мне пришлось изучать десятки гайдов, роликов на YouTube и постов на форумах, чтобы понять, как эффективно действовать в рейде, как поддерживать ману в затянувшихся драках (в ветке «Дисциплина» мне это тогда казалось невыполнимой миссией). Поэтому игра за хилера очень быстро начала превращаться в настоящую работу, к которой я готовился ответственно и основательно.

Кто-то может возразить — но разве школа не учит тому же? Не совсем. Любая контрольная или экзамен в школе — это всегда твоя личная ответственность, твои ошибки или неудачи отражаются только на тебе. Не подготовил пересказ — ну и ладно, в следующий раз расскажу на пять. В рейде от тебя зависят еще 24 человека, которые, как и ты, жертвуют своими силами и временем. Это дает понимание, что порой в жизни твоя лень и невнимательность могут ударить не только по тебе, но и по окружающим. В 13 лет, когда ты еще не работаешь и в комфорте живешь за счет мамы, это идея становится чем-то очень отрезвляющим. Причем в случае с WoW ты не можешь просто испариться, кинув всех в ЧС и замьютив, как это происходит в Dota 2 или CS:GO. Ты понимаешь, что подводишь людей, с которыми пусть и не лично, но знаком и поддерживаешь контакт.

Последнее, кстати, в том числе научило меня принимать свои ошибки и уметь извиняться, а не прятать голову в песок. Однажды мы начали осваивать рейд «Испытание крестоносца». Не без проблем и вайпов, но мы дошли до Ануб’арака. Нам понадобилось несколько попыток, чтобы все бойцы адаптировались ко второй фазе и перестали хоронить тиммейтов, подставляя их под настигающие шипы. За неудачными траями я не заметил, как время на часах перевалило за полночь. В тот день я мало спал и подошел к рейду уже несколько сонным, поэтому с каждой минутой глаза слипались все сильнее. Перед очередным траем босса, который по общему ощущению должен был стать успешным, лидер гильдии объявил пятиминутный перекур. Я снял наушники, задумался о чем-то вечном и… уснул. Следующие мое воспоминание — я отрываю голову от клавиатуры и вижу загрузочный экран WoW. Меня уже давно выкинуло с сервера, и я с непониманием взирал на летающую Синдрагосу рядом с графой «Имя аккаунта». На телефоне было семь пропущенных от одноклассника, который ходил с нами в рейд, а во «ВКонтакте» — пара десятков сообщений от тиммейтов. Как я узнал на следующие утро, моя гильдия в течение 40 минут пыталась разбудить меня: они пели песни в Ventrilo, закидывали меня сообщениями и даже звонили на телефон. Биться с Ануб’араком без меня они не стали, так что первый наш поход в «Испытание крестоносца» оказался провальным из-за заснувшего лекаря.

Признаюсь, на следующий день было крайне неловко даже заходить в игру — появлялись мысли придумать дешевые оправдания про проблемы с электричеством или светом. Однако я понимал, что действительно подвел людей, которые верили в меня и долго ждали, и единственным честным поступком по отношению к ним будет рассказать все как есть. В итоге я остался в гильдии и в составе статика, а эту историю мы до конца дополнения вспоминали со смехом (да и сейчас я люблю ее вспомнить и в сотый раз пересказать малознакомым людям в баре или на вечеринке).

В конце статьи не будет какого-то морализаторства или выводов — мол, посмотрите, как полезны видеоигры. В наших отношениях с WoW были взлеты и падения. Я несколько раз уходил из Азерота, обвиняя его в том, что он пожирает мое время, мешает отношениям с девушками, здоровому ночному сну и так далее. А где-то в 2011 году я окончательно хлопнул дверью и удалил игру (наш разрыв продлился более восьми лет). Однако чем старше я становился, тем с большей теплотой вспоминал время, проведенное в Азероте, особенно 2007 год. Я часто задумывался: если бы была возможность отмотать время и прожить тот период по-другому, обошел бы я стороной World of Warcraft? Ответ на этот вопрос — нет. World of Warcraft помогла формированию моей личности и от многого уберегла. Как минимум я благополучно пропустил стадию фанатизма по эмо-року и «Блейзеру» в подъездах. WoW не заменила мне друзей, родителей и другие увлечения, но она подарила мне множество чудесных моментов, которые спустя 15 лет я помню во всех подробностях и которые сделали меня тем, кем я стал.