Post by choco on Jul 7, 2017 10:20:35 GMT 10
I was cleaning out the bookshelf in our study and was contemplating whether to throw out a heap of old software. There were some old games, like Max Payne, Hooligans, Thief, etc and then I saw my old WoW boxes. I had Vanilla, TBC and WotLK. The receipt on the vanilla version of WoW was dated June 2004. It's the version my son bought, and I reflected on the first time I played WoW. My son was having a LAN party with a few of his mates in his room, and I asked if I could hook in to what they were playing. They had a Cat5 cable running from the router/switch in the study to hook their PCs in. So Danny loaded WoW on to my PC in the study, and gave me some basic instructions, and off I went. I rolled a Priest, and after many frustrating attempts, finally got the hang of running around doing quests. But every time I ventured out of my hole someone would come along and beat me up. At the same time, a lot of giggling came out of Danny's room, and finally I twigged that he and his mates were waiting for me. Of course, I had no idea what PvP Server meant in those days, and so I gave it up as a bad joke.
I was working in the Software Development team at the AFP in Weston Creek as a Tech Writer, Trainer and Web Admin for the team. I was browsing through the team's Forum when I saw a thread, "Purple Monkey Dishwasher meet in Iron Forge." Curious, I opened the thread. It was a post that targeted the 10 or 12 or so WoW players in the IT department. A number of them had formed a Guild, Purple Monkey Dishwasher, and I was intrigued. I read through the posts and realised that I had played this game, and all these guys were really into it!
I went home and rolled another Priest on the Azjul'Nerub server and proceeded to level a Priest to level 10, which is the minimum level for the guys who played to meet up in Iron Forge for whatever they were doing. I wasn't going to say anything until I achieved that level! When I did, I couldn't wait to rush into work and announce my presence as "one of you guys."
I sidled over to the desk of a guy whose toon was Rashka, a warrior tank and asked if my Level 10 Priest could join in. I was so sad to learn that those posts I had read were very old, and all of them were Level 60s in a raiding guild called Oceania, which only allowed Level 40 toons minimum. The Purple Monkey Dishwasher guild had long ago been abandoned.
These guys were serious players!
Undeterred, I went home and leveled up my Priest. I joined a guild called Midnight Hour to level up, and my friends at work helped me out when I needed it. I especially needed Rashka to sit me down and tell me about Gear, Stats, Specs, etc etc etc. I was so embarrassingly naive. The quintessential NOOB! But I perservered, and got my toon to Level 50 and joined Oceania!
OH JOY! I quickly made it to Level 60, and TBC was released. There were still a dozen or so players in the AFP, I knew them all and was enjoying the ride. Rashka dragged me along for Kharazan attunement, and soon I was wiping regularly. I learned ho to heal on "Choco" like a Holy Priest should, and my bank toon was a Hunter called Poppachoc.
When we began our progression through Black Temple, the guild folded and I switched to Khaz realm with about 6 of my old AFP mates. We never really found anything that we liked, and eventually we ended up in various guilds. Then I stumbled upon another AFP player who was in a guild called War Machine. That was Vialdrain, a very competent Holy Priest. He convinced me, and a few others, to join WM and we did. There was me, Vialdrain, Edalicious (aka Rashka), Magefest and a few others. We worked our way through Kara, Black Temple, Gruul's Lair, Mag's Lair and others.
For one reason or another (I won't elaborate) myself and Vialdrain decided we wanted to do more serious raiding, and joined Naughty. It got too serious for me, and I spent my weekends raiding with War Machine as a PUG Healer. After trying a few other guilds, I went back to the original team and we formed Our Mighty Guild for Wrath. After doing OK for most of that expansion, the GM left, the guild folded I joined WM again on my Hunter for Cataclysm, and I'll never leave WM again!
I still keep in touch with many of the old AFP gang, but I am the only one left still playing. It's been a lot of fun, and as long as it stays that way, I'll keep playing.
I was working in the Software Development team at the AFP in Weston Creek as a Tech Writer, Trainer and Web Admin for the team. I was browsing through the team's Forum when I saw a thread, "Purple Monkey Dishwasher meet in Iron Forge." Curious, I opened the thread. It was a post that targeted the 10 or 12 or so WoW players in the IT department. A number of them had formed a Guild, Purple Monkey Dishwasher, and I was intrigued. I read through the posts and realised that I had played this game, and all these guys were really into it!
I went home and rolled another Priest on the Azjul'Nerub server and proceeded to level a Priest to level 10, which is the minimum level for the guys who played to meet up in Iron Forge for whatever they were doing. I wasn't going to say anything until I achieved that level! When I did, I couldn't wait to rush into work and announce my presence as "one of you guys."
I sidled over to the desk of a guy whose toon was Rashka, a warrior tank and asked if my Level 10 Priest could join in. I was so sad to learn that those posts I had read were very old, and all of them were Level 60s in a raiding guild called Oceania, which only allowed Level 40 toons minimum. The Purple Monkey Dishwasher guild had long ago been abandoned.
These guys were serious players!
Undeterred, I went home and leveled up my Priest. I joined a guild called Midnight Hour to level up, and my friends at work helped me out when I needed it. I especially needed Rashka to sit me down and tell me about Gear, Stats, Specs, etc etc etc. I was so embarrassingly naive. The quintessential NOOB! But I perservered, and got my toon to Level 50 and joined Oceania!
OH JOY! I quickly made it to Level 60, and TBC was released. There were still a dozen or so players in the AFP, I knew them all and was enjoying the ride. Rashka dragged me along for Kharazan attunement, and soon I was wiping regularly. I learned ho to heal on "Choco" like a Holy Priest should, and my bank toon was a Hunter called Poppachoc.
When we began our progression through Black Temple, the guild folded and I switched to Khaz realm with about 6 of my old AFP mates. We never really found anything that we liked, and eventually we ended up in various guilds. Then I stumbled upon another AFP player who was in a guild called War Machine. That was Vialdrain, a very competent Holy Priest. He convinced me, and a few others, to join WM and we did. There was me, Vialdrain, Edalicious (aka Rashka), Magefest and a few others. We worked our way through Kara, Black Temple, Gruul's Lair, Mag's Lair and others.
For one reason or another (I won't elaborate) myself and Vialdrain decided we wanted to do more serious raiding, and joined Naughty. It got too serious for me, and I spent my weekends raiding with War Machine as a PUG Healer. After trying a few other guilds, I went back to the original team and we formed Our Mighty Guild for Wrath. After doing OK for most of that expansion, the GM left, the guild folded I joined WM again on my Hunter for Cataclysm, and I'll never leave WM again!
I still keep in touch with many of the old AFP gang, but I am the only one left still playing. It's been a lot of fun, and as long as it stays that way, I'll keep playing.