My MMO History

I get nostalgic every now and then and look back at how I ended up here and playing WoW. I thought it would be fun to have a little walk through time with the characters I've had in the past and in past games. These are just the games I stuck with past the free trial month. There are others that didn't even get played much past character creation. These all hold a special place in my heart as characters I developed and enjoyed.

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Everquest
Emjia the Wood Elf Rogue

First MMO character I ever made. My brother was the one who was really into EQ. He was a big tough monk that was raiding and doing all sorts of neat things. My brother got myself, my sister and even my mother to play EQ. He never did play with us very often though as we were just noobs.

Emjia mostly sat in the wood elf city of Greater Faydark and worked on her alcohol tolerance. She would also get good practice on her safe fall skill by repeatedly falling from the tree house city.

She pretty much was the worst rogue ever. I didn't care too much about what weapons she had or armor she wore. I wanted it to look nice. This outfit in the picture my brother put on me because he thought the outfit I had purchased was too risqué for his sister to be wearing.

Emjia's favorite past time was exploring places she didn't belong with her druid friend Jayras. Jay was excellent for his spells to make us run faster and my sneaking was perfect for dragging our corpses out of really bad places.

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Dark Age of Camelot
Goldie the Celt Bard

DAoC was the game where I truly fell in love with the MMO genre. Again it was my brother who started playing the game and got me hooked. My mother preferred EQ and my sister pretty much had stopped MMO gaming by now. Here though I decided not to play even on my brother's server. I never saw him anyhow and I liked Hibernia and it's pretty green landscape the best.

Goldie was a much better bard than Emjia was a rogue that is for certain. Goldie did have a peculiar and irritating habit of striking up her lute to run away anytime things got even a little scary. She would always come back to resurrect your body though. In fact, she had such a skill at getting away her guildmates came to rely upon it.

It was in DAoC I forged many friendships that still last until this day. The group of people I ended up joining lived not far from me. We met in real life for the first time in 2002 and get together several times a year still to this day. In fact, I'm spending new year's eve with these folks this year. It was these friendships that really made me get what was so cool about MMO's. I was officially hooked.

It was also here that I met a large Firbolg Hero by the name of Jharod. You may know him better as Keste. How this man and I came to be together I am not certain. He was convinced I was a guy playing a girl toon due to my potty mouth. I felt strongly that he was a grumpy old man due to his impatience with my dumb games. Some how these prejudices faded away and we found love. He came up from Texas to visit me for the first time in 2002. Moved permanently to Michigan in 2003. We got married in 2006 and now we're expecting our first baby in May 2009. Isn't that just a sweet story!

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Star Wars Galaxies
Goldy Lhim the Twi'lek Entertainer

Star Wars Galaxies was a game that was a giant roleplayers sandbox. If you could imagine it, you could build it. This was the basis that Goldy flourished in during her time in SWG. The game itself was kind of bad. Today I consider the game unplayable with all the changes they've made. But way back when, this game was fun and really allowed me to use my imagination.

There weren't set classes you had to be, you built your own class. Goldy was a master dancer and a master doctor. She truly considered herself an entertainer more than a physician. Entertainer is not to be confused with call girl. Got it? I was a married Twi'lek!

Goldy built Lhim Entertainment and created numerous events for everyone on her server (or anyone wanting to come visit from other servers). Everything from simple parties to elaborate competitions. Some of my favorite hosted events were the talent shows, murder mystery dinner theater, beauty pageants, & great kauri race.

Goldy's name became synonymous with events and she quickly became a very popular person on the server. She would be hired by the Alliance Party to host balls or the Imperials to stage an event to cover their attack on Alliance bases. She was often requested to officiate wedding ceremonies, have a slumber party for a small group of friends or to host parties for a particular city. Holidays were big party times where Goldy would host costume parties or holiday parties complete with games and prizes. People would donate time, money and crafts for any event Goldy was wanting to host. It was really amazing.

Unfortunately this kind of fun could only last so long. The game went through several changes that were large and often would make my game time less enjoyable. In the end Keste and I left because it just wasn't the same game anymore and we weren't having fun.

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Final Fantasy Online XI
Mejia the Mithra Thief/Ninja

Admittedly we did not spend long in this game. I thought it great fun and loved the complex chains groups could build together with their special moves. Taru-taru were simply adorable and my character had a tail! I was much better at the rogue lifestyle this time around.

Apart from that this game was a very uphill grind to get anything done. Money was always tight and when we reached higher levels it got close to impossible to find a group because all the higher levels were Japanese players who've already had the game for a year. While not a horrible game, it just didn't fit our casual style and we gave it up.

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World of Warcraft
Goldy the Night Elf Druid

You may know Goldy better as Aratria, my recently outed secret druid. First character I made when we started playing WoW and first character to make it to level 60. I don't need to go on as to why we played (and still play) this game. If you're reading this you probably already understand.

We have quit WoW on and off throughout the years for different reasons. The first big reason being we hated the end game raiding. Keste's work schedule didn't work out well with myself and the guild. Just silly things like that. The last large break was due to the lure of LotRO which I simply had to try.

We're back now playing Desdarii and Keste and don't have any plans on leaving anytime in the foreseeable future. Besides I'm back to having a tail again!

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Lord of the Rings Online
Goldenstar the Hobbit Minstrel

The last of the MMO's we've tried in some time. I'm a big time Lord of the Rings nerd and simply had to give the game a try. I was apart of the early beta and Keste and I each purchased a copy of the game upon release. The idea of being a hobbit in Middle Earth was too great for me.

Goldenstar was a typical hobbit. She was named after a flower as females are and would never be caught with shoes on. I did any and all of the food achievements that would give me titles like "Goldenstar, Champion Pie Eater" simply to keep with my Hobbit roots.

The game itself was well done from a lore perspective. Exploring the Old Forest and hanging out at the Prancing Pony had all the little nooks and crannies you would expect if you've read the books as many times as I have. It may not be as immersive for those who just saw the movies but Keste said he too enjoyed the atmosphere the game created.

We gave up the game around Christmas time last year when we found real difficulty finding groups and active guilds to finish leveling. All higher end quests required groups to complete and we simply were having a bugger of a time getting any help. It was odd too since we were a tank/healer combo.

We decided to return to WoW and we had a lot of catching up to do since we had missed almost a year of the Burning Crusade expansion. We promised not to do that again for the Wrath so we didn't always feel so far behind!