the world inside world of warcraft

it was the end of january of this year, and i was bored. unemployed and bored. the weather was cold and wet, and since my daughter was in school for most of the day, i needed something to occupy my time. i have never been one of those people who can spend their entire day at a health club (not that i shouldn't, however), but always had a passion for video games. yes, i admit, since the age of 14 in 1979, while stealing quarters from my dad's change bucket and heading to the nearest pizza shop to play pac man, i have always loved video games.


i just chalk it up to the fact that i am a graphic designer, therefore i have a special appreciation for anything that's computer created.


fast forward to this century and with video games being everywhere—whether you play directly from your computer or a console—they have become the fastest-growing and most popular industry that we know of today.


now keep in mind, i have a mac. i love my mac. can't imagine my life without my mac, but if you're a video game junky like me, you soon realize that your options are unfortunately limited for this platform. sad, but true.


so by the time i exhausted my play of the first person shooter game, no one lives forever, i needed another outlet to enhance my appreciation for video games. but which one? it seems anything out there are army related (hate it), alien related (hate it), or worse, crime related—definitely hate it.


a virtual friend of mine who is also a graphic designer (thanks, nate) recommended world of warcraft—but he soon warned, it is very addicting. well, since on the average, i would play a video game for maybe an hour at the most, i figured i could handle it.


boy was i wrong, and he was right. ever since i started playing, i have been glued to my computer ever since. sad, but true. but it's not just playing the game itself that caught my attention, but the world within world of warcraft that piqued my interest overall.


i couldn't believe how detailed and expansive this world was. and i felt it was never-ending. even after 7 months of playing religiously everyday, i still have yet to visit every single area in the game.


since i'm mostly an alliance player (for those of you non-world of warcraft fans, i won't delve into what all of this means for the time being), i am not that familiar with the horde areas within the game. and since i have two level 80 characters and several more that i'm working on leveling, the alliance areas are mostly what i'm familiar with at the current time. however, since i recently created a horde blood elf paladin, hopefully i'll soon be leveling quickly in search of the unchartered horde territories that i now know.


in november of this year, blizzard (creators of world of warcraft) will be releasing a much-anticipated expansion called cataclysm. it's supposed to be their biggest expansion yet! i'm excited, yet bittersweet at the same time. most of the classic areas of world of warcraft—known as azeroth—will be completely altered. will it be for the best? i don't know. only time will tell. but for now, i wanted to capture as many screenshots as i could as a keepsake of what azeroth was like before cataclysm ruined it all.


so even though i discussed my love (a.k.a. addiction) of this game when i first started playing, and my night elf druid was my one and only character at the time, i wanted to give a much-needed update to my playing experience.


so please enjoy these screenshots that i have attached. i plan on making this a work in progress until november to try and capture most (most likely not all) of the azeroth areas. and now that i have a horde character, hopefully i can explore farther to give a much broader perspective of the game.


i will post more screenshots as i go along in the game.


enjoy!

my night elf druid, høneyryder - (level 80) - teldrassil

my night elf druid, høneyryder - (level 80) - darnassus

my night elf druid, høneyryder - (level 80) - moonglade

my draenei mage, kissysuzuki - (level 50) - bloodmyst isle

my blood elf, vesperlynd - (level 15) - silvermoon city

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - crystalsong forest

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - coldarra

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - star's rest in dragonblight

my night elf druid, høneyryder - (level 80) - zangarmarsh

my night elf druid, høneyryder - (level 80) - sporeggar

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - fizzlecrank's flight strip in borean tundra

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - the storm peaks

my draenei death knight, camillé - (level 80) - dragonblight