I’ve been playing WoW since The Burning Crusade and have mostly played a Holy Paladin since then. Over time, the game seemed to lose its luster more and more as expansions came and went, and there was nothing hugely involved with the community since Wrath of the Lich King and its infamous mammoth trains that would take place in Dalaran when, well, basically when people were bored. Tonight, however, something amazing happened. Something that gave meaning to the game again and basically brought us back full circle on a huge nostalgia trip.
It began on my server Emerald Dream, at about 7:30 PM server time, which is roughly the same as central time. I was flying into Dalaran after completing a dungeon for the Wrath of the Lich King, monthly time-walking event. Timewalking is essentially doing old dungeons and such at the same level as you were during the time that those dungeons were relevant. You get a bunch of goodies for doing them which include a few cool exclusive mounts, one for each expansion’s dungeon event. As I fly into Dalaran, the giant floating city in the sky that totally stole their idea from the magic guild of Vane from Lunar, something out of the norm immediately catches my eye…
Needless to say I had some questions. If you are not familiar with World of Warcraft, this giant bony dude shouldn’t be here. In fact, he shouldn’t be here ever and for some reason he was just standing here in the middle of the city acting like nothing was going on. You can see the dwarf to my left is scratching his beard as well to the monstrosity being there. Suddenly, like wild fire, the questions and concerns spread to others.
And more showed up to ponder. Now the most amazing thing about this, was the amount of people that were drawn back to Dal. Dalaran hasn’t seen this many people for years and won’t again at least until Legion drops making it the main hub city for people to go about doing their business in. The hulking beasts in the above screen are undead frost giants that Arthas twisted and manipulated when he grew powerful enough to enslave all of Northrend (<—- See? Lore!). Oh, but if you think it stopped there you’re mistaken.
It grew ever more as people came to gaze upon the new spectacle of the undead giants that took over the City in the Sky. Soon there were hundreds of Alliance and Horde watching and contemplating reasons for their creation. Was it from a bored GM back in old vanilla days when they used to come down from the heavens just to turn everyone into different creatures for no reason what so ever? Were these creatures going to turn vicious, grow to level 200, and then suddenly turn on us with murderous intent? The creatures started to multiply and soon the air was filled with frostwyrms, dragons of undeath that were once the most loyal to the Lich King.
Some of the frostwyrms are mounts but the two on either side that are out of frame were MOBS from the frozen wastes bellow. As the creatures began flooding in, so did the players.
The server started to dip a bit in frames as more came in the masses to see something different from their awful daily quest lives. Dalaran was populated once again.
And so opportunity sprang forth. It was that time. It was time for me to fulfill my destiny! I knew what must be done. I hopped off my flyer, grounded my feet firmly on the ground and sounded the horn. Where people all over the world (of Warcraft) would JOIN HANDS AND FALL IN LOVE! ON THE MAMMOTH TRAIN!
It was small at first…
…but we gained followers, and even a few frostwyrms joined in.
And just as we as a community were starting to become closer at 9:20PM the server crashed…
…but that didn’t stop this love train.
Strange as it sounds but my favorite times playing WoW were goofing off. Doing stupid things that made absolutely no sense that millions found enjoyment out of. Mostly, that’s all the game has left sometimes, but hopefully when the Burning Legion invades we’ll have more to fight for. We will follow with great respect of a Warchief that will lead us to victory and who will quite possibly MAKE DALARAN GREAT AGAIN!
OH GOD NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!
All jokes aside it was a great night. We crashed the server, which is something you don’t see anymore. It makes me wonder what the game will have in store for later or will we just continue to get stuck in the past and get giddy with nostalgia? Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my little slide show of this what I’m calling is a full circle mammoth train, and diving back into what was once the golden years of World of Warcraft, which I can safely say because Wrath of the Lich King is when subscriptions peeked. Below are a few more good screens from the night. Hope you guys look back and see that even the most random occurrences can make the game great again. DAMMIT, TRUMP STOP!
P.S. You can’t handle sexy like that.