I didn't have plans to play World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery even after how interesting it seemed from the Blizzcon presentation.
But then today came, and I saw guildies getting excited about it. And I read folks on Twitter getting excited about it. And I read folks on Bluesky getting excited about it. And then in the throes of writing a book review for my day job and wanting to do anything other than write that review, I suddenly found myself excited about this opportunity to see something new in World of Warcraft Classic's Season of Discovery (SoD).
As I mentioned in my first blog post here, I initially started as a tauren shaman back at launch in 2004. Why not try to recreate that experience in some way?
Some guildies decided to start characters on Wild Growth - NA, which is a Normal server. I might have considered a PvP server, but I'm glad to be on a server with some people I know at any rate.
This version of the game feels so very different from retail, which I was playing for a bit while waiting in a queue to log in to Wild Growth. They are fundamentally different games.
But the people are much the same. I think that's the one thing we all keep coming back to in talking about and reflecting on the long, ongoing journey that is World of Warcraft.
Sure, there are lots of trolls (not the Horde race - the IRL human offal) who play the game and take joy only in the pain and suffering of others. However, the community, by and large, is made up of good people.
Look at how players took it upon themselves to form queues so that folks could get their runes (druids here).
Or to kill and loot Chief Sharptusk Thornmantle in the Brambleblade Ravine.
As this is Classic, multiple players cannot tag the same mob unless they're in a group, so of course the folks in this queue even made impromptu groups to expedite the questing process.
I'm trying to play (at least in the beginning of SoD) without using any addons. Questing then requires reading quest text and using the map to figure out where it is you need to go to complete the tasks your character is being asked to complete.
This makes questing take a little more thought and time than it does in retail (any post-Wrath of the Lich King version of WoW, really). That extra time spent, though, makes you slow down and look around at your surroundings a bit more. I'm never disappointed by the beauty of the vistas presented to us in Mulgore.
It was something special to see how very busy the opening zone was tonight. People are excited about SoD, and I am glad to be witnessing that excitement firsthand. Camp Narache hasn't been this busy in some time.
Eventually, I completed all of my questing outside of Camp Narache, and so I was sent off to Bloodhoof Village. It gave me slight chills passing through those giant gates out of Camp Narache into the rest of Mulgore (and of course expecting and finding the familiar delivery quest along the way).
On the path to Bloodhoof Village, I encountered a fellow traveler under attack by a Prairie Wolf and of course healed them to keep them from succumbing to its attacks.
I also saw one of my favorite critters in Mulgore, the Prairie Dog.
Finally, I arrived in Bloodhoof Village. I entered the inn, made it my new home, and took one final screenshot before deciding to log out for the time being.
I'm surprised at how excited I am to continue this journey in World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery.
And as it's Classic, I'm definitely finding myself out of mana quite a bit.
And for now in writing this entry, I'm about OOM. More soon after some Refreshing Spring Water. 😉
Thanks for reading. For Season of Discovery!