Blood Elf

While everyone else was apparently smashing store windows and losing their minds over World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, I somehow missed the entire thing. Didn’t even know it was out until I was holding it.

Tuesday morning I dragged Eniz out of bed and drove to Kaufbeuren to grab a copy. He was barely conscious the whole way—probably thought it was a dream. I figured the place would be picked clean by then, but there it was, just sitting there.

Spent all night installing patches, sweating that I’d get my character name before it got claimed. I’d planned to roll on a different realm, but the only place still holding Nami open was a PvP server. So I went with it. Expected the whole thing to be a disaster: massive queues, bloated starting zones, constant lag. But it was smooth. Nothing broke.

Created a blood elf paladin and just wandered the starting zone. The design is actually beautiful—warm bright colors, these playful buildings everywhere. Even the character animation is good; blood elves move with this fluid weirdness that shouldn’t work but does. Quests felt like actual content, not padding. The capital city Silvermoon was basically empty at first, but you could already picture it packed.

Didn’t have the money for the deluxe edition, so I spent my earned currency on a little dragon companion. Completely frivolous but it felt good. Joined a guild called the Straw Hat Pirates because the name made me laugh.

Now that I’ve cleared everything around Silvermoon, Nami’s heading south into the corrupted zones where everything’s diseased and hostile. Time to actually start playing.