My name is Atman, level 80 Draenei Warrior

I have played Warcraft since November of 2006. While home on Thanksgiving break mere weeks before my final exams were coming up in my first semester of graduate school, I decided that I would take the plunge and try out Blizzard's 10 day free trial of the game. My first character was rolled (created) on a server named Fenris. I created an Undead Warlock, and I chose this because the opening cinematic had this race / class combination looking the most badass. The hour that I spent after creating my character remains among my best memories of the game: running around the starting area, stabbing rats with a knife.

I got that character to level 60, and then purchased the Burning Crusade expansion and leveled to 70, pretty much all solo. It was around that time that I decided I would start another character, this time on the Alliance side. I wanted a warrior because the gear I saw other warriors running around with looked so cool. I eventually settled on a Draenei, and I named him after my long-standing screen name: Atman. He currently lives on the Zangarmarsh server.

I joined a startup guild when I was around level 20, in September 2007. It was the first time I'd played with other people regularly, and it introduced me to the thing that makes massively-multiplayer online games so popular: playing with others.

It sounds crazy, but when you get home every day and log into the game, you talk and interact and play with the same people, day after day, and you get to think of them as a type of friend. Not the kind you'd confide in (these are strangers on the Internet for crying out loud), but more like a co-worker: you interact with people with a regularity and familiarity that comes from seeing them every day, chatting with them, and even though you don't think of them as real "friends" there is still a sense of comraderie there.

The leader of our guild decided that I was a good player and nice enough person to promote to the rank of "Officer" within the guild. This gave me responsibility in the form of settling disputes among regular members and giving input to the GM (guild master) on issues concerning the guild, such as a dungeon schedule, point system for distributing equipment, guild events, etc. After some time, I became a de-facto co-GM of the guild, which is currently numbers approximately 150 unique members.

I'll say that again for my friends who don't actually know the depths of my involvement with the game: I am one of the individuals responsible for a guild with 150 members. In addition, I am an administrator of the guild's website and editor of guild videos. We are currently working our way through the newest expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King, and will begin raiding within the next week or so since many of us are reaching the new level cap of 80.

I wrote this because most people don't know how involved in the game I am. Friends of mine who read this blog (all five of you) are, I hope, shielded from the extreme nerdiness of my hobby. For some reason, I thought it might be amusing to let people know that I play the game a LOT, and I'm good at it, and I enjoy it very much.

This post seems to end so anti-climatically, so I'll link you to one of the aforementioned videos... to show you that I'm not lying. For anyone who actually plays the game: That video was taken awhile ago, and is pretty embarrassing. Low gear, keyboard turning, the whole bit. I had just made the move from my laptop to a new desktop, so I was still getting used to mouse-turning and new keybinds. Trust me, I'm working on new movies that are a lot better.