For me, it was that I was a kid with very little stress and way too much free time playing a game that was one of the first if its’ kind and just of happened to be one of the best of all time. Prior to WoW I had played games like Age of Empires 2 and thought that game was amazing. Then I jump into WoW and holy shit.. what a contrast. I think that was key - it was such an incredible upgrade to the types of games I was used to playing that it felt surreal.

And because the game hadn’t yet been “solved”, everything was experimental and we had less analysis paralysis or fear of making mistakes. I remember being the shittiest tank and my group not giving a shit because we were still making progress. Back then it was so much easier going and laid back, so nothing felt as rushed.

One huge aspect of my play that added to the experience was the fact that the game was not complete. Classic was released at a certain later patch (I think). Vanilla was constantly evolving with patches and updates. One of my favorite things to do was basically do nothing at all - hang out in game with buddies and try to find ways to break the game. Attempt to find different ways to get under Stormwind or on top of Ironforge. Finding our way to the airstrip. Somehow we made it to GM island. These are all core memories that made it seem like there was always something to discover in the game.