First and foremost, the only reason I started in WoW was because some co-workers back (way-back-when) I was working told me to try it out, and they'd get me in their guild, help me out, and everything (granted, that was the same way I got into EQ1 in the '90s, and FFXI). As expected, and as I had experienced all the other times that I joined an MMORPG, I was NOT gracefully recruited into whatever guild was present, nor was I helped out at all once in world. So I already had a bad taste in my mouth about this world.
So, I started off on my own, learned the game, learned how to make money easily enough, made a few random friends that soon forgot about me. At work the following week someone else happened to see that I was looking through one of the sites for WoW gear, then explained he was actually roped in by the same people, but he'd get me into the guild he had created. So I actually got into a guild that was friendly and everything. Everything seemed to be going great, then I changed jobs to a whole other company...I was then kicked out of that guild (silly right? just because I no longer worked at the same location you'll remove me from the guild?) ... That drew me away from WoW then and there for the first time. Now, this was on the US servers.
Two weeks after I had canned my subscription, I got an e-mail from the actual GM staff stating that my account was being locked down due to RMT advertisement in world. I replied that my account had not been accessed, and the game was uninstalled from my system the week prior.
I went back to FFXI which was my favorite MMORPG at the time. Went along in that until it started turning into a job and I was neglecting things. Browsed around some free MMOs out there, and met a few cool people in FlyFF. These guys happened to be in the UK. After hanging out and changing games with them a few times, some of them decided to get into WoW. I was asked to join them. So, naturally I went and had to find somehow on the net to get a EU version of WoW. I managed to find one, and was able to access EU wow from here in the US.
It was quite funny being on the EU WoW, get into a random party, and have everyone start saying where they're from. Everyone was like "How / Why are you playing on EU servers rather than US servers?". I went a while, I got up kind of far with a hunter, then realized upon stepping into a town, that it seemed 75% of the population of that server were hunters! About this time I also started running out of money, as I had lost my job (which actually was the last one I've had).
I went back to browsing around and spending time in random Free to play MMOs. I managed to get some personal work doing computer repairs for people, so I started back up in FFXI. Unfortunately things have changed in FFXI for the worse to me at least. No more standard parties, everything was a TP burn (melee happy parties). I tried out some of the end game stuff after raising a good TP burning class (dragoon ... as a tarutaru LOL), got all my summoner relic gear, and started on my dragoon gear. I got fed up with some of the stupidity that started happening, namely the desire of the devs to make it so that the new level cap would be 90 rather than 75. So I quit FFXI for good on that note.
Back to playing free stuff I went. The newest expansion for WoW came out (wrath of the lich king), and one of my buddies in the UK stated that he had a good job, and if I wanted to play again, all I'd have to do is buy the expansion, and he'd pay for the monthly subscription! Hey, who's to pass up a chance to play WoW on the real servers for free? I went back to the same place I had gotten my EU version, and got the expansion for EU...my friend started paying for it as he stated he would. I started up a Druid and went from 1 to 80 in a little less than two weeks. Solo mind you, I didn't get power leveled or run through anything.
After a while, I noted that my fried that was paying for the game hadn't been on in like a month. I'd been doing lots of raiding with the guild we were in. I had attempted to help with some raiding stuff and set u p an advanced run for one dungeon coordinated with another guild. Apparently I had stepped on someone else's plans (two weeks in advance I was planning this event), and they got into a hissy fit and left the guild and had told the leader of the guild that they were quitting the game because of it. I got an eye full about the whole thing, and my only saving grace, was the fact that this other person had NOT put their planned event in the guild calendar for me to even see that there would be a conflict.
So, with things compounding (getting yelled at for setting up a very successful event, friend that was paying for me not playing anymore, not enjoying end-game things, hating PvP, etc etc) I decided to part ways with the game. I figured that I'd had enough money from other computer repair things I'd done to warrant going back to the US servers. I called up Bliz and see if it was possible to transfer my wrath expansion from EU to the US version. They said there would be no way, so I said forget it, not going to come back to US servers if I'd have to re-buy the expansion.
Within 3 hours of that call, I got an e-mail from US GM support stating that the account was being locked for in game advertising. I replied that I didn't even have the game installed, and hadn't had a subscription on it for like ever. They suggested I have the password changed and reset. So I went through those little stupidities of confirming that my system was clear of virus' and stuff. I got e-mailed my new random lettered and numbered password, signed into the account management, and found that that rep I talked to apparently applied a free 14 day trial of the new expansion ... despite me saying I wasn't going to come back. About 3 minutes later I get another e-mail stating that advertising had been done again.
I called up the support again, and stated that it couldn't be me because I don't even have the game installed on my system. The password hadn't been changed either. Apparently the password retrieval thing where "I forgot my password" uses the secret question/answer, and rather than e-mailing the password, it just displays the current one on their site! Now this is when the rep told me that was probably the case. I asked them what I could do about it, and they stated I'd have to get a security token to keep it secure. I asked if they could just change the secret question/answer. They replied that those things cannot be changed, ever. So I then stated that if that was the way that they were getting in, when were they going to send me my free security token as that was the only way to lock it down. They laughed and said that I'd have to purchase it. I told them to lock the account down and mark the whole account as stolen, and no desire to return.
Sighing I returned to free MMO land, still hopping on my friend's vent server from time to time. One day though, one of the people asked "Hey, so you're back?" I was like "um, no, I'm playing another game right now". Apparently my character was logged in, and was in wintergrasp mining up a storm, which was out of place, as my chosen gatherings while playing is always skinning and herbalism. They followed me around for a while and noted that I was apparently walking through trees and stuff. So I went to log into my account management page and change the password. Funny thing though, a security token had been applied to the account, so I couldn't get in.
I contacted support via e-mail (as I wasn't about to call international to tell them to lock the account) and stated that the account was stolen and being paid for by someone else, along with the fact that the security token was applied to the account. They've locked the account after a month of watching the account, the security token and everything. Apparently the token was applied to 9 other accounts that were also apparently stolen. Yay? I helped get 10 accounts toasted? I dunno.
Either way, I'm done with both FFXI and WoW. So now I'm wanting to get onto EverQuest 2, but like before, I've not got money to purchase the game, nor the monthly subscriptions. So here's where I ask for either a donation (found a way to get it in the sidebar finally) or if anyone would be willing to pay for the monthly subscription while I scrounge up the money to purchase the game itself? Could do the Recruit A Friend thing I suppose so that you'd get some good exp along with helping me learn the world?
That's good for today I suppose heh heh. writing again tomorrow about ... I dunno yet, but we'll see.
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