After purchasing the expansion online, downloading the 4.7 gb WoW client and further acquiring another 2.2 gb in stat through the updater, I was ready to voyage back to the World of the Wacraft. I began playing WoW in early 2005, it was my second MMORPG (the first being City of Heroes), and I soon purchased a second account for Lucy and we began spending Sunday’s with our guild mates and local friends playing the game. I still remember the excitement when we earnt (or borrowed from guilds) enough gold to purchase our first in-game mounts, and deciding simply to explore the island Kalimdor. Riding about just to see what was around the next corner, and being flawed by the detail and grace of the alien landscapes. We had to quit with the arrival of our daughter, but have since voyaged back to play some of the first Expansion (Burning Crusades) and I leveled my main characters, Tallidus the human mage to 80 in the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

I’m hoping I’m going to play through both the Alliance’s and Horde’s new races, the Worgen and Goblins, and thought I’d start my first Alliance female ‘toon’ (I’m not exactly sure what people refer to their WoW character avatars as toon, but I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the visual aesthetic – which has had a major graphic overhaul in the new expansion). After spending some time in character creator I just couldn’t find a male avatar combination I was happy with. Tallidus is definitely ‘me’ in the game – or at least in the sense that I choose him to represent me in the game, it’s not so much a ‘role’ but a persona I’ve created. I’ve not played with a female character in the game before, party because I don’t want to represent myself as female in the game, as many have and do, but the female worgen is also looks extremely cool, especially the head and face which is very different to the male worsen characters which are familiar advisaries.