Cooped up as we all were, we needed our outlets. Some people got into needlework. Others learned how to cook. The world’s largest surge of sourdough bread production occurred while we were indoors, and I returned to World of Warcraft. I hadn’t intended on taking a break, but the game had just gotten too far removed from what I loved about it to enjoy. Along comes Classic, an official re-release of the original game from 2004 with none of the baggage of private servers.

I still did my coursework, I kept up with my daily routine outside of Azeroth. I had grown as a person, but you better believe when all my obligations were handled I dove into my paladin. Human, female (as I always seem to make) and with no specialization in mind but crushing the dark denizens of the world, I did everything I wanted to do in the original game, but at the time had no idea how to accomplish. I hit max level, I did all dungeons, I even raided Molten Core and managed to win the Obsidian Edged Blade, one of the coolest blades in all of the game’s history.

In the process, I joined a roleplay guild known as the Idle Hammer. It was a typical tavern-oriented guild, but with the backdrop of every one of us being stuck indoors in real life, we took to it well. We invented drinking games and used external websites to simulate playing board games, all in-character. Some of us got into it more than others, but we truly lived in Azeroth—but as with all things, it was only for a time. Some people stuck around, others drifted off. To other guilds, other characters, other games or none at all. For all we know, a few who logged out and never got back on weren’t able to anymore.

Still, having the ability to safely walk the streets of cities, travel a world and feel like everything was okay was a boon. I’m sure Blizzard appreciated a literal captive audience, even if it meant that our expectations for the future of Classic were set unrealistically high.