Unlike most teens, the reason I was looking forward to my sixteenth birthday was not because I would finally get a driver’s license. Where most see increased freedom and the ability to explore the world without their parents, I saw endless trips to the dance studio or basketball gym, ferrying my brother and sister around to their various afterschool activities. Plus, getting a car just meant I’d have to get a part-time job at the local grocery store and lose all of my evening free time. Instead, I was excited because we were only a few months away from the launch of World of Warcraft and my parents had given me the money to pick up the game and pay for six months of its subscription.
From the jump, World of Warcraft felt like a world full of endless possibilities. The only keeping you out of most zones were characters with large numbers (or skulls) over their heads, but those restrictions fell away if you were persistent enough. I remember spending hours in Booty Bay taunting Alliance players into attacking you so the guards would murder them. There was the time I wandered into Thousand Needles just because it looked cool and was instantly murdered by foes way above my level. Who can forget the all-out wars that took place between Southshore and Tarren Mill or the infamous phenomenon that was Barren’s chat?
It was a game that felt like nothing else before and it hit at the perfect time for me. The internet was very much a thing, but it was simpler. Guides weren’t as prevalent and discussion boards felt more like a recess playground (though a very naughty one) than a place where experts came to tell you how to do everything easily. That made WoW feel like some kind of wild animal that you had to tame for yourself. Its vast open world was full of things to do and secrets to uncover, if only you were brave enough to take it on.
Since those days in 2004 and 2005, I’ve been continually chasing that same feeling. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and even FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series sometimes came close. However, they ultimately fell short. Whether it was too much structure (BOTW) or the lack of an open world at the same scale (Dark Souls), they were all missing that special something that made WoW one of the few games that I would call life-changing.
Elden Ring then, was something of a surprise. I expected to be good (FromSoftware games usually are), but I didn’t expect to feel like I was transported back to my old computer room, sitting on a Compaq and diving into WoW for fourteen hours a day. However, the Lands Between quickly enveloped every waking moment. Hunting around each and every corner to see what new horror awaited me immediately made me feel like a kid again.
It’s not just the grandiose world full of actually interesting things to explore. Elden Ring does so much to capture all of the little things that made World of Warcraft special in those early years. For example, there are several portals around the opening area that will transport you to high-level areas you have no business being in. Trying to find my way back without dying or using fast travel felt like the times when I would try to sprint through Feralas because I didn’t have the money to afford a griffin flight.
Amazingly, they’ve even managed to capture the MMO side of WoW in a few unexpected ways. The obvious comparison is how closely the goofy messages players can leave each other represent Barren’s chat. What used to be a grossly incorrect explanation of where to find Mankirk’s Wife is now “Try fingers, But hole.” You even have a set of players going around and leaving messages to trick others into thinking there’s a hidden door and then another group following behind to call them a liar. It’s the kind of player story-telling that made MMOs so fascinating before everything moved to a Ventrilo server.
Beyond that, I couldn’t help but remember my earliest guild moments when first using Spirit Ash to summon a pack of wolves. Much like the all hunter and ranger guild (we were roleplaying Robin Hood if memory serves) I joined to take my first stab at the Wailing Caverns. Sending out that pack of wolves against Margit felt like a WoW group that had no idea what they were doing, but knew they were going to have a good time.
Of course, it all culminated when I had some friends join up to just roam around the world and take on some of the game’s mini-bosses. Joking around while testing ourselves against a giant boss felt just like when I stepped up to a real raiding guild (shouts out to Natural Order of the Farstriders server) to take on Karazhan in The Burning Crusade. Thankfully, this time I didn’t forget to bring extra arrows to the raid and anger my friends by dealing zero damage in the boss fight. How was I supposed to know it would take that long?
This collection of moments big and small have completely enveloped me into the world of Elden Ring as no other game has in the past 18 years. Like World of Warcraft, it might not be the very best game that’s ever created, but it’s one with a world that you absolutely have to explore. The Lands Between has finally given me that next step up from Azeroth that I’ve been craving for nearly two decades. I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon.
