It's bizarre how well I remember that game... It was the design of each area, the music, ambiance, how the quest system introduced you to an area, but there was

It's bizarre how well I remember that game... It was the design of each area, the music, ambiance, how the quest system introduced you to an area, but there was exponentially more to discover if you explored. Then the hook were instances where you couldn't realistically go solo, which led to pickup groups, which led to frustration with randos, which led to elitist groups forming which became top raiding guilds. I met some insanely talented and accomplished people who moonlighted in raiding guilds within WoW. Friends raiding, writing custom mods, while working at the top tech companies. Such a time sink, but so much fun. Oh.. and do you remember theorycrafting? Reverse engineering the game mechanics and optimizing for each situation across all the classes to beat raid bosses that were designed to be nearly impossible to defeat at launch? That was incredibly interesting, especially in a 40 player environment with multiple classes. The depth and balance of that game was and is still unparalleled.