If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft you might have heard about a new documentary coming out called “The Raid”. I’ve actually been following the making of this film since I came across it in Kickstarter where the director of the film was looking for donations to help fund his project. I was extremely impress with the tone and feel Kevin was trying to achieve with this film. For those of us who love this game know the stigma that can be attached. So Kevin’s goal for this film was to show the more positive side to playing this wonderful game and to talk about what it means to be a raider. So what does all of this have to do with you? Well if you are going to be in the LA area on October 23rd, 2010 we have your tickets to this awesome event! Yep your only way to get into the prescreening will be through your favorite community podcasts, including Ladies of Leet 
So here is what you need to do to win one of the 12 tickets we have to give away. Respond to this post in the comment section below and tell us your WoW story. Are you an altaholic, a hardcore raider or a noob? It doesn’t matter how you play, the one thing I’ve found out through the years is this game is many things to many different people. This is your chance to share a bit of your WoW experience with us. Please be sure when you do write you entry that you can be in the LA area for the prescreening on October 23rd. There are limited tickets available and we would hate for yours to go to waste if you can’t make it to Anaheim. You have 3 weeks to add your entry and we will be announcing the winners on the show September 17th! Good luck everyone!
UPDATE – I just found out the entire event is 21+. They will be serving drinks from start to finish. So sorry to anyone who has entered that is under 21
I’ve been playing on and off for a few years now, and have met some wonderful people in and out of the game. I’m mostly an achievement and mount/pet whore, but I do love the raid experience when I can get in. I would love to see this director’s take on the WoW environment.
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I’ve raided every major content raid since the game has come out. I’d describe myself as a better raider now and maybe even more hardcore than before. When I first started out I was just a kid in Highschool doing 4 hour Molten Core full clears and then the guild I was in moved on to BWL.
I had joined that guild with friends and that was really the only reason I played the game for as long as I have. I feel like that idea is the only reason I’m still playing the game today and the reason why I joined AIE. In that old guild, my friend was the main tank and we actually farmed Thunderfury back in the day, and the questline and the feeling once you completed all of it was epic.
I played multiple days of the week for multiple hours back in Vanilla. I’d still say I’m more hardcore than when I first started out. I play way less than back then but I’m still in groups downing end game content. The difference now is that I personally know most of them. I’ve met up with them in real life.
I think as a player I’ve covered a lot of different aspects of the game. I love achievements and in doing achievements you see a lot of the game, whether its raiding, collecting items, seeing lore through all the quests, or pvp’ing your heart out.
I feel like my Wow experience has really come full circle from being “just some video game” to, without overstating it, an important part of life. I downed the Lich King with a group, one of the first times I’ve finished end game content before an expansion has come out, but I don’t feel deterred into continuing to play.
Now with Cataclysm coming out, I’m focusing on things I said I’d never do, like leveling alts. I think I have about 5 names for different classes saved up with most of the BOA gear ready to go out the gate.
I’m really excited for Blizzcon this year to meet friendly faces again along with more new faces at Meetups.
-Nick “Hikikomori” Spencer
writer of “The Spirit Guide” column at wow-achievements.com
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My WoW experience has varied over the years, from hardcore raiding to relaxing quest grinds as the expansions have rolled around. I’ve found the main reason I hang around Warcraft so much is the community and the friendships that I have gained over the years. I can’t forget my wonderful leveling and questing grinds with my guild and the help brought upon me. The greatest memory of all has to have been the take down of Illidan back in TBC. After several months of grinding through BT and destroying bosses week after week and progressing, nothing comes close to the feeling of reaching end content…. EXCEPT Akama… that punk nearly cost us the guild, though it was THE defining moment in our history.
Just as we passed through the defenses of Supremus and cleared the halls to the vile Terron Gorefiend, We headed into the halls infiltrated by none other than Akama himself. As we gazed upon the tormented and enslaved counterpart to Akama we all gasped in wonder as to how the poor Broken (Draenei) could stay so composed at the entrance. At once He addressed us and began his march to claim what was rightfully his, and we were honored to be his soldiers in a cause that shattered all shortcomings, from Paladin to Shaman reasoning, everyone felt that this must be the right path.
Once engaged we brought all we had to the table. From new strategies to old friends, Akama was reduced to a fallen comrade time and time again. Down to the last second where even our Guild Master was broken by the temptations of Illidan, Our ranks gave it their all. With a rebuild and some respite, much needed by our front line, we became a whole once again.
Renewed and inspired, The Guild as a whole brought everything we had. From engineering bombs to Arcane Blasts we fought and toiled with the forces stricken unto Akama. After much turmoil and doubt, we triumphed!
My greatest memories you ask? Going from a strong face forward guild into a rebuild and triumph phase was incredibly humbling as well as a fulfilling portion of my life in the Warcraft realm. I miss everyone of them so much, friendships like ours can never be forgotten. I hope one day we can all be together again.
Steve
Formerly “Azurine or the Guild “Crimson Flight” on Cenarius”
Currently “Azurewynd of the Guild “Easily Amused” on Garrosh”
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Hello there. I have been playing since August of ’05 and I’m a little bit of everything. I enjoy raiding, pvp and can also claim some altoholism. Questing is mostly where it’s at for me, I enjoy the lore of the game.
What I really want to share is my story of how I began playing WoW. Without going into too much detail I was going thru some RL drama and trauma when my good friend who plays sat me down in front of her PC. She logged onto her NE priest and let me drive her around Tanaris. I still remember the quest I did with her. Then I saw it, this fiery mount and that was it…I was totally hooked (and I had to have one of those!). Needless to say that not only did WoW give me a well needed diversion but it gave me a whole new group of friends. Since I began playing I have met several guildies in person and many I would consider good friends. They have always been there for me in one way or another, even if it was just to make me laugh. My husband got the bug soon after seeing me run around in Elwynn Forest and we’ve been playing together ever since.
I became the GL of the very guild I started in and I couldn’t be prouder of the group of people we have and the guild we’ve all built together.
Oh, and I’ve been a warlock since I rolled that first toon, who is still my main to this day.
Stacie
Zabine of Kaldorei Guardians on Kael’thas
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At first, I resisted playing WoW because I wanted to graduate from college. In my last year of school, I bought a new computer, and my WoW buddy was there the next day making me install it. Five years later I’m still enjoying the game. I’ve pretty much run the gauntlet of the WoW experience, getting in my first raids in Molton Core a few months before Burning Crusade came out. I got into the hardcore raiding scene 4 nights a week with my warlock Tadalafil on Kargath (alliance) and progressed with a “raid group” (multiple guilds welcome) deep into Black Temple before finally cutting the raiding down to once weekly. Since then I’ve become an alt-aholic rolling up 9 level 80′s (goblin rogue will be the 10th and final class!), switching servers and factions to roll horde with some real life friends. Our once weekly group finally downed the Lich King last week!
Can’t wait for the next expansion, and can’t wait to attend Blizzcon with some of my best friends
Treegore of Six Feet Under on Dalaran (US)
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My story is something of an odd one. I began playing 4 years ago and I decided to get my wife interested in the game and she rolled a character on my account. She then proceeded to take over my entire account, much to my chagrin, but then again I have a short attention span so its ok that she now owns it. My wow participation is now… kinda vicarious.
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I play a Ally Human Disc Priest. I’ve been playing WoW since it launched. At first, I shared an account with my little brother, a friend, and my then-boyfriend-now-husband. By Level 20, we all got really addicted to WoW and soon got frustrated because we had a shared account. We decided that it was best that we all got separate accounts. My friend kept the original and the rest of us started over again leveling on our own accounts. It was awesome because then we could play and level together.
I’ve gone through different phases of play-style with each expansion. In Vanilla, I was very casual, raided very little, and quested a lot. In BC, I PVPed hardcore and it really taught me how to utilize my priest’s abilities. And in Lich King, I raid hardcore and am in 4/5 tier 10.75.
I think in this next expansion I’ll go back to casual and raid little. Raid grinding really sucks the life out of you!
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I started playing WoW back in the vanilla days. I was in college and a group of friends convinced me to start playing. Due to the demands of college, I never hit 60. I took a break after I graduated, but quickly returned. When BC hit, I joined a casually serious raiding guild that primarily focused on 10 mans. I’ve never been particularly interested in DPS. My main is a prot warrior and my alt is a holy priest. These are the roles I enjoy playing the most.
When Wrath came out, I nearly quit the game. RL became a bit too intense and I just didn’t have the time for WoW. I’ve returned to the game, but still don’t have as much time to play as I would like. Still, I do have a LK kill in ICC25!
I’ve made some amazing friends in the past 5 years. I’ve also discovered some exciting things about myself. While I am happily employed, my current goal is to go to grad school and study socialization within MMOs. I’m actually applying for PhD programs for the Fall of 2011. I’ve seen many documentaries about MMO’s… I often feel as if they misrepresent the game, and the people that play. The Raid looks like it more truthfully exposes players. I’m excited for this new documentary and hope to see it at Blizzcon!
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My husband gave me WoW for Christmas in 2008. He said that he knew I loved RPG’s like Final Fantasy, so he thought I would like it. Within 3 days of Christmas he had his own account, too (I still think he pulled a Homer there). Since then, the 2 of us have both gone through various phases with WoW, sometimes simultaneously, more often not. We started out in the same guild, a very friendly family style guild. He wanted to do some raiding, so he found a raiding guild for his main. When he was getting in to raiding Naxx and Ulduar, I was really in to leveling my new pally. I would raid with him occasionally if his guild needed dps, but they were way too hard core for me.
Later on, he was in to leveling a dk and mage, and I was in to being an achievement whore. Recently, I’ve been into raiding and trying to progress through icc, he’s into leveling blacksmithing or something (or avoiding my tanking attempts. Whatever.)
After these various phases we have gone through in game, (as well as various levels of addiction), The biggest phase that we are in now is that WoW is a game. If something isn’t fun, don’t do it. We fortunately have found a guild that agrees and has the same point of view. If I can’t make a scheduled icc raid because I’m going out with the girls, I’m not penalized in any way. It’s about having fun. At least it is right now, in a month from now I could be in an elitist raiding phase, who knows. But raiding, rather with the guild or in pugs, has taught me sooooo much about people. I’m communicating, often on a near-daily basis, with so many people that I would never talk to in real life because life circumstances are so different. It’s not just about gearing up, it’s about getting together with a group of people and accomplishing goals.
Much better time killer than watching Real Housewives re-runs every night.
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World of Warcraft has been a significant part of my life since vanilla. I’ve played consistently since I got the game (I believe five years ago now) with very few breaks. The game has always been about friends to me. Even though I played games before this one, this was the first one I really played with other people. I was a teenager who really liked online communities and chat rooms, just the experience of meeting people from other places through the internet, at the time; this was really just a combination of two things I really loved and already spent a lot of time on. I didn’t know anyone in real life who played when I started, so I made a lot of friends in the game. And then when Burning Crusade came out a lot of people I knew from work rolled new characters on a different server together and that brought a new experience of playing with people I knew in real life.
I actually met my current boyfriend in the game. We’re now living together and have been going strong for almost three years.
I’ve always been somewhat interested in raiding and dabbled in it a few times. I’ve never been able to stick with it for very long, however. I prefer playing in a more casual atmosphere. I don’t like when things get tense because someone’s not on their game, and I get really anxious myself when I’m the one who’s doing badly. I’m not saying I’m a poor player, but everyone has their days.
I don’t mind raiding once in a while with a casual group that’s mostly people I know, or an older raid that we’re all too geared for anyway… but when it comes to new content that everyone’s trying to learn… well, it’s just not my thing. I don’t like showing up for hours every week to attempt the same thing over and over. I understand what others see in it, but I cant do it for long periods of time.
Things I enjoy about the game a lot of others find tedious. I like going after obscure achievements like the Seeker title. I also like fishing and farming gold even when I don’t need it (I like seeing big numbers and as a healer I don’t see that much in the way of DPS
). I guess the grinding is something I like to do as a mindless pass time while I listen to podcasts (like yours! I listen to the Final Score, the Instance, and Ladies of Leet so that can take up a lot of time). I also like revisiting old content as an 80. We do a lot of farming of the ZG tiger mount and once in a while we’ll try to catch a world dragon spawn. I also enjoy helping my friends in the game, whether it’s making their random queue go faster because I’m a healer, helping with a group quest, or running their alt through a low level dungeon.
I guess that’s pretty much my WoW story, nothing too exciting, but this game means a lot to me from the time I’ve put into it and the connections I’ve made.
This is our first time going to Blizzcon and thought the opportunity to see this documentary would be something exciting to do while we’re in the Anaheim area. If you’re only giving out one ticket per winner, please overlook my entry, as I wouldn’t want to go alone.
Thanks for the consideration guys and gal.
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My wife Rosie introduced me to WOW when the game first came out. I refused to play it. I did spend a lot of time looking over her shoulder. I watched and listened to her many adventures in what we call now “Vanilla WOW”. Rosie later got interested in other games and left WOW. She did however kept all three of her WOW accounts open. I kept noticing the bill payments on the credit card statements. I figured no use letting money go to waste. Well as you can guess I now play WOW. I love the game. It has and will continue to be one of my favorite games. Due to my work schedule and “Real Life” my WOW time is limited. I try to make the most of my WOW time when I get the chance. I’m a casual player. I like leveling and questing. PVP and Battlegrounds have recently peaked my interest. This year will be my first time attending Blizzcon. It’s going to be an exciting time. I hope to attend all the Best events. Hopefully the prescreening of “The Raid” is one I’m fortunate enough to attend.
PaulnSD
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