Even now, it's hard to describe the shock I felt when I first saw World of Warcraft (WoW).

Before that, I had played RPGs like Lineage and Diablo, and I had dabbled in various online RPGs that were available in Korea.

At that time, that was enough to be fun. Buying potions, going out to hunt monsters, leveling up, and feeling proud when I got a new piece of gear to show off to my friends.

But in 2004, World of Warcraft came to Korea.

It felt like I had been in a small pond saying, "Wow, the world is big," and suddenly someone dropped me in the middle of Lake Baikal.

What is this?

I passed one village and found another, crossed a mountain and discovered a new area where new quests began.

You could even take a boat to another continent.

Even the mountains you saw while passing by weren't just background images; they were real mountains you could climb.

People who have only played modern games might wonder what's so great about this, but it was different in 2004.

It truly felt like a world had been put inside a computer.

I still think the starting area for the Undead is a masterpiece.

Waking up in a coffin and wandering around Deathknell had a really strange atmosphere.

The sky was gloomy, the trees were twisted, and graves were scattered around.

But as I completed quests one by one, I gradually learned why I was there and what the Undead were going through.

Before that, I thought quests were just about "bring me 10 wolves," but WoW gave a reason for hunting those 10 wolves.

Following the quests led me to the next village, where new events unfolded, and before I knew it, I was following the story of this world.

That was so fascinating. The problem was money.

For a student at that time, a subscription-based online game was a burden.

It wasn't like today, where you can play free games and buy battle passes and skins; you had to pay every month to keep playing.

There was the frustration of wanting to play but not having the money to do so.

So I kept the shock of WoW in my mind until 2007 when The Burning Crusade came out, and I finally started playing properly.

I still remember the first time I crossed the Dark Portal in Outland. The sky was insane.

Strange creatures roamed the red land, and in the distance, a Hellfire Citadel was stomping around, and I thought, "Ah, Blizzard has done it again."

From that point on, it was no longer just a game; it was a lifestyle. When I logged in after school, my guildmates were there.

People whose faces I didn't know and where they lived were running dungeons together every day, cursing and laughing when we wiped, and rolling dice when an item dropped.

We raided until 2 AM and then struggled to stay awake in school the next day.

Looking back now, there were even more amazing things.

I was a high school student, but a guild brother and sister I met in the game actually got married. And they invited me to the wedding.

It was so strange to see people who had been running around in armor in the game standing there in suits and dresses.

I even got to eat at the reception.

They invited a high school kid they met in an online game to their most important day and even fed him.

These days, when I see WoW's graphics, I feel the passage of time. Countless bigger, flashier, and prettier games have come out.

But the shock from that time is hard to recreate.

What made WoW great wasn't just the size of the map or the fun of the raids.

It was the first time I felt there was a world inside a game.

And within that world, I met real people.