If you met me now, you probably wouldn’t know that I once used to stay up all night on a regular basis and sleep during the day. These days, I tend to get to bed around midnight, if not before, and wake up early even on weekends. In my high school and college years, however, things were very, very different. During my junior year of college I had a particularly hard time sleeping for various reasons, which usually sucked. There’s nothing lonelier than waiting for rest while everyone else in the world (it seems) is sleeping soundly. During my winter break that year, I found a better way to spend my night hours than watching Full House marathons on Nick at Nite: wide-awake in a basement with three guys, where I was introduced to Warcraft III for the first time.

It was the winter of 2003-2004, and I was back home in New Jersey for the few weeks I had off between semesters. I was 20 years old, and had been living in an apartment in Philadelphia for two years, so staying with my parents for any length of time was something of an adjustment at that point. I liked having any excuse to get out of the house, and I found one in my friend Gerard’s basement. There, he had hooked up four or five computers, and I would hang out and observe him and two other friends of mine from high school, Jon and Dan, playing various computer games. I wasn’t much of a PC gamer, so usually I’d just sit on the couch playing GTA: Vice City, or any other console game lying around.



However, after a few nights of this, I finally decided to join in on their games of Warcraft III. I had never played a game like that before, so I really didn’t know what was going on at first, but it wasn’t long before I was addicted. A pattern developed that we would follow for almost every night of that winter break: go over to Ged’s house around 9 or 10, play Warcraft III until sunrise. It may have been the nerdiest way ever to spend a winter break, but I didn’t care. After being dirt poor and deprived of video games all semester long, I was happy to be back in my element.

My parents grew increasingly frustrated as I returned home just as they were leaving for work in the morning, getting angry at the fact that I was out all night with three guys. I remember getting some angry phone calls when I went out to breakfast with the guys after a particularly long night of gaming, with my mother freaking out because my car wasn’t in front of the house. I wasn’t used to having to tell my parents where I was at all times, and I didn’t much care for being treated like I was in high school again. To their dismay, I continued to stay out all night, telling them that there were far worse things I could be doing than playing video games at a friend’s house.



I became accustomed to Warcraft III fairly quickly, especially the tower defense portion of the game. Though I had never played any game like it before, I found it extremely enjoyable. I was notorious for never listening to advice from anyone else, even while working together. I liked doing things my way, and I was sure that I had the best method for winning, which was only sometimes true. Sometimes we would break up the marathon Warcraft sessions by playing a few rounds of Super Monkey Ball, Bomberman, DDR, or just a good, old-fashioned game of poker, but we always went back to Warcraft III.

Winter break eventually came to an end, and I went back to Philadelphia, where I remained, even after graduating college. I have not played Warcraft III, or any Warcraft game, since that period of time; I just don’t think it would be the same without those three guys in the same room. Since I don’t spend much time in my hometown anymore, I don’t see those guys nearly as often, but we’ve managed to keep in touch over the internets. That part of my life seems like a lifetime ago, even though it was only a few years back. However, those nights are still the first thing that comes to mind any time someone mentions the word “Warcraft” around me.

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