Sensation of nostalgia

Hi people. Ive made my very first WoW account in 2010 (late Wrath) and the feeling of entering big and interesting world (of warcraft) was so strong that I always fondly remember it. I was 13 back then and Im (13+9) 22 now.I have a nice life, Im a med student and I mostly enjoy things I do in my life. But, from the moment I get up from bed to the moment I lay back in, most of my thoughts are analyitical (based on what should I do next to be as efficient as possible). Back when I was making this account my actions were mostly driven by my emotions. I have a feeling that emotions were so fluid when I was young(er), whereas, today I need to put some real effort in to have that sensation. Maybe it can be explained like this: Young people learn something new every day, when we get older our brain is mostly working by pattern that was already learned. Im starting to wonder whether everything was more colorful when we were kids or its just nostalgia… P.S.: Sorry for long post, I just wanted to share some thoughts and I wanted to hear what you guys think. Cheers :slight_smile:

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Make new memories. You never see the bad side when you are nostalgic. Or maybe wow sucks more now than when you started playing. Or maybe you ve set your expectations too high over the years.

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I will never forget going to Orgrimar for the first time.
It was huge and I got so lost. I thought it was amazing.
It was a couple of years ago.
Now its tiny and I know my way around like the back of my hand.

Its just the game isn’t new any more to you.
You don’t have the awe of it all.

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Definitely.

I just gave up on a BfA account recently.
Never hated so much the story as in this expansion, as a Horde player.

Went back to this account, made in October 2005 inspired in the idea of project 60 made by a group of streamers and decided to do my own version of it.

Best decision ever.
Going back to my first character (this one) and many other characters I left behind when I quit in June 2007, feels awesome.

I have two, three characters I leveled up when I came back in Legion expansion.
Which I plan to use to raid old content.

I will start my own project 80, 85, 90, 100 and 110.

Game feels fresh and new, fun is back again for the first time ever, since I started to play BfA in my other account.

Can’t wait to explore the other expansions I didn’t had time to explore properly: WoTLK, Cataclysm, MoP, WoD and there’s always legion content, after.
Starting with this character, my vanilla twink Orc warrior, my TBC Forsaken priest, my first Blood Elf character.

I still remember the joy I have experienced during the 7 days free trial, of MoP after transmogg was introduced, walking with my Blood Elf Paladin in outland collecting every single green I could get my hands on and than trying to match the pieces.

Hopefully this project will keep me busy for enough years ahead.

Thanks for your attention.
Cheers.

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Been here since 2005 and still enjoying the game. Burn me at the stake I guess

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Older people learn new things all the time too you know. I’m 46 and I still do. All
It means is we know more.

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You may be right. Or perhaps as adults, we just are really bad at living in the presence of now.

I have been going to therapy a few years ago, and lately there has been some huge changes in my life that has forced me to be really aware of every second of my body.

The last couple of months I have been experiencing what I thought would be «extreme nostalgia». But what I learned is; most of the nostalgia really IS that same feeling I felt when I was a kid . Its like im starting to learn how take stuff in and just feel some moments so powerfull, like when I was a kid.
And my brain cant fathom it, so it fabricates the feeling of nostalgia , lol

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Edgelords and bad mannered folk ruin the sense of wonder for me every expac way more than any content drought.

I want a healthier community

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I believe it is the same, no matter the age :slight_smile:
But what you focus on is what changes.

An exampel can be with x-mas:
When I was a child I was crawling on the walls with my siblings, because we were excited about the presents :grin:
Now me and my adult siblings are all standing in a huge pile around the stove to taste the food before it’s ready :sweat_smile:

The same with a game: What was the main thing you focused on when you created your char, and what are your focus interest today? :yum:

But most certainly, it is rare to se an adult act the same way in excitement like a child does :wink:

But the nostalgic glasses are always tinted with a lovely colour :sunglasses:

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I think it’ll be better said as you’ll never get as big a high as your first.

I started playing just before Wrath dropped on October 2018. While I was around for Wrath launch I was a newbie and had no idea about the game so I was level 18 during the plague event. (The only time I found removing curses as a mage useful.) Mt first expansion launch I participated in was Cata with the guild I was in.

Anyway, when I first went to Hellfire peninsula I went through the Dark Portal to this alien world with enormous demons attacking and a big robot squishing me from behind while setting imps on fire. The pace also felt rushed giving an urgency to it and ushering me to Honor Hold ASAP.

When I finally got to level 70 I went to Borean Tundra. While not as awestruck it did feel that we were under attack and any noob was needed. As Alliance you took the boat to a keep and the first ting you do is enlist while the keep is being besieged by neribians.

I haven’t ever got those feeling back with other expansions packs because I’ve been there and done that. I still enjoy levelling and loved Drustvar.

But…

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As a med student you should know that your brain only becomes fully mature at about 22-25 and the way you think changes too. It’s a slow process and most people don’t notice it but you do think differently to how you did 9 years ago.

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You were more easily impressed when young due to lacking experience and everything being new.

The thing Dottie talks about tho, it’s true, your brain does change every 9 years, purely biochemically.
On top of that, if we want to dabble in the occult knowledge like astrology, once every 25-30 years you are supposedly influenced differently by the planets to the extent of lifelong values changing etc etc
Am half ashamed I know this btw :pensive:, but she was sweet and girls like when you pay attention to their interests.

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Looks, I agree with you that as kids we were easily impressed by new things, now as adults we have to seek that new emotions through work. My goal in WoW when I started was to get lost in Azeroth whereas today I just want to be good in arena, raids etc… As Dottie mentioned, our brain changes as we age, I wrote that most of my daily “cognitive” actions are decision making to be efficient as possible during day. It is simmilar to what I do in game today ( I pick classes that are good in stuff that interests me ). Yeah, I guess its part of growing up. I agree with many stuff you guys mentioned above, I think you nailed it mostly. It’s always good to hear your thoughts guys, cheers :slight_smile:

Time goes faster as you age. You can’t get more of it, so the natural course of action is to use it more efficiently, so you get more out of life.

#guruLooks :pensive: :v:

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Don’t think just play - it’s not investment of career. Focus on having fun.

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Newly graduate dentist here.

Even though we had our lectures about physiology, neurology, embriology etc, I didnt know that brain becomes fully mature at around 25 years of age. So I dug in a little.

htt ps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/

Remove the space and there you go.

I’m just here to tell that I was amazed to learn this new fact.

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Hey, thank you for the article, it seems very interesting, gonna read it in the evening :wink:

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