While browsing the
General Discussion forums the other day, I noticed a
recently-resurrected 2007 thread collecting players' oldest screenshots. Due to the age of the thread, some of the links (mostly on the first two pages) are dead and gone, which was really disappointing because some of them sound great, but there are plenty of good ones. Among the best are the
character creation screen during beta, the
old Troll epic mount, and -- according to Gorhendizzle of Bloodhoof on
page 5 -- the first
publicity screenshot Blizz ever released. I don't know whether that's true, but trying to figure out what the screenshot is
of is driving me nuts. It looks like Elwynn, but I can't tell where.
My own oldest screenshot (see above) is fairly tame by comparison; I had just turned 41, and was proudly astride my new kodo on a starry night outside Orgrimmar. What (if anything) prompted you to start snapping ingame pictures? Are there any historical gems buried in your own screenshot folder? Search your hard drive; you know it to be true.
Tags: beta, character-creation, epic-mount, forums, mount, mounts, publicity, screenshot, screenshots, white-raptor, wow-beta, wow-forums
Filed under: Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
May 11th 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Pyornthe May 11th 2009 8:08AM
I have a bunch of sets of armor I put together that I was pretty pleased with. They seem so simple compared to the stuff I make my toon wear now.
Other than that, it's mostly funny glitches I found. I think the first one was an ogre stuck in the group up to his shoulders in the cave in Arathi Highlands.
Axolotl May 11th 2009 8:08AM
Haven't snapped any ingame pictures yet, maybe I should.
I think taking pictures is part of taking this game too serious, maybe that's why I haven't made any yet.
Pyornthe May 11th 2009 8:10AM
I always figured that even though it's a game, I spent /real/ time playing and enjoying it, and thus created real memories. I have pictures taken when I was a little kid playing soccer and they're fun to look through and remember; why wouldn't I want to look back at another game I enjoyed for many years?
Sure, they're both just games, but they've had an effect on our lives, no matter how little we think we invest in them.
Cyanea May 11th 2009 8:15AM
My first was my first mount as well. It was on my Nelf hunter (yes, spare me the jokes). I was wearing the tabard that dropped off of Herod. A lvl70 gave me the 40g that I needed to get the mount (which I refused to take at first because I thought it was a lot of money back then. I wipe my nose with that now. :P), and then she gave me four Netherweave Bags, a nice blue BoE bow and 2her sword.
Those were the days.
automator May 11th 2009 10:54AM
Aw, when times were simple ...
Shyama May 11th 2009 3:34PM
Random giving away still happens!!! When I first started playing last year, I was doing starter quests with some guy and befor he logged off he was like "here. Have 5g." Not much, but to me at the time it was quite exciting. And just last week I was in the plaguelands working on my hunter and a random 80 priest opened trade and gave me a nice blue BoE crossbow.
Ricardo Swagger May 11th 2009 4:47PM
My wife and I started playing in early march. She was a level 1 blood elf hanging around in the starter zone and a guy opened up a trade window and gave her 500 G. Even new to the game I knew that was a ton for a level 1 character to start out with.
He explained that he was leaving the game and was giving all his stuff to some lowbies.
When I hit level 30, she paid for my mount as I didn't have the 40 gold needed. I really only started seeing a gold reserve more than her when I started questing in Outlands. Now that I'm level 70, 500 gold doesn't seem like a ton anymore, though it's still nothing to sneeze at.
She plays a lot less than me (and she plays 4 characters...) so her main hasn't even hit 30 yet. She still has that 500 gold.
Kirioth May 11th 2009 8:20AM
Mine was on my first character, an Orc Rogue. I was making my first ever batch of poisons. It feels weird to think that something that had such significance for me back then doesn't even exist any more.
Worcester May 11th 2009 7:03PM
Plus you went through all the effort to get the Poison skill as a Horde rogue. Not easy by any means.
I'm not exactly a nostalgic person, but I do miss some of those elements that helped the game feel more "real", or at the very least, more "fantasy". Yeah, it was a hassle to make your own poisons, but it felt like something that made sense. I'm glad to have an extra slot in my bag, but how exactly am I opening locks without some sort of tool?
Ah... the (not quite) good (not quite) old days.
Andraste May 11th 2009 8:29AM
My first screenshot is of my warrior at Level 21 - I think I pressed the print screen key by accident because there is nothing particularly interesting about it. It is interesting though because since then I did the recustomisation sex change, stopped being prot, grew about 60 levels and generally don't look like a rubbishy low level char, and instead have T8. I'm not going to delete it anytime soon I don't think.
Locked May 11th 2009 8:42AM
+1 to accidentally tapping print screen.
All of my initial SS's are of conversations I was having at the time as my old keyboard had its print screen key right next to backspace >.<
It did, however, start a hobby of documenting my characters journeys, which I now look back on quite fondly. Definitely a habit I recommend.
Eisengel May 11th 2009 1:42PM
I have a few screenshots like this since print screen is a little button next to numlock for me (run). It's fun because I don't go and delete the picture, I just re-numlock and resume what I was doing... and then months or years later I'll go through my screenshot folder looking for something, and find all these old screenshots, which are fun to look through and recall what I was doing at the time.
Lylo May 11th 2009 8:29AM
My first screenshots were of MC and Kara killshots.
I think it's great to remember the names and "faces" you spent your evenings with, not to mention that epic feeling you got when stepping into your first raid :D
Kemikalkadet May 11th 2009 8:31AM
Mine was from my first character when it was around level 30. I'd got bored of levelling and decided to go explore, somehow found myself in Burning Steppes and ended up in that place with all the elite giants. My first pic was of one of the giants, my second was of my corpse next to that giant :P
Yorickk May 11th 2009 8:38AM
3 years ago (I think), the guild that I was in (The Beatniks on Kirin Tor) did some of the Lunar Festival stuff together as a group. We took time out to snap a quick guild portrait. None of the screenshots that I took were all that good, though. Still brings back some fun memories, though.
zolikk May 11th 2009 8:39AM
That Elwynn Forest pic really bugs me too. It could be a test zone, but it's still so annoying to see a picture of a place you can't explore right away with your character.
RogueJedi86 May 11th 2009 8:48AM
Wow, I don't recognize the Elwynn from that picture either. Definitely pre-beta. Elwynn's changed since. The picture almost looks like Loch Modan.
Iain May 11th 2009 8:52AM
Isn't that Lordaeron pre-Scourge?
Facing NE on the road from Silverpine.
Veliaf May 11th 2009 11:38AM
I concur, I think it must be. The trees are the wrong kind, and it's sunny, but the architecture of the wall matches, and the path would be correct. Still... >
Knob May 11th 2009 8:50AM
My first screen was actually me recording a bug. It's one of those where you see a player on the flight path "mount" even though they're on land. This was back in classic WoW. I'm ashamed to say that I was the typical WoW-newbie who rolled a male NE hunter with a horrible name on a PvE server. :( Here's the screen: http://hdimage.org/images/3smfhgdcpze5oc2ak77_ocrnhot092505224124.jpg
My first legitimate screenshot was just a few days later when I took a screen of my first auction sale! It was a woolen bag that sold for a whopping 1g!!!! http://hdimage.org/images/d6v4rsdyd0qe56h0an50_ocrnhot092805215934.jpg
Ah, how the value of gold has changed.