I started World of Warcraft around late 2005 or early 2006, not long after moving to the UK. My parents had signed me up for college to learn English. I didn’t really want to, but I had no choice.

​I walked into a GAME store and asked if they could recommend me something. He showed me World of Warcraft. Looking at the box, I thought, this looks cool. I didn’t really know much about the game.

​I traded my old phone for it, took the box home and started installing it. There were many CDs, and a lot of updates to install.

​I started the game as an Alliance Night Elf Druid. My first impression was that I was lost in time. There were these giant trees walking around, and everything in that world was unlike anything I had seen in a game before. It almost felt unreal to experience it. I was happy.

​As I progressed through the game, I started meeting people through quests. I still remember a Dwarf player. He was playing with his friend, and they invited me to play with them. I can’t remember them well, but I still remember their characters. We mostly just typed to each other, but at the time that felt very special.

When I first arrived in Ironforge, one of the Alliance cities, I saw a Gnome Rogue in really cool-looking armour. People were standing around him. Until then I didn’t know characters could even look like that.

I reached level 60. It took a very, very long time.

Getting a raid started was a pain. Just getting 40 people online and travelling together could take hours. Sometimes we’d end up fighting the Horde before we even got inside.

​One Molten Core raid went on for about ten hours. All I can recall now is falling asleep right next to my keyboard and managing to get the entire 40-person group killed. I thought people would be very angry with me, but nobody cared.

​I remember leaving my Alliance guild and starting to play Horde. I joined a group that specialised in PvP, and we spent hours together in premade Battlegrounds. I remember our guild leaders, a Tauren Druid and a Human Warrior. They were so geared and so skilled that fighting against them almost felt like asking for trouble.

We practised a lot outside Orgrimmar, just chilling, talking and duelling. Those are my best memories of World of Warcraft.

​In the summer, I bought myself the original soundtrack CD from 2004 and a Technics CD player. Sometimes when I need some peace and quiet and just want to relax, I put on my headphones and listen to it. The music brings these memories back.

​I tried World of Warcraft Classic to see if being back in that world would make me feel anything. I found myself back in the Barrens. The roads and the landscape were still there, and people were running around and spamming chat like they did before.

It felt strange being back there. I was around 18 when I first played it.

I’m 39 now, with a completely different life and different responsibilities.

But somehow, World of Warcraft still felt like home.