Remembering My First... Green

You might be looking at the title and thinking to yourself what is the big deal about a green.  If you are, then there can only be two reasons you would ask that.  One is that you already knew a bit about the game before you started, so you knew a basic green item isn't really all that special or two, you seem to have forgotten the feeling when you got your first one.

I was still a baby hunter starting out in the world with no money, no bag space and no clue what I was doing.  I was having a hell of a time too, enjoying the crap out of it but it was beating me up good.  I needed to eat and drink nearly every other mob and that stuff is expensive when you are new.

I had killed a few nightsabers in my travels and got some junk item that sold for 33 copper from it.  It seemed to drop often, but it did not stack.  I figured this would be the way I could play for my food and drink, 33 copper was a fair deal of money.

Lets face it, when you first start and you don't know any better and everything that drops is 1 or 2 or 3 copper something that is 33 copper seems like a hell of a lot.  Heck, the most expensive thing I recall seeing was maybe 7 copper or 11 copper and that was armor.

So at the tender age of 6 or maybe even 7 I started my first grind, to make some awesome money.  Awesome in my mind from my limited experience of course.

As I had almost no bag space I stayed close to someplace I could sell and went out and killed nightsabers and came back to sell all the 33 copper items.  It was mildly stressful because they did not stack and I had to run back to sell all the time but when I could collect these high priced items, it was worth it.  Occasionally I would even get a rare drop of a paw, which was 92 copper, could you believe that, 92 copper.  I was so excited when one of those dropped.

In my farming for riches endeavor I looted one body and saw something I had never seen before.  It was a green item.  It was not a piece of armor or anything I had ever seen before.  It was called Malachite.  I immediately thought that this must be some really rare item.  I mean after all I had killed hundreds of cats already and I had never seen this yet.  It has to be something really special, something really rare.

I was so excited, I had to get to the main city to see if I could sell this.  My grinding days where over, I would have more then enough money to buy all the food and drink I needed, yes, hunters needed mana, and I seemed to need to drink all the time back then, and eat too.  Heck, that is the main reason I was grinding.  I could not even afford food and drink and when I started to make what seemed like good money I figured, why stop.

I made sure to check and double check my bags when I was selling off my junk items so I did not accidentally sell this super rare incredibly expensive item that would make sure I never had to worry about buying food and drink again.

As I walked to road to the main city, Darnassus, a place I had never been yet, I was very cautious because there where mobs higher than I was.  I was a level 9 now I think, pretty sure I did not have my pet yet, but they where still a lot higher then me.  I did not want to get killed on my way to see what I could sell this item for.

When I finally made it to the city I was amazed by how huge it was and I got lost so very easily.  I spent more time talking to the guards that first visit there to ask my way around than I think I have in all my years playing since then.

I made my way to the auction house and typed in malachite and hit search expecting to see myself being able to sell it for a fortune.  When the search came up and I saw that it sold for about 1 gold I was glad, one gold would have been a lot, but I was expecting so much more from such a rare item like this.  I had almost had 1 gold already just from my grinding, that was not really all that much, I had expected so much more.

I listed it for 95 silver and went looking around Darnassus some more, viewing what some vendors had, seeing that there where bags for sale, and realizing that the amazing wealth I had come across was not really anything special.  Neither were the 33 copper items I was farming for when compared to what things cost it seemed.

Being my little grinding expedition had amassed me a fair amount of silver, enough to buy food and drink for quite a bit, and I noticed it really was not much in the long run, when I went back I did not grind any more.  It was back to leveling and getting what would soon become my life long companion and best friend.

That was no big deal, it was time to move on anyway, but the sad part for me was that while questing another malachite dropped a few levels later and it didn't feel that special any more.  The joy and excitement of getting the first one was what we play these types of games for.  Now, it was just another item.  And item to auction off, because I had no clue what it was used for anyway.

Now, years later, when a green drops it goes into one of three categories usually.  Send it to my bank alt for later should I need it for leveling a profession, like malachite would, send it to an enchanter to disenchant, or vendor it.  Not really all that exciting is it.

Greens are nothing more then colored garbage to me now, but nothing will ever replace that feeling I had when I got the first one ever.  It was exciting.  It made me feel as if I had gotten something special.  In a way, it is one of the things that made me fall in love with the game. 

The beauty of finding everything new, that first time, the exhilarating feeling you get when you experience the good things that first time.  Those are memories that are nice to look back on and they help you remember why you enjoy the game, even if that feeling is long gone when you get a green now.

Now when I level a new character and get a malachite drop, which seems quite common when leveling, I always get a smile on my face because I remember my first one.

BTW, I never did get rich from it, it did not sell for 95 silver, or 80 silver I listed it for afterwards a couple of times.  By the time it did sell, I had so much gold I did not even notice the money I made from it.  In the end, it doesn't make it any less special when I remember it, it was still my first green and I still was extremely excited when I got it.

If anything, it got me away from grinding for 33 copper drops and into heading forward in the game.  By making me go to the city and making me see the prices it made me notice that there is so much more to the game than farming for 33 copper items and grinding cats, there was a much bigger world that awaited, a world where malachite was less then 1 gold, even it was was green.

Greens might be nothing to me now, but malachite will always hold a fond place in my memories as my first green.