Lore with Ekselius is a podcast and YouTube series. It is a project that I have started for the ones who do not speak English. In this project, I will be creating a series of podcast about the lore of Warcraft and YouTube videos.
I have been playing World of Warcraft since 2008. So far, it is the only game that I have played this much in my life. My journey into the World of Warcraft universe started with their third game, Warcraft 3 – I think many people have started with that one, too. Of course, back then I wasn’t proficient in any languages; even my native language was not enough to comprehend everything that was spoken. Thus, I did not understand while I was playing it. I was just a child, finding all the cheat codes online and destroying everything in my path. It was fun, though.
Back in my time, there were some popular games like Counter-Strike version 1.6 (there were fans of 1.5 too), Metin 2, and Knight Online. They were really common, and all my fellow peers used to play them. So did I. I still remember the days when we used to skip school and go to cyber cafes to play games. I didn’t know about World of Warcraft either. Once the year hit 2007, I learned about its existence. World of Warcraft was there. I did some research about it until I found that the game required a subscription to play. I just said “no way” then continued on. However, in 2008, I had a chance to play the demo version, which lets you play up to level 20. I was fascinated by it. More or less, I had five or six characters, and they didn’t even hit level 10, but still, it was fun to play the game. I tried nearly all the classes, wandered around, and, finally, didn’t understand anything from the game because it was in English, not Turkish. Somehow, I managed to buy the base version of the game because there was no one to guide me, and I wasn’t aware that I needed to buy all the expansion packs to be able to reach level 80. It didn’t matter, of course, as for months I couldn’t even pass level 30 because I didn’t know of the existence of addons that help you to complete quests too. What a journey! But I didn’t yield. I befriended machine translation – back in my day, it was translating even the word “battlefield” as a place where crops are grown, and battles take place. After a year, I had bought all the expansion packs, hit level 80, and even learned English enough to find my way around through zones. I was in the community of World of Warcraft, talking to people across Europe.
Since the day I started playing this game, I have met lots of Turkish players. Some were very proficient in English, but I have seen many who were playing because they were like me. I have also met people who want to get into the Warcraft universe but just cannot because they do not speak English, and there are only 3 books that have been translated into Turkish, which are obviously not enough, as there are nearly thirty years of lore. So, for the ones who want to get into the Warcraft universe and who do not speak English enough to understand what is going on in the Warcraft universe, I started this project.
If you want to support my channel and suggest content or help me improve the channel, feel free to contact me!
For Transcripts and blog, you may also check the following link:
Lore with Ekselius Blog
On the website above, I share the preparation processes for the podcast.
Burak Ekseli 