OT: World of Warcraft....any good?

[Fyron]

The game isn't very good though; it's on the lower end of the MMO spectrum (which isn't saying much to begin with, but that's beside the point). People mainly play it because it is Blizzard...

If you want a decent MMO that has no monthly fee, try Guild Wars. You just by the game (and maybe an expansion; probably a boxed set by now) and its free from then on.

[AgentZero]

WoW is good fun, but I'd only really recommend it past level 30 if you have a bunch of real life friends that you can play with. I've been playing for a bit over a year now, and the most fun I had with it was playing with a couple guys from work.
One of the nicest things about it is it's simplicity, you start out with only your basic attack and one special attack/spell, and new skills become available as you level up, so you never feel overwhelmed. There's also no fiddling with stats, as they automatically increase according to your class each time you level, so you don't have to worry about 'gimping' yourself. Once you get up around level 10, you start being able to alter your stats a bit as you gain access to 'green' equipment, items that provide a various stat boosts when you equip them. Here again things are kept as each class has uses a specific armor type (cloth, leather, mail, and later plate) and the stat boosts afforded by the armor are directly related to the class that will be using it, so cloth armor provides boosts to your spells and mana, while mail & plate boost your strength and stamina.

Another nice thing about WoW is that you gain most of your experience through quests, which start out pretty simple (go here, kill that), and grow more complex as you gain in levels (I just finished a rather fun one that involved trekking into some unexplored woods, capturing a sample of voracious termites, then sneaking them into a hostile lumber mill to sabotage the enemy's lumber supply).

Even if you don't find a few friends to adventure with, most of the people out there are pretty decent folks. Yes, there are immature twits and 1337-kids, but the vast majority of people I've encountered have been willing to explain things if you ask, as well as being rather forgiving when you screw up as long as you throw an apology their way. In the year I've been playing, I've only really had two bad experiences, which is a heck of a lot better than I've done in the rest of my social interactions! A bit more common are people who don't understand their role in a group (priests who want to do damage instead of heal, for example), but even this is compartively rare.

That being said, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of it's downsides. As has been mentioned, it does soak up an awful lot of time, but then most games do. Then there's the monthly fee ($15 a months), but aside from SE4, I can't think of a single game I'm still playing over a year later. For me it's actually saved me money, since before I was buying 1-2 games a month and either finishing them or getting bored of them within a few weeks, whereas in the last year I've only bought 2-3 games, since between WoW & SE4 my gaming needs are pretty much met.
Then there's the aformentioned immature twits and 1337-kids, who can, unfortunately ruin your experience. There are ways of avoiding this though. A good guild is a start, and most guilds are willing to give you a guest membership for a couple weeks to a month which gives you an opportunity to find out whether or not you like the guild. Like it, stay on and rest assured you'll always have a brave band of heroes about to aid you in your adventures. Don't like it, leave and try a different one. Playing on an RP server also helps, since most of the kiddies seem to perfer the PVE or PVP servers. Playing on Role Playing servers also provides an entertaining diversion for when you're burnt out on other things.
Another downside is the fact that as fun as they may be, the quests don't scale very well towards the end game, and so from levls 50-60 it's far more efficient to grind (spending a few hours simply killing enemies to gain experience). Also from 55-60, most quests are a bit difficult to complete on your own, once again making grinding the more viable alternative unless you can easily recruit a few people who have the same quests as you.
And that leads me to one of the biggest faults in the game, which is that once you hit level 60, all there really is to do is grind. Either by yourself, grinding cash for the obscenely expensive end-game items, or getting into raid groups and raiding the same instances over and over and over to aquire the best end-game items. At this point, the people you play with make all the difference in the world. If you've got a bunch of mature, good-humoured folks, then raids will be something you look forward to with glee. If you've got a bunch of whinging eejits, they'll be something you come to dread.
On the upside, once you hit 60, you can always start a new character with a different class, since all the classes play so differently, starting a new character is almost like starting a new game.

Well, that's about all I can really tell you about WoW, but the best advice I could give you is try out the free trial and decide for yourself whether or not you like it. And if you do decide to give it a whirl, rest assured I'll be lurking around here if you ever need any advice.