Nathan is right about the addictiveness. You only get addicted when you want to be. Quitting my job also had to do with it being burnt out and I was planning heading back to school when I quit. I just delayed myself a little longer because I wanted epics heh.
Fifteen dollars a month isn't too bad (case of bud light on a friday night for me or rum lol). I think WoW has made alot of changes to help casual players get great gear. Theres plenty to do and the fact that the entire world is open without loading times is amazing. There are some loading times like when you switch continents, go to instances (dungeons or PvP), or head to Outland.
Dungeons always keep you busy heres a list of all of them (The ones on Azeroth not the expansion).
Ragefire Chasm (RFC) (13-16)
Wailing Caverns (WC) (17-20)
The Deadmines (VC) (17-20)
Shadowfang Keep (SFK) (18-21)
Blackfathom Deeps (BFD) (21-24)
Stormwind Stockade (Stocks) (23-25)
Razorfen Kraul (RFK) (24-27)
Gnomeregan (Gnomer) (25-28)
The Scarlet Monastery:Graveyard (SM) (30-32)
The Scarlet Monastery:Library (SM) (33-35)
Razorfen Downs (RFD) 25 (34-37)
The Scarlet Monastery:Armory (SM) (35-37)
The Scarlet Monastery:Cathedral (SM) (36-40)
Uldaman (Ulda) (36-40) (I hate this place)
Zul'Farrak (ZF) (43-46)
Maraudon (Mara) (43-48)
Temple of Atal'Hakkar (Sunken Temple) (ST) (47-50)
Blackrock Depths (BRD) (48-56)
Dire Maul:East (DM) (55-58)
Lower Blackrock Spire (LBRS) (54-60)
Dire Maul:West (DM) (57-60)
Dire Maul:North (DM) (57-60)
Stratholme (Strat) (58-60)
Scholomance (Scholo) (58-60)
Upper Blackrock Spire (UBRS) (58-60)
Zul'Gurub (ZG) (60+) Raid
Onyxia's Lair (Ony or OL) (60+) Raid
Molten Core (MC) 50 (60+) Raid
Blackwing Lair (BWL) 60 (60++) Raid
Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (RAQ or AQ20) (60++) Raid
Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (TAQ or AQ40) (60+++) Raid
Naxxramas (Naxx) (Honored - Argent Dawn) (60++++) Raid
There are also world raid enconters like Azuregos and The green dragons.
Heres one green dragon called Lethon.
Theres just as many in the expansion and Wrath of the Lich King expansion is on its way. I always found dungeons to be the most exciting content besides leveling and seeing new areas for the first time.
I guess the main problem with this content is you can't do it by yourself. You need friends and random groups usually suck. Players that never play with each other often don't know how to coordinate and you usually die alot. You also have some a-holes that ninja loot somtimes.
When I started if you wanted to PvP you just went to a town and started trouble. The implemented PvP honor system a long time ago which allowed items rewards for killing oppsing factions. They now have many ways to PvP through battlegrounds and Arena (fun way to fight other players and get epics!).
I just wanted to add some more thoughts because I don't think my original post was too helpful. This game never ends. You may get bored of just playing but theres always more gear to strive for, reputations to increase, dungeons to be conquered, PvP battles to be won, professions to work on, quests to be done, classes to be leveled, money to be made, and friends to meet (theres stuff i'm probabl forgetting).
I've always had a gripe on character model customization. Its certainly not as in depth as this game. All players of a certain race are the same size (male and female differ). All male humans are bodybuilders. I wish you could make characters a little more unique.
I always thought the graphics were prety decent a bit cartoonish but it never bothered me too much.
All in all what makes WoW a great game is for the same reasons POTCO is a great game. The ability to go on adventures with real people. Most of the fun is just goofing off with people you meet.
Oh and the note of graphics I found this a little while ago (those tha play may have heard of this). I never got to try it because I had already quit.
from worldofraids.com:
Some players found a way to improve WoW graphics by manipulating several console commands. The following macro will do the job:
/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0
You have to restart WoW for some of the effects to be used.
What does this do?
• The vegetation can be seen from miles away (grass flowers etc) plus there seems to be FAR more of it.
• The "bloom" effect seems to be more vivid.
• The view distance is greatly increased.
• Everything seems to be more sharp and crisp.
• The weather effects appear to be more intense.
However depending on your hardware you might encounter some fps issues (low framerates), so here is the macro to revert the changes (you can also go to video options and pull all the detail options to minimum):
/console groundEffectDensity 16
/console groundEffectDist 1
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console farclip 177
/console characterAmbient 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console detailDoodadAlpha 1