Or whatever it is called. City of Heroes, or City of villians to be particular. Thing is, I have no idea what it is… I play a lot of computer games. I know what an RPG is… I have played Final Fantasy and Zelda (probably doesn’t count if you are hardcore). But what are these MMORPGs? What exactly do you do? Do you walk around and chat with other MMORPG players? I guess I always pictured it something like Final Fantasy meets AOL IM - is that accurate? What should I expect?
About the only thing MMORPG’s have in common with single player RPG’s, is the character progression.
In an MMORPG, you typically create a character roughly following the old D&D archetype (fighter, mage, rogue, cleric–though there are so many variations and hybrid classes that it isn’t as simple as that) and venture into the world.
In the world, as you may have guessed by the MM part of MMORPG (massively multiplayer), there are many other people also currently playing their characters in the world you share.
As to what you do, it depends on what you want out of it and what game you choose to play. Most players fall into one of a few catagories: there are the hardcore power gamers who play for countless hours and only seek to gain as much power and prestige and money as possible as quickly as possible; there are the casual players who play for the fun of it and enjoy exploring the world and doing quests and perhaps crafting new items; and there are the socializers who really just use the game as a giant chat program with graphics.
Of course there are people that fall between those generalizations, but that sums up most people.
The object, if there truly is one, is to advance the pre-written plot of the world’s designers. This usually consists of some minor quests and fights with NPC’s to get you used to the game and the user interface. From there, you pretty much have free reign to explore as you will. Some places will be far above your abillity, and some places will be below. As you adventure, you can meet people and make friends; join with other players to form groups to accomplish certain goals; join a guild of people dedicated to some aspect of the game (the “fun” guilds are the best IMO).
Ultimately, what you do is dictated by what game you play, but most MMORPG’s are fairly typical in that you adventure (i.e. kill monsters and/or do quests) to earn money and experience so that you can better equip yourself with spells and items so you can adventure in more dangerous places and repeat the cycle.
You can interact with the other players as much or as little as you choose, and indeed some people prefer to just solo.
Be forewarned though: they can be very addictive; they can require huge amounts of time and dedication; and they can potentially suck if you have to do everything on your own.
Play whatever your friends are playing. MMORPGs are best enjoyed with people you know in real life, so you can help each other out and whatnot. The interaction with other players is half the game.
cleaned up that post for ya 
the games can be fun as hell, there are as always some asshats you will have to deal with but most peeps will be pretty cool. while I havent played CoH I used to play evercrack. some of the peeps I met in game are still friends. seriously though, unless you have a crapload of freetime to just blow spending infront of your pc or a high tolerance for addiction these games can suck you in bigtime. some of my guildies would be online EVERY single time I logged in.
I can’t play a game if it isn’t a mmorph. I’m too use to the social aspect of them. Reading the misc chat that goes on, the people watching, etc… You meet a variety of people. From asshats to genuinely good hearted people. In original EQ half my guild was from Europe, lots of Danes.