I’m an ex-EQ player, now playing WoW. I’ve tried City of Heroes (the superhero one), Anarchy Online (the doomed-from-the start scifi one), EQ2 (ugh!), Star Wars Galaxies (ugh x 2!) and most others.
I’ve been playing WoW now since beta, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a big improvement on anything else out there.
Nobody has yet mentioned how beautiful the game is. For those of us who are not late teen, mid-20 kewl dudes, the “World” part of “World of Warcraft” is as important as the “Warcraft” bit. The first time I saw Ironforge - a dwarf city built into a mountain - I was awestruck. You run up this ramp to the city towering above you, all stone and snow and frozen spires, and go through this huge portcullis. Once inside, the mountain is hollowed out, and the city is in a ring around a huge forge in the center. You can practically feel the heat from the molten ore that flows like a river through the place. It’s truly awe-inspiring.
Same with a lot of other places - the elven lands are soft and forested, filled with wisps and other pretty critters. Taurans (a race of cow people) live in a pseudo American West - think South Dakota or Colorado - and have a culture much like the Native Americans. Humans are right out of King Arthur, with Stormwind, their capitol city rising out of a green forest and done all in white marble.
Scarier places also exist. Between Ironforge and Stormwind lies the Burning Steppes, looking like Mordor and populated with dragons and evil dwarves. The plaguelands were once a thriving human area, but has been overrun by undead and plagued beasts. Want to know how it got that way? Talk to the people in the few safe camps around the area - they’ll tell you the history, and maybe send you into one of the ruined cities to try to save some of their buddies.
And that brings us to quests. WoW, and most modern MMOs, are driven by quests. You don’t just randomly go out and kill things (although you can if that’s what you want to do). You talk to the computer-generated people (called NPCs, short for non-player characters) and they will give you stuff to do. At the beginning, it’s usually things like a dwarf wants a certain ingredient to make his Super Dwarven Stout, and unfortunately this ingredient only grows in an area patrolled by trolls. Go get some, and he’ll share his stout with you.
As you progress, you get more complex quests, some that form stories as you complete them. I found a couple of elves outside a Tauran village (elves and taurans are enemies in WoW), in which was a big cage full of sprite darters - little butterfly like dragonlings. The elves were very upset at this, and enlist your help to let the sprite darters out of the cage. Once you do that, you’re given a sprite darter egg that they found during the rescue, and you have to run around the world trying to find people to tell you how to care for it. Four or five quests later, the egg hatches, and you’re rewarded with your own sprite darter as a pet.
Also of note is the social aspects of the games. You tend to meet people, and some nights I log in as much for the chat session as I do for the game. Think of it as a chat board with some monster-killing thrown in, if that’s what you like. Some games heavily rely on groups of people to do things - others, like WoW, are possible to solo a lot (but not everything). Either way, a big part of the fun for me is hanging with my buddies. I’ve been playing games for going on 4 years now with a single older guy living on the West Coast, a thirty-something married woman with 2 kids in Missouri, an early 20s guy who I’ve seen go from college to wondering what to do with his life to joining the airforce. I’ve never met any of them, but probably talk to them all 3-4 times a week. Very different people, but for whatever reason we mesh in game and have a good time together.
Personally, games fill in the time for me that other people spend in front of the TV. I’ve never seen an episode of that Raymond show, don’t care about the reality shows, and wouldn’t even know things like “Lost” or “24” exist except for the threads in Cafe Society. Nights not spent hanging with the hubby and friends are generally spent in front of the computer. I can’t claim that’s any great thing, but if I’m comparing it to TV, games are more interactive, stress the brain a bit more, and are superior, IMO.