Quote: "Someone give me a reason to play WoW..."
Reasons to play an MMORPG (I don't play WoW, so I'll just give you a general account):
There is a social level: MMORPG's at the end of the day are designed to be social. Sometimes, it is important to the game that you do take on the social side of things. Final Fantasy XI does this, if I want to complete Chapter 3 on the Windurst missions, I need to be able to pass what people call '3 mage gate', you need a White Mage, a Red Mage and a Black Mage to pass it. To finish the quest that increases your level cap from level 55 to 60, there's no way in hell you'd complete it on your own. You'll die. Simple as that. Of course that doesn't mean you have to be really sociable, there's people on my linkshell (same as a guild) that barely say anything, but I've got a big mouth, as you can imagine.
It never ends: You don't complete an MMORPG, there's always something new to do. Think, Final Fantasy XI was released in 2002, it is STILL having new content added, even though Final Fantasy XIV was released not too long ago, the 'Heroes of Abyssea' expansion was released last week and Square promises there's going to be even more. FFXI has 4 main expansion packs, 3 add-on scenarios and 3 battle area add-ons. They have added new areas, new missions, new abilities, new quests, new equipments and raises in level caps and in the case of the main expansions, new jobs/classes. There's simply no way you're going to be able to do everything. So you can keep on going with an MMORPG and put in lots and lots of hours, I've probably put in over 400 hours into FFXI.
Gameplay factor: What does it offer over a normal RPG? The gameplay design is very similar to other RPGs out there, you'd probably pick gameplay based on your own personal preferences. World of Warcraft plays differently to Final Fantasy XI and both have a different feel, and many would argue that Final Fantasy XI is a lot more challenging, that can be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, it's a bit of both, I find difficult moments in a game to be entertaining, but they can also be frustrating. FFXI has broken my sanity before.
There are of course, cons with MMORPGs, sometimes there's some unnecessary running around that's tedious. To become a Dark Knight I had to use a sword that hit 10 times every minute, which is also fairly weak and use that sword to kill 100 enemies. To become a summoner, to accept the quest, I had to get an item called 'Carbuncle's Ruby', which is only dropped by Leeches and they have a very low drop rate, I probably killed 120 leeches before it dropped, somebody I know got it within about 5. Then you have to take carbuncles to see 7 different weather effects, so it means hunting down different zones in hope that the right weather effect is on. I suspect WoWers suffer similar tasks.
People can be d-bags too. But that's life. You can meet lots of lovely people and join a guild/linkshell/group/whatever of perfectly decent people, so d-bags aren't something to be put off by. If you're running a party, warn them, if they persist, kick them out. I had one guy get really mouthy with me because I refused to steal another party's camp (who were there first and said they wouldn't be long), everyone in my party, but one guy didn't mind moving to the crappier camp for a short while, that one guy left once I stood my ground, so no kicks necessary. My linkshell doesn't allow for d-bag behaviour (even swearing isn't allowed), so it's a pleasant place to communicate with folk, so I try to get as many people from there as I can for parties and don't have to deal with idiots so frequently.
Another con is that they ARE addictive. It can become a problem if you allow yourself to become addictive, it does just happen to geeks with no lives and with a lack of touch with reality. It's just the way they work - you hit one target, then another one comes, so you want to hit that and so on. "Oh, I hit level 60, well, come on level 70!" I've been level 60 for 2 weeks and I've barely played this week, I might hit level 62 at the weekend, 63 if I'm lucky, as I might do a grinding session. I know some people who went from level 85 to 90 within the space of a few hours, after the cap was increased, even all-nighters. I don't do that. It's a silly thing to do in my mind - I don't need to go up 5 levels THAT urgently.
