I'm probably just asking for the rabid fanboys to thumbs down my review, but this game's only fun the first time around.
I said it before on my vanilla WoW review, and I'm going to say it again: This game's popular. What makes it so popular? Well, a number of people, like me, got World of Warcraft because of the Warcraft tag on it, and I was excited to pick up this game after the great fun I had playing the Warcraft III campaigns over and over again.
When you first pick up World of Warcraft, you imagine a huge, rich world filled with exciting nooks and crannies and gorgeously detailed environments, as well as the option to make more characters with different varieties so you can just keep on playing this awesome, sickeningly fun game over and over again. Even when you make your first character you can still have this image in your mind, but once you reach level 20 or so you realize just how small the world is.
Of all the MMOs I've played, World of Warcraft is undeniably the smallest with the most minimal replayability. When you play one character you just can't wait to get started on another character because of how different it will be, but just after the first 10 or 20 levels you'll be doing quests and senselessly killing random things in the same location as everyone else. It's like Blizzard had vision when they started their starter areas and vision in the higher-level areas, but they were completely blind when it came to middle. And most of the game is middle.
Burning Crusade is an expansion pack that you will want to pick up just so that you can go another 10 levels and/or roll a blood elf/draenei. There's not really much more you can say about it. The only unique thing about blood elves/draenei is that you're running around with a new character model (or one of the originally faction-specific classes, but most roll a hunter or warlock anyway) and you can enjoy the new starter zones, but once they hit level 20 you're stuck in the long, dull middle that everyone has to stomach.
And the middle is perfectly fine on your first character, but if you ever feel like making a new character (which is an urge that most people get in the 40s and 50s) you will find that you're just doing the same thing over again with no rich, unique thing to speak of.
If you ever want to take a break to explore, you'll never just be able to look around and enjoy the scenery, because due to WoW's ridiculously small land scale, nearly every foot of land has a hostile creature on it. That would sound fun if WoW's combat didn't consist of doing the same thing over and over again.
So if you want to progress your character past level 60 or want to roll one of the two new races, knock yourself out and get BC so that you can enjoy Outland and spend hour upon hour doing the instances while you wait for Wrath of the Lich King so you can do the same thing all over again in a different environment with different mobs but the same moves and the same quests and the same routine.
Is WoW fun? Yes, it is. Personally, I had a blast on my first characters, but once I was level 50 on one of my characters I forced myself to get to 70 just so that I could say that I had a level 70. That's the thing about WoW which makes so many people play it: You feel FORCED to play it. World of Warcraft is addictive, but it's not even a satisfying addiction. There was a time since 2005 when I started playing that WoW was all I played. I can't tell you how many times I've cancelled my subscription just to pick it back up again because I was compelled to play it. After sessions of playing, I would always feel like I've wasted my time.
So why have I played for this long? Well, that's an easy question. I made some friends while I was playing and I only stayed around as long as I did because of them. If you're going to pick up WoW, hopefully you schedule play times with your friends or pick some up on the way, because they are all this game is worth.
A final note about WoW's popularity, however: This game has attracted such a large fan base because people play this game and tell other people to play it who tell other people to play it who tell others to play it, etc. It's a bit of a chain event, though eventually the first person who suggested it most likely isn't playing anymore after some time, just as the next person and the person after that probably will stop playing, too.
Another part of WoW's success is due to the fact that that people promote the ideal that WoW is, and shall forever be, the best MMO ever. People back this up due to the lack of roaring success of newer MMOs in comparison, like LOTRO and Vanguard. The thing is that WoW has been so successful in comparison to the newer MMOs because, despite those releases, WoW's never seen any credible competition. I won't mention any titles because it would give rabid fanboys an excuse to downrate my review (next to the fact that I no longer obsess over their omg best game ever), but if any of the new MMOs are actually fun, then tough times are waiting for Blizzard.
So there you have it. WoW is awesome for your first time around, and after that you stick around for your friends. Those internet buddies you make aren't worth the $15 a month, though, in my completely honest opinion.