Why is WoW so popular?

[Snarky Username]

Honestly, it's really fun, despite what many say. The social aspect always keeps it fresh and there's never ever a shortage of things to day. But you probably shouldn't play if you are easily addicted or if you want to play other video games.

 

[tharglet]

I know that there is a monthly subscription fee. But I don't know how much that fee is, and what other monitary investments are required.

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=21450&parentCategoryId&pageNumber=1&categoryId=2324 <-- US subscription options (your profile says US)

I know that a new expansion is comming, but I'm curious if I would need to buy the original + all the expansion packs? just the original and Cataclism? or just the newist expansion pack?

Based on the other expansions no, you will need all of them to experience the content, but you don't need them all straight away, unless there's something you want from day 1 out of the expansions. I do suggest getting the battlechest though, as it's pretty cheap.

I've come to realize that there are different types of servers (PVP, PVE). I don't know what these stand for, or what the major differences between them are.

PVP = Player Vs Player - if you're in contested territory, anyone on the opposing faction can come up and fight you. Including anyone who's of a much higher level
PVE = Player Vs Environment - during normal questing you cannot be killed by the opposing faction, unless you "flag" yourself. You can "flag" at any time, but entering opposing cities (and certain towns) WILL auto-flag you. You can still fight players, if they're flagged, and do battlegrounds on PvE servers.
RP = Role Play. You're supposed to role-play on these servers, but there are a lot of non-RPing people on them. The people on them would appreciate it if you stay away if you're not interested in RP.

I also don't have any idea of how the alliance/guild/group system works on any level other than as a group of people of the same race.

Guilds are basically social groups - and people mainly form three types - social, raiding and PVP. Social guilds tend to be laid-back, and don't expect you to participate in events; raiding guilds are there to organise raids, and you will generally be expected to attend a certain percentage of the raids; PVP guilds tend to PVP a lot and may expect you to participate in premade battleground groups.
I suggest joining a social guild early on - you often end up picking up bits and pieces from people who've been playing a long time. Though there are a lot of useless guilds out there, so if you feel it's not working out, you can always /gquit.
(In the next expansion guild perks are coming - so you will get rewards depending on the level of the guild, and your reputation with them, which may colour you guild choices in the future)
For grouping, you'll mainly be doing so for dungeons using the dungeon finder, which will automatically group you up. For dungeons, you're usually fighting through groups of hard monsters and bosses, with one person getting the mobs to attack them (tank), one person healing (healer) and the rest DPSing (doing as much damage as they can to the mobs, without getting too much threat, and getting themselves killed ). WoW parties comprise of (up to) 5 people.

Hope this post helps

 

[thedeathscythe]

-snip-

I thought the same thing until I started playing. I go back and forth between playing it and not, I'm not hardcore about it, but for a couple months I really tried to be. WoW has a really likeable quality to it, from the look of the game, down to the interface, something about it just seems to work.

It's got a lot of events in it, and it's MASSIVE. I've played other MMO's, and they hosted a lot of players, but the world is amazingly large. You can have fun just running around exploring. You're also no boxed in anywhere, at Level 1, if you can run to a certain place, well, you can make it there. Pvp servers are where it's at, and certain locations can be taken and so one week maybe you'll be a friendly there, but next week maybe the other faction took it and you're a hostile if you go there.

The sheer amount of quests and the solid story line throughout the game also help. It's an existing world, from Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans to Warcraft 3, they've had years of working on this story, and it shows. It's in depth, there's connections everywhere and if you've played any of the Warcraft games, you'll feel at home.

I'm not gonna be a prick to you or anything, but I also wondered the same thing and this is just a little of what I found made me really like WoW. I don't play it religiously, but I like it, and I'm sure if/when you give it a chance, you will too.