Startopia

find it in the bargain bin for $1.99

When you say multiple games it's probably from hearing about World of Warcraft, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.  The Burning Crusade is an expansion pack for World of Warcraft.  Just like how Frozen Throne was an expansion pack for Warcraft 3. 

Like the above poster stated, World of Warcraft is a persistant-world Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game.  Therefore, there is no offline portion of the game.  The game is not a continuation of Warcraft 3 or Frozen Throne but it is set in the same world or universe as Warcraft 3.  So if you play World of Warcraft you will see many, many things that are taken straight from Warcraft 3 like the lore, stories, characters, abilities, famous locations, events, etc.  So essentially it takes place in the same "world" as Warcraft hence the name "World of Warcraft".  As far as timeline goes I am not 100% certain but I'm quite positive World of Warcraft is set after the events of Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne.

mrbojangles says it all pretty accurately.   Raiding isn't for everybody but I found it fun.  When I first started playing WoW I hated running dungeons until I realized it was because the people I partied with were horrible players.  When I hit 60 (this is loooong before The Burning Crusade) I joined a casual guild that was fun with good people.  That can be boring after a while because your all kind of stuck there with the same equipment.  So we started raiding and though the beginning was tough, we had problems just getting enough people to show up to a raid to do one.  Then when we had enough people we were all unexperienced and underequipped.  Luckily my guild had good management.

Slowly but surely we made progress through Molten Core.  It was really fun to see ourselves progressing, to learn the tactics and see yourself and your guildmates get better gear.  It was fun to devise new tactics ourselves after something wasn't working.  Although we were raiding we maintained a 'casual guild' sense of mind.  My guild leaders never required that anybody spec their talents a certain way or wear certain gear, as long as you followed directions during a raid and didn't act immature then everybody had fun.  Sure we had our frustrations when we would spend 4 hours dying to the same boss but later on it was really fun and exciting to see us knock that same boss hard and we'd clear two more bosses.

Eventually after months and months of growing as a guild we were able to clear all of Blackwing Lair in about 3 hours.  Blackwing Lair was the 2nd hardest dungeon before The Burning Crusade.  We farmed Molten Core and Zul'Gurub for money instead of items and cleared those dungeons in 90 - 120 minutes.  We rose from a no-name casual guild to one of the top raiding guilds on the server, it took about a year.

So to me the most fun thing about raiding with a good guild, besides the phat lewtz, is growing and progressing as a guild and seeing the results.  I only raided about 1 or 2 nights a week while I was in college and had a girlfriend, so yeah, it's all about balance.

many people will reply and say how much FFXI sucks, it doesn't suck its just not for many gamers.  i had a 60 Dark Knight in FFXI and I currently play WoW.  FFXI is pretty much for your most hardcore of players who dont mind the grind and the fact you HAVE to party when you grind.  but still, to me WoW has much better quests, more immersive, detailed, and varied environments.  and can still be fun for a short gaming session.  in WoW you can solo grind for half an hour if you want.  but in FFXI if you want to get any experience at all you'll have to spend HOURS with a party.  and at the high levels it can take hours just to find a party, unless you have a dedicated and hardcore linkshell then I guess you wont have that problem.

but i say WoW

Star Wars:  Knights of the Old Republic