A great MMORPG for both players new to the genre and familiar with it.
When you load the game up, you are given the choice on what realms (i.e. servers) to play on. After choosing a realm, you are taken to the character creation screen, where you can choose from two different factions. There is the Alliance, which consists of stealthy night elves, charismatic humans, quirky gnomes, and hardy dwarves. Rivaling the Alliance is the Horde, which is made up of fierce orcs, Jamaican-esque Trolls, shamanistic Tauren, and the creepy Undead. Each race has certain race-specific skills and attributes that add a little bit of uniqueness to a player's experience.
After choosing a faction and race, you can then choose what type of character you can play. There are magic users such as mages, who throw deadly bolts of fire and ice, and there are warlocks which use shadow power to summon creatures and steal life and cause damage. There are also sneaky rogues to play, hunters armed with guns or bow, warriors, priests that heal party members, and two faction-specific classes: the Alliance get a paladin, a cross between a priest and a warrior, and the Horde get the shaman, a character that uses the elements to cause damage and heal.
The Community of WoW is excellent, as there are always people on (as there should be, with over six million players worldwide) and therefore always people to quest with. While occasionally there is the snobby elitists, there are enough casual players in the game that if someone makes fun of you for being a "noob," the attacker will actually have a lot of people making fun of him in return.
As for gameplay, it is relatively standard in terms of MMORPGs: you select an enemy, then click on a skill you want to use to damage the enemy. Melee attacks are automated, but special attacks need to be manually selected in order to use them. There are thousands of quests, many of them faction and class-specific, so there is enough material to keep a player busy for months on end, if not years.
While player vs player (PvP) is not as intense as found in other MMORPS, it is satisfactory and more than enough to keep someone happy. Furthermore, it is always easy to find a group to PvP against, and the addition of PvP-only servers (servers where you are "flagged" for PvP and members of the opposite faction can attack you at will) create a new challenge for the more seasoned WoW player.
The only issues I have with game concern a few things. First, the graphics seem to be somewhat dated. While they dont look bad, and the environments are rendered well and are well-optimized, it would have been nice if a better engine were used. Second, I wish there were more options available when making a player: all characters look the same in a given race, and basically all a player is given is the ability to change the face (which are premade), hair, gender, beard, peircings, and a few other things. An Everquest 2 type of character generator would have been greatly appreciated, so that not everyone's character looks the same. Finally, there is a monthly charge, which alone is enough to drive many players away. However, given the success of WoW, I think many people are convninced that you get what you pay for, and what you pay for is an excellent game, with excellent customer support and a development team that cares.