Outstanding game but the small things hold me back from saying this is a flawless game.
One of the first reasons why I like World of Warcraft (WoW) is because you can just meet people questing or fighting monsters; not just in cities or dungeons. Later on though, I found this wasn't always the case. Most people you meet are through your guild or looking for groups for dungeons. Lots of people play the game but the world is pretty big to the point where you'll only meet most people in key areas such as cities, dungeon entrances or popular questing areas. The community is great; lots of people are friendly and intelligent. Of course like any other game, you'll meet people who you do not like but for the most part, you'll bound to find people you'll become friends with. One thing that I noticed, is that guilds and strangers tend to mostly talk about the game and nothing outside. A few other MMO's I played, people talked about various things and it was almost talking on IRC or MSN. However, this doesn't mean everyone is a hardcore WoW addict that only talks about the game.
The graphics are great, I was expecting them to look bad (videos and pictures didn't look that great) but they are actually top notch. The engine is really well done, you can play the game windowed or minimize with no problems (one of the great things about this game) and you don't need a top of the line gaming rig. I really like Blizzard's type of graphics, it isn't necessarily realistic but it's not cartoony either. There are also small little things that help with the experience such as the feeling of actually being in a large looming city with tall walls or when you fly, you actually fly in real time and you can see players and monsters beneath you.
The leveling system is great and so are most quests. I really like the rest system and the talent points are great. Not controlling your stats (strength, intelligence, spirit etc) works surprisingly well. I was also surprised how gear has such a large impact on your character as well. A lot of parts in the game, it's hard to find good grinding areas and the game mainly encourages you to do quests over grinding since quests give you more xp. This normally would sound like a good thing but at times it can be a bit problematic. Some points, you don't have any good quests left or just don't want to do your current quests and you simply want to kill monsters. There's a lot of areas where you can just go and repeatedly kill but a lot of them are ineffective as far as xp. There are certain levels where there are great grinding spots but most people just grind for gear.
Another problem is the level cap. There has to be one because of the pvp portion of the game. If there wasn't a level cap then there would be a select few of people that would be level 180 and overpower the rest or the guards. The problem is once you reach level 60 it's all about gear or pvp. I'm mainly a pve (player vs environment) person which is why I like WoW since it has a great pve part. You can still do dungeons (instances) when your 60 which are plenty (the game somewhat focuses more on the higher level instances than the lower ones) with great boss battles but then it's all about gear, quests or trying new instances for the first time. You'll either then forced to go into pvp or make a new character if you don't like the option of running through instances (or just goofing around and helping other players).
Overall, WoW is a masterpiece and is really well done. There's nothing wrong with the game on the outside, it's just small little things. I actually completely stopped playing this game just over two months. I'll probably get back into it some day like I do with a lot of games I enjoy but the game isn't flawless. You pretty much need a good guild to get full enjoyment of the game because that's how you mainly meet people (or have your friends introduce you to their friends). Nonetheless, the engine and the world are amazing. The monsters and characters are creative and the leveling system is well done. It's just the small things that hold me back saying this is my favorite game.