The good, the bad, and the ugly on World of Warcraft for the PC.
1 - Performance: The first thing I noticed about WoW is how well it installed on my system. The graphics are more cartoonish than realistic and the environments while looking very good are not all that detailed and graphic intense (not for todays hardware). There were no bugs during install or during game play really accept the usual in-game bugs that every mmorpg will have.
2 - Graphics: While the graphics were not cutting edge or at all stunning they were very well done. The art direction of WoW gets solid points. You are never at any point impressed by what you see but you are very much happy with it. The environments feel right which is a huge plus.
3 - Quests: There are enough quests in this game to keep any gamer occupied for years. WoW combines the best of what UO, EQ, DAoC, AC, Meridian, you name it and made an MMORPG gamers dream system. There is very little innovation in their quest system but innovation wasn't their target it was clearly deploying a quest system that was user friendly and they delivered.
4 - Character customization: There are plenty of character races and classes to choose from as well as enough models to make your typical gamer happy. Over a period of time you can customize your characters look in detail enough to make this a positive aspect to the game.
5 - Economy: The economy is almost entirely player driven. You're not going to find your next upgrade at an NPC vendor. WoW's use of the Auction House is very good and an interesting twist on the Bazaar in Everquest's Luclin expansion.
6 - Map: The size of the game world is very nice. WoW offers you enough space and variety of environments to make you feel apart of a real gaming world and not just a section of it.
7 - PvP: Until Guild Wars went live WoW offered the best in PvP in the MMORPG world. Since the old school days of UO have gone and went there haven't been a real fun PvP experience since WoW. The contested zones on PvP servers revitalized this gamer’s love of mmorpg pvp something that was lost a long time ago with games that couldn't produce in that area. Beginner level players might get owned early and novice players will probably find the pvp just right. If you're really into pvp you might find WoW a bit easy after a while and redundant. But they offer the battle grounds which are a lot like guild wars pvp areas.
8 - Instances: There are enough instances to make everyone happy in this game. They did a great job here.
9 - Story: WoW has a great story with great races in it. WoW offers a truly fun time going through all the races main cities and seeing the unique characteristics of each. I mean you can walk into Undercity (the undead city) and find a fight club or mad scientists torturing humans with chemicals and magic in order to get their revenge. I mean come on that's classic.
The bad
1 - XP Grind: Still exists in todays mmorpg's and wow is no different. WoW's xp grind is quite punishing especially if you're not a player who's been around since the beginning. The grind can be quite the deterrent for gamers.
2 - Monthly cost: Cost for WoW is high. They do a great job but the cost is a bit too much for me. No MMORPG I think is worth more than $9.99 US.
3 - Lack of innovation: WoW doesn't do anything that I haven't seen before. The winning aspect of WoW is that it takes the best of the mmorpg's and combines them into one. I'd like to have seen more innovation in the gameplay and functionality of the game.
The Ugly
1 - Patches: WoW uses Blizzard's peer to peer file sharing server which is slow as a 1200bps modem! I am sure they have an agreement with FilePlanet so that Blizzard continues to use that horrible user-unfriendly method updating their users with patches so that users pay FilePlanet to get them faster.
Overall
The positives in World of Warcraft far outweigh the negatives. If you're an MMORPG fan and you LIKE the XP grind WoW is for you. It is truly a great MMORPG and possibly the best ever made. You have to credit those who came before WoW for WoW clearly got the bulk of its ideas from them (no shame in that). If you've played EQ, DAoC, SWG, whatever mmorpg you want to mention and you don't like the XP grind then stay away from WoW and head to Guild Wars. If I had played WoW before EQ I'd still be playing WoW but I did most everything you'll find in WoW in EQ.