WoW was one of my favorite game experiences ever. The feeling of exploration, the living world, it was all quite awesome. I played it with a girl I was seeing, her brother, my nephews... we could play it with some of us in the same house, others far away and it was great to team together and go on adventures. It was cool to meet random player characters.
I haven't played it in a long time, and I found it has gotten worse. The instant dungeon team maker thing was great to speed things up but it lessened the social aspect of building a team and going out to find a dungeon. They also dumbed down and streamlined the tech tree lessening the character skill customization aspects.
But if you've never played you wouldn't know what you're missing there, so it may still seem awesome to pick it up. I never played for a really long time, just about a year in 2007-8 and again for about 6 months in 2009-10. Great game though, it's good you're trying it out.