A k a i
Aileanna-chan
For all intent and purposes, WoW is a game, and for those 11+ million active account holders out there, they apparently enjoy it enough to pay and play. It doesn't matter if it's free or not, it doesn't matter if it's a waste of time in a day or not... it matters that to those 11+ million account holders how much fun they have playing it no matter the cost.
For the "free" mmo's and other games out there, it's the same thing. You are playing a game that gives you some fun in life. Nothing more than that.. just the same as WoW. Only difference is it's a completely different atmosphere and game style or whatever than WoW. The playing communities are smaller so you lack the social aspect on the grand scale you get with WoW and you don't get the storyline you have in WoW. Sure some of the freebies have some nice little stories behind them, but they aren't as detailed and integrated into the game as WoW.
But the bottom line of it all is this: You play what you like. If you like WoW, you play it, if you like Pokemon, you play it. But just don't go dissing others for what they like to spend their free time doing just because you don't like it. That's like having an arguement over the Whopper and Big Mac because ZOMG one has mayo and the other thousand island.. they are completely different and to each his own.
That said, I just ran my first heroic as a boomkin.. topped the dps charts by 100k against a better geared mage and the DK. Starfall +starfire + hurricane on the mobs in h. HoS = YEAH BABY! I ROCK!
Do they have fun? Most of them don't. They're kinda like zombies.
And I'm going to assume you know most to support this statement? I know quite a few on my server.. Eldre thalas is one of the more over populated servers.. and between horde and alliance, I have quite the interesting in game friends list.. usually I just do a /slash who of their guilds to see who's on since I know at least half the guild members of each of those in game friends... and none seem like zombies to me.. and I'm not a zombie. Most have jobs, families and what not that they always put first. Those who don't, they aren't zombies either.. but rather they have a life outside the game as well.
If we're not having fun, then we don't play. but nothing is more fun than getting a group of gaming friends on vent and in a raid or fun event together and creating havoc. We share a lot of laughs. And Zombies don't laugh.. or have fun .. that's why they are called zombies.. mindless creatures who have no will of their own.. and I do believe all the WoW players I've met pretty much have their own free still.
I watched my 19 yr old cousin play Halo III once.. THAT was watching a zombie. He was glued to the screen, the outside world null and void to him, just sitting there playing online with his friends in a stasis that was quite creepy and disturbing. I have yet to find a WoW player that is like that.