*EDIT* As for PVP in WOW, it was not that bad - the only good thing about it that had EVE beat is that there is always a reliable supply of it and that, atl on paper, it's decently balanced. Ofc that's due to leveling system and that has it's down-sides too, (twinks, super-funded chars, etc.) I did however enjoy the option of stopping my level on 59 with the char I made later and keep at it there, if only for the constant feeling of revenge it got. WOW polarises the players and I never encountered a hordling who was not a blaring fool if he was way over my lvl - hooting hollaring and begging me to duel him so he could kill me. Annoying. Killing them over and over in battlefields was thus very satisfactory, but you never get the feeling of achievement like in EVE, for obvious reasons. The PVP was cheap and reliable like that, and at times that's all you want.
One of the few things I miss from WOW was the feeling of immersion you get at times when you walk around, because the areas are so versatile and varied. Questing in the Night Elf homelands was actually quite entertaining, surprizingly enough if only for the the idea that I was out helping 'my own kind' as such. Perhaps one day Blizzard will realize how they keep running the game into the mud and improve it, instead of making it worse. One can hope.
Lemme agree and disagree with you here.
First, I kinda agree with this idea of WoW PvP, that's it cheap and reliable. It is too as you say, despite the nay-sayers everywhere (mostly on the forums), very nicely balanced. Of course, there are flukes every now and then, but all that's very minor in the grand scheme of things. In a way, I wouldn't even compare Eve PvP with WoW PvP. Different animals entirely, but I will say that I have grown to really to enjoy PvP in WoW. It's not serious, like WoW in general isn't, and that's the point.
Which brings me to my next point. You're saying Blizzard is driving the game into mud and I disagree, though you didn't really go into specifics. In my eyes, they're making it more casual friendly and well.. I'm a casual, so I ain't complaining. In my eyes, they're making it a better game on the side as well. I for one enjoyed Wrath of the Lich King more than BC, even if I don't agree with every single thing that happened during the expansion (mostly, I think the ending was a bit meh, both storyline-wise and as a raid instance), but it still gave me my best moments in WoW.
Anyway, since abandoning Eve and going on hiatus from WoW, I've cruised in lots of different MMOs. That experience has really solidified my opinion that WoW is the best MMO on the market, while Eve is excellent as well (I was just a bit burned out and the game wasn't really evolving in directions that directly tickle my fancy) and certainly the most unique offering. It isn't that other games don't have good ideas, because they do, but WoW wins because on the whole it's a very nice piece of work and polished in a way that is difficult to appreciate without seeing the lack of polish in other games. Also, you mention the immersion factor.. it is huge. It's a shame that I've yet to meet another game to match it.
Oh, I'm entirely Horde and it is perhaps odd (or perhaps not), but the experience is similar on this side : Alliance seem like a bunch of teenage idiots. I think it's a matter of the wall between factions having been built very high in WoW, so the one's you see climbing over that divide to your side of the pond being always the worst of the bunch. Besides, I feel WoW is less about your entire faction as the community, but about your guild and associated players as your community of choice. So, when I feel at home in the Horde, it's my sub-community that I like.
Of course, I didn't choose the Horde because of the community I would join the future, but because of the lore. This inhuman army that came to ravage Azeroth, now stranded and calling it home, is what I have enjoyed in the game from the day I played the first Warcraft RTS. As a consequence and rarity as well, I entirely enjoy the post-Thrall Horde, even with its apparent fault lines and political tensions.
