So I've been a pretty serious gamer since about age 5. I'm 23 now. I've never played a minute of WoW. It is currently downloading. This is probably a horrible idea...

WoW Vanilla is still a lot fun to explore and look around, no idea how much cataclysm improved/fucked that up. BRD is like heaven, could spend years of my life just wandering around there getting more Ironfoes, Circles of Flame, and Master Builder's Shirts; and I probably did spend at least a couple of weeks there real time (took ~175 emp runs to get the first Ironfoe). Every new dungeon (in every MMO pretty much) is just a corridor with 3 bosses, rinse and repeat. BC questing was okay, Wrath questing was easily the best part of that expansion; no idea about the newer expos.

Assuming they never did anything to it Silithus and AQ 20/40 are all pretty sweet. Raiding is a good way to make you hate stupid people.

Your first time is the best time. They really put a lot of work into the world and the story, take your time and treat it more like a single-player RPG than an MMO. It seems like the idiots were writing the story for Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 while the talented writers were busy doing WoW.

I'd be really curious to hear about how your experience with WoW goes, being a first-time player this late in the game's life.

You might catch the WoW bug. If you're prone to regret past transgression against common sense, you might then find yourself regretting a lot about it. However, if you cherish the moment, I can only recommend losing yourself to WoW. Given your passion and commitment, it will be a memorable experience for sure.

That said, this isn't WoW's heyday anymore. Some of the magic it once possessed is lost in time forever. Feel free to prove me wrong. Have a nice stay in Azeroth!

I'm still playing WoW pretty regularly (though we are on a raid break at the moment until 5.4 hits) feel free to hit me up with any questions regarding the class, game or mechanics within it you may have. Otherwise i will just re-state the sentiments issued by others above me, take your time - explore, read quest dialogue - and dont let other players idiocy or rage blemish your time.

Wow is pretty fun. you'll get bored of it but it's a good time while it lasts.