Man, there is alot of reasons I don't like it and I can't really nail it down to one. I didn't care for any of your poll options except maybe the art style. I REALLY don't like it. I could spend a page just talking about that. Don't worry, I won't as I am trying to summarize all of it.
So my friend had me try it out around TBC
Along with graphics, I didn't particularly care for the combat, let alone the PvP. As well, I had pretty much grown tired of cliche fantasy settings. To give you an idea as a BioWare fanboy I have put off buying Dragon Age to this day because I fear being disappointed in the claimed cliche fantasy setting. So already I don't care for the setting, the combat mechanics, or the graphics. But my friend swore up and down that if I gave it a chance I would like it. Plus, he already made the statement that was the MMO he would be playing for a while. SO I definitely wanted to give this game a shot so I pushed through these qualms and found that I also didn't care for the quest system. Then I gave it time beyond that because at this point I was out of things left to examine. But I couldn't do it. The game just wasn't for me and I found it a bland depiction of MMOs in general.
I did like how orcs and alliance couldn't understand each other but that has been in other games as well and isn't enough to redeem a game by itself.
You hit a major point right here that I hold against WoW to this day:
AcacianLeaves said:
I think this is mostly due to the fact that I played WoW when it first released, didn't like it for various reasons, and ever since then I've been frustrated to find that all the things I dislike about WoW have permeated the MMORPG market.
This is a major problem for us that don't like WoW. The reason is because a lot of WoW players can't look beyond their nostalgia goggles for WoW and recognize a new mechanic for what it is. First, if a mechanic is similar to WoW at all it is referred to as a WoW clone. If it is a new idea, even a good one people say WoW's system is better. (People like what they are already accustomed to and dislike change generally.) In this scenario I have came to the conclusion games are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Also, I hate the term WoW clone. As nothing about WoW is particularly original. The only thing I can credit them with is having the balls to actually use some new patch my friend told me about to entirely rewire the mechanics of the game. What I got from it was I guess the stat spirit used to suck, but now it is desired for mage classes. Reworking your design mid-game is ballsy, but come on, at this stage in the game I wouldn't say this was ballsy as WoW now has a sea of devoted people that will defend their patch choices no matter what they do.
Then we can bring up the community last but just as a brief mention as I don't think anything really needs to be said here. I can just sum it up with "WoW's community... 'nuff said."
Basically, I don't like the entity that WoW has become. If people want to play a bland version of an MMO I have no problem with them or with the game itself. But the idea that WoW is some grand standard MMOs should strive to become is what really chaps me I think. No one would like it if Final Fantasy was the grand standard that all RPGs should be held to. As a matter of fact alot of people here get irrate when so many JRPGs act like it is some standard. And as hard as this is to believe for me, no one would like it if Mass Effect was the standard that all RPGs. Because even if you like Mass Effect it would mean that no game should focus on inventory, turn based combat, you should have some mechanic in there to mine minerals or drive around on meaningless and uninspiring terrain, etc.
I don't like that so many people get mad if something takes something from WoW when more than likely WoW took it from another game, be it DAoC or EQ. I HATE the term WoW clone. Warcraft's entire universe was inspired by Warhammer. Warcraft 1 was a video game ripping off the miniatures game. WoW is a clone all the way around it's edges and in no way should be held up as some source of originality.
TL;DR:I hate the entity WoW has become.