#40: World of Warcraft

This being here won't appease anyone.  I understand that.  I will be told that it shouldn't be on this list.  I will be told that it should be higher.  So, I'll go through both sets of reasons.

Why It Should Be On This List

It's the most played multiplayer game ever.  It swung the MMO genre to one of the most popular genres.  It's still the most popular MMO even though its been out for 347 years (an estimate).  The game is polished.  It works.  It works well enough that anyone of any age group can try it and enjoy it.

It's an incredible feat that the world Blizzard has created is still balanced.  Azeroth still runs very well, years after it was created.  Any experienced MMO player can tell you how rare that is.  I'm a math nerd, so this next part may not be that important to others.  The economy still works!  That's amazing.

The combat is good.  It's simple.  Its functional enough that anyone can like it, but not so challenging that people would be turned away

Also, Blizzard does a good job of making sure that the World of Warcraft doesn't take itself too seriously.  Its sense of humor kept me playing a bit longer than I would have otherwise.

Why It's Not Any Higher

Because it's so freaking easy that there's no penalty for screwing up.  Enemies drop items like its nothing.  It makes it so that skills in the game don't matter.  Why do your best to succeed when failure isn't a punishment?

I've also been told constantly that "the game really doesn't start til you reach the level cap".  Well, then why have any levels before the level cap?

I dunno, I still love the game.  Its excellent and deserves all of the praise it gets.  It probably deserves a bit of the grief, too.  But more than likely, we've all played this game.  If you haven't, give it a shot.  You owe it to yourself.