Oh, no...Now I'll never be cured..

I've been playing WoW for ages (about 3-4 years, on and off)... I was first introduced to it by my ex-boyfriend's roomate, and eventually the WoW plague spread to my brother and every other guy we knew (but I'm sure I'm not the only girl that plays). This is a highly addictive game. The Burning Crusade just adds another 10 levels and infinite amounts of gear and dungeons to further the addiction. I am going to try to write things out for people who aren't familiar with WoW, but I might not be successful and just get lazy :P

Technical
This game is one of the few that works just as well on Macs as it does on PC's. I play on my MacBook Pro, which i wouldn't suggest if you can help it because it will absolutely murder your laptop battery (not to mention heat up your Mac much faster than it already does). You need to have the original World of Warcraft installed (see the original for tech specs). You have an option to download both from their website and paying online instead of buying a hard copy in the store (yay! save a tree).

This is a pay by month (or year) game and costs roughly $15 a month.

Graphics
I was originally captivated by WoW because of the scenery and graphics. I pretty much spent much of my time (on the original WoW) taking screenshots of the beautiful landscapes. Every new land you travelled to had its own original mood and atmosphere, mostly inspired from places in real life (i.e. Un'Goro crater) and I had screenshots of all of them at different points in the day.

Just like the beautiful landscapes of the original WoW, the landscapes in Outland (that's the new world that Burning Crusade introduces to players who've reached lvl 60) are gorgeous. When you first enter the Dark Portal, you are greeted with a scorched land floating in the abyss with an amazing sky (which I appreciate because it's one of those details often overlooked). Unfortunately, many of the items you will get at first from Outland look awful (this will change though). As you progress to the different areas, you can imagine what they must have once looked like, as each area looks like its at a different stage of corruption.

Gameplay
Dungeons
Dumbed down a lot... Unlike the pre-Burning Crusade dungeons, the Outland dungeons are very straightforward. The pre-Burning Crusade dungeons were super complicated and ate up hours of your time (you can actually get lost), but the Burning Crusade dungeons (although, fun and can still eat up hours of your time) require a little less effort.

Questing
Again, I think the quests are also somewhat dumbed down compared to the original area. You get much better quest rewards for doing much less. The bright side is that there's a nice variety of quests, enough that you will reach lvl 70 (the new level cap) without having to go to every area. The quests leading into dungeons are also a bit simpler than before.

Character
I have to admit, the reason I bought the expansion and started playing again was because I saw my boyfriend playing with his friends (I had stopped for a long time), and saw that there was now a blood elf race (think night elf, but not purple and 8feet tall). The new race for alliance is the drenaei, which isn't so hot, but oh well.

The superficial aspect aside, blood elves have a racial skill that silences people around them for a few seconds and another one that drains a little bit of mana. They can be a hunter, mage, paladin (new for Horde), priest, rogue, or warlock.
Draenei have a racial heal (no mana required) and group members get a buff that increases hit rating. They can be a hunter, mage, paladin, priest, shaman (new for Alliance), or warrior.

Profession
You can now do jewelcrafting, where you can craft rings, trinkets, necklaces, some head items, and more importantly, gems. Many higher quality Outland items have 'gem slots', where you can put gems to add stats to you item. I found jewelcrafting relatively easy to level, as long as you are willing to mine and look for recipes later on (as with all the other professions). Draenei also have a bonus to jewelcrafting skill.

Social
There are still idiots no matter where you go or which faction you choose to play that will make you wonder why you waste your time because, after all, this is an online game with a massive following, and with that comes people from all walks of life...
Anyhow, I don't think there's much in the social aspect that is solely Burning Crusade, except maybe the new battleground (which is just that.. a player-vs-player battleground), which is somewhat a combination of capture the flag and capturing towers (WSG + the tower capturing thing in Eastern Plagelands).

Conclusion
Honestly, I think if you've never played WoW before, you shouldn't start. But, if you have played WoW, and love it, then Burning Crusade will pretty much let you progress further. Actually, if you PvP, you will most likely need the expansion because if you don't have it, everything you own will most likely be obsolete and put you at a disadvantage to players who do have it since item drops in Outland are much higher quality. I think the expansion is worth getting just for the new dungeons, races, and profession. Also, they are coming out with a new expansion that raises the level cap yet again (uh oh) and you will probably need this expansion before that one.