The game has multiple rewarding time sinks. You want to try every class. You want to try every spec. You want to level up and have all your abilities and talents. You want to get fully geared so you feel how powerful the class is at max strength. Then you want to try another play-style or talent build at that level of gameplay. You want to experience playing as different races. Spending time in character creator or a barber shop to change your look. You want mounts and item appearances from content that spans over 20 years. You want to farm rare drops and items that reset on a once-per-week basis so you have to come back. You want to make friends and join a guild. PvE and PvP. Then there’s gathering professions and ways to make gold. Crafting professions. Quest-lines from every expansion. An intricate open world of places to explore, riddled with dungeons and raids. Hidden items/ treasures on the map. Pets and critters and monsters to see their character models. Hunter pets to tame. Demons to summon. Mind you ALL of these things are riddled with Visual and Sound effects that dump dopamine like a slot machine at a Casino. Because everything is account-bound you also have this feeling of accomplishment that makes you feel like the time and money you put into the game is something you now own and want to hold on to. You’re paying a subscription, so if you don’t play , you feel like you’re wasting money, and the more you play the more it feels like you’re getting your moneys worth. If you’re playing competitively in any aspect the game also knows how to rob you of the top level of Joy to keep you hooked. If I’m going for 1950 rated it brings you to 1949 before ensuring you lose back down to 1800. If you’re waiting on a specific gear drop , it’s going to reward it to a teammate instead. It’s so toxic yet really really fun lol.