World of Warcraft is a great game. I have been playing it for four years and in my opinion it is the best game, period. It's true that it has changed a lot over the years and it's not as 'hard core' as it used to be but it's still a great deal of fun. The only reason I'm not playing right now is that I'm waiting till the next patch to come out. After four years I don't feel the need to play the game every day anymore. It's can be quite addictive.

The one piece of advice I'd give to anyone thinking of trying wow is to make a lot of low level characters and try out different servers. While the server community isn't as important as it was four years ago, it's still important. From a social POV wow really isn't one game but a collection of gaming communities. Finding the right server for you can make all the difference in how you enjoy the game.

While I don't have an issue with the new unlimited F2P up to level 20 I will also say that the way the game plays at low levels is vastly different than the way it plays at level cap. So be warned about that.

Go for the original "Ultima Online" (not the newer 3D Client)... this is great.... you will find a lot of free shards on the net, that have a lot of people on it. Most of them have really nice roleplay :)

You might have fun with Vindictus. The game plays more like Devil May Cry than World of Warcraft, which puts it leaps and bounds ahead of most MMOs in the combat department. However, there's very little to it outside of repeatedly running the same combat missions, and group dynamics are horrible. I always preferred to solo for that reason, but many of the later missions are very difficult to do alone, so I eventually put it down.

I don't know how well it will run on your laptop, as it's a fairly new Source engine action game. It's free, though, so it couldn't hurt to check it out.

+1 for Guild Wars. Even though someone might say it will become obsolete due to GW2 incoming, but you can get it cheap and there are no monthly fees. Yes, it has no persistent world and it can be played as a singleplayer game with computer controlled henchmen/heroes, on the other hand, if you don't find anyone to play with and don't trust the strangers, at least you can play everything, except hi-end PvE locations and PvP battles.

I've played many MMO's the past few years but none comes even close to the magic that the original everquest once was..I've played the emulated servers but still not the same. Not sure I will ever become entranced in an MMO ever again...and maybe thats a good thing lol.

I like Guild Wars, and there's no sub fees. Guild Wars 2 looks awesome too, from what I've seen of the previews.

Spiral Knights is fun and it's free on Steam.

I didn't like Eve and got bored with WoW.