I don't even know how wow works, I got sucked in because a friend said to me "It's like Magic but you don't have to spend lots of money on cards."
Wow works by sucking not only money but especially your social and family life. At least that is all I ever saw and thus why I never did it.
To be fair, there are a significant number of people for whom WOW was their first chance at having a social life.
For instance: I'll be re-subbing to WOW next week, though not for the expansion; I don't plan to buy it. I'll be re-subbing because the guild leader of my first real raiding guild--someone who I've been in contact with on FB for nearly ten years--died a few weeks ago. The old guild had a huge conversation on FB, and we're having a memorial get-together next week in Stormwind. Shannon had her social life inside WOW for many years; it was her third space, and she formed many friendships there--as did I, or I wouldn't be planning to attend a virtual funeral.
You're both right, I think.
As far as money goes, well, it's a sink only in that it's a monthly subscription. I guess now they have other ways to spend, but that's based largely on the successes of other FTP games. Hell, look at Hearthstone as a perfect example.
As far as family or social lives go... that's really tough. Like Kirian says, there's a significant person to him that's passed, that he knew through WoW. And while that's not the only social outlet that he knew Shannon through,.it was perhaps the primary, and almost certainly the first.
I personally dated a woman that I met through WoW for four years. Wonderful person. While things didn't work out between us, I think we're both quite happy to have crossed paths - and that never would've happened without WoW.
It's both a social leach, and a social outlet. For many, many people, the game WAS Facebook, or Myspace, or whatever. The connections that were made there were often completely virtual, but they were with real people nevertheless.
Whether through raiding, questing, RP'ing, PVP'ing, or whatever else tickled your fancy, WoW offered you a way to interact with others, to get to know others, and to care about others - in ways that yes, perhaps you could get from "real life", but were real themselves, and were certainly with "real people" all over the world.
PPS is right. WoW is a money and time suck. If you're a family man or woman with a job and/or kids, it can be quite damaging in excess (although to be fair, so can many, many other things - that's a topic for another thread).
But for many the connections they make through WoW are just as valuable and meaningful as any they could make "irl". I consider many people I've met here on f.ds as "real friends", even if I've never met them personally. The same principal applies to WoW, or any other social outlet.
Gaming platform aside, WoW is at it's core, a social outlet. It's one thing I think Hearthstone could benefit from - a way to connect. Talk in-game. Talk out-of-game. A way to be social.