Well, there's your problem. You've never played it and most of your descriptions come from Runescape fanboys. True, individual quests are often weak, but when you put them together they often tell a story and generally lead into one another. Also, they are realistic- it's WARCRAFT, a world in which both sides are constantly testing each other and skirmishing. Of course you're going to be killing stuff. It's not World of Lovecraft, although that would be pretty freakin' sweet... Summoning Cthulu... Being a loyal cultist... I think their criticism was that the game was far too combat based. I mean, their is little else other than combat. Even the skills require you to kill things for the mats to train them.