I've played World of Warcraft, its a fun game, but i don't like the idea of paying to play every couple of months
I actually have an active WoW account right now.
A friend of mine put the cost of playing an MMO in perspective.
Ticket to go see a movie: ABout $12. Cost of food at theatre: About $5+
Monthly cost of MMORPG: About $12 to $15 depending on how many months ahead you order.
For the price of One 2-hour movie, one gets unlimited entertainment for a month. Considering the price of video games, computer upgrades to Play video games, the price of new consoles, etc. I don't think this is horribly unreasonable. I wasn't too happy to have to pay another "Fee" for the game expansion (Burning Crusade) but it didn't kill me.
To be fair, you get what you pay for. Free online games (Shooters and whatnot) just aren't taken care of like the MMORPGs are. Hacking and cheating are commonplace on any free online game. It's almost worth the monthly fee to escape the morons who destroy a game for fun.