I probably would be playing LOTRO tons and tons.
I tried a few games, and of the ones I tried, that one seems the closest to what I like. More grounded basic fantasy. SWTOR would be second.
I like the story of the Elder Scrolls, but the gameplay is not for me.
FF 14 wouldn’t be an option, even if it would be the biggest MMO by far with WoW out of the picture.
The world if none of us had ever played WoW:
https://i.imgur.com/TrtMPC2.gif
I would probably be playing Runescape. Runescape is responsible for getting me into WoW.
I never liked you Uncle Junior
You a bad Orc
I’d be more active, probably still be in contact with irl friends, maybe be employed, maybe even have finished writing an actual story.
Nobody here for the most part is becoming a doctor or a scientist, first we gotta learn them some proper English like the difference between They’re (they are), their (possessive), and there (prepositional phrase denoting a specific place).
Mate since Dragonflight you can pay like 1/3 of a WoW token for some bloke to power level you from 1 to max in an hour or two while you afk nearby.
Stop giving Blizzard $60 when you could give Jim $6 in gold.
Unless you mean like raid carries and stuff, in which case nevermind!
@OP:
Before WoW, I played almost exclusively FPS games on console. That’s where my online social circle was, and that’s where most of my free time went. I’d almost definitely still be wasting most of my time gaming, just in a different way.
I’m glad I’m here though. Socialization on console pretty much died overnight when Xbox added Party Chat. It’s not great anywhere anymore, but it’s more alive on PC and MMOs than any given console game.
Id probably be more into FPS games like CoD or Siege
i mean i’m in nursing already at least. 
On topic, i wouldn’t have met several friends that i still talk to, to this day, which would be unfortunate.
My life would have been very different. I met people through this game I would never have met otherwise.
Okay FFXIV? Diablo 4? Some other MMORPGs?
Well, before the days of Class Trials, I would boost a character to see what they felt like at end game. Also, it made for an easy way to join friends’ guilds and run with them on their server. Once the Class Trials were removed, boosting was just faster. I have the money, but did not want to waste hours getting carried to cap just to play with friends. I could do in 45 seconds what could take 20 hours. So it was worth it. The only time I ever tell anyone how to spend, or not spend, is when they are unhappy with the state of things. “Unsub and vote with your wallet”. Anyway, thanks for the response.
Probably be richer.
I probably would have just found a different game or games to play. I already had forfeited my scholarship to college and gotten a job (to help my parents) by the time WoW came out.
I definitely would have discovered faster-than-light travel by now.
If I had never played WoW back in '04/'05, I probably would have played Guild Wars and expansions, with my rl buddies, even though the game is more of a cooperative RPG, and eventually Guild Wars 2. Either way, one MMORPG is enough for me.
My wife wouldn’t have left me, my kid’s would love me and my family wouldn’t be ashamed of me… also didn’t make it to 6’8"…
Probably would bs playing something else.
Honestly, I’ve thought about this before. In the short term it was bad, but in the long term I think it probably indirectly helped make my life better because I didn’t end up going to college immediately after high school so I didn’t go into lots of debt for a degree I may or may not have used properly before getting into a good career. Instead I accidentally fell into a company that auto enrolled me in a 401k, actually learned how investing works by mid 20s, and the rest is history.
There’s no really way of knowing for sure, but I consider it a pivotal moment for me nonetheless.