The most decisive difficulty factor in MMO games are the "death penalties". While your character is out killing low level monsters to gain experience, your character will no doubt be killed numerous times. The way that the game handles this is what will determine how long it will take for you to level up. Punishing death penalties can reduce your character's experience points in games such as Lineage 2 and Vanguard. Getting killed over and over will reduce your character's level and cause you to have to spend large amounts of in-game gold to restore your character. In WoW, DDO and Dark Age of Camelot, you have to travel in spirit form back to your corpse and revive it, as well as taking damages to your armor, weapons and all the items that you are carrying. Guild Wars has very little damaging death penalties. While you are out on a mission, the penalties for getting killed are graduated. By killing certain monsters and visiting shrines you can restore your character to 100% effectiveness while still out in the field. If you get killed beyond repair you are returned to the town that you set out from and you have to start the mission again. But all your health points are restored and there is nothing taken away from your experience points.
What all the jargon about death and dying in MMO's means is that Guild Wars is easiest for inexperienced players who want to get started with MMO gaming. The first and third expansions of Guild Wars, called Prophecies and Nightfall are widely acclaimed as the favorites. There is no monthly fee for that game. All the rest of the MMO's charge a monthly fee around $15 (USD) to play along with the initial cost of the game client software. DDO is challenging and well-crafted. It isn't the prettiest game out there, but it is fairly stable even if it is ugly. Lineage 2 is difficult as well as beautiful. It might not be the best choice for gamers who are new to MMO's but it certainly has a peculiar allure. It must have because it is claimed to have a staggering 14 million players worldwide which is more than double the subscriptions of WoW.
WoW is popular for a reason. It is accessible. It isn't very difficult, and it is so huge that you can play it for years and still find more to do. While that may be true of all the persistent worlds online, WoW seems to be the most vast in my experience so far. Chances are if you are reading this then you know someone who plays WoW and you can ask them to take you under their wing to get you started.
Then there is the dancing. In Guild Wars the dance parties are legendary. You can have your character dance the night away in synch with other players of the same profession. Or join in the many dance parties around the towns. The female characters dance suggestively. No other MMO characters dance quite like the Elementalist and Ritualist in GW. Oh my. The WoW characters dance too. In fact if you stand still for too long in WoW your character will be considered AFK (away from keys) fairly quickly, and then get logged off. In these two games the socialization is particularly a big part of the game experience.
Where in the MMO world is the best dungeon? Try the School of Dark Arts in Lineage 2. Aiiii! What's my favorite MMO? Hard to say. I've played several that I gave low scores to, that are still fun as well as being annoying and flawed. Others that have good scores are beautiful but highly addictive and time consuming. What I truly look forward to is trying out the new games and guiding new friends into the virtual venues.
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