You'll get more adrenaline from Aces high than WoW.
WoW will probably give you more WOW factor when new and interesting events occur and you will feel 'left out' when you leave and hear about allllllllll these great things happening JUST as you leave. Then you'll go back in about 6 months, a bit lost then 3 months later - leaving again.
Aces High does NOT require you to play 3-4 hours each night to 'keep up'. You can play an hour and get your fix, or - as you learn the game, you will want to do new things and look forward to your evening fix.
If you don't have a joystick, then look on newegg for a saitek ps33 and purchase the cheapest one you can find, or if you are dirt poor - you could use the mouse but then again , you wouldn't be paying 15 / month if you were dirt poor I would think.
The joystick IS expensive! It's kick butt though for me at least. The handle is a bit long bit overall I give it a B for price and use. I have my flip switches set for VOX (voice chat) , landing gears, flaps etc. All my handle buttons are mapped to viewing forward to the left to lead shots, primary and sec fire, look up below the hat switch and the right most button to bring up the map.
Don't even bother trying to play this game without a joystick. UNLESS you want to get frustrated hehe.
I would also think about running some tests to ensure your connection is good enough for the game as it's not the system so much as it is the connection.
BTW, this game takes skill. WoW just takes a semi smart person to exploit the game or, to play LONG hours to 'get ahead'. Afterwards of which, you havelearned nothing.
AH2 gives you something back. It really does. I'm still pretty new but am learning many things about aircraft of that era.
