I know I wasted a ton of time playing this game, and I'm a senior in college as well. I don't think you have to devote too much time a week to it to have fun, but it certainly is MORE fun when you get into higher levels. You don't get talent points until level 10, and talents are really where you can start customizing your character. Then again, I can make it to level 15 in one sitting (but I have experience, of course).
The best part about leveling in WoW is that it doesn't feel like work. Most of your time will be spent questing, and Blizzard has done an excellent job making sure you don't have to grind through your levels. The quests progress naturally and smoothly throughout the game until you get to about the upper 40s. I'm sure Blizzard is still working on higher level content, though. They're adding a new high level instance with this upcoming patch.
Crafting is the latter of what you described. Mining requires you to find different kinds of ore veins scattered across the world. Leatherwork requires you to kill things and skin them. For tailoring, you find cloth on various humanoid corpses. Alchemists can gather herbs from around the world. The only catch is, if you want to gather your own materials, you have to choose the corresponding gathering skill as your second tradeskill, and you can only have two. Of course, you could just buy your materials, but that gets expensive quickly.
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I know I wasted a ton of time playing this game, and I'm a senior in college as well. I don't think you have to devote too much time a week to it to have fun, but it certainly is MORE fun when you get into higher levels. You don't get talent points until level 10, and talents are really where you can start customizing your character. Then again, I can make it to level 15 in one sitting (but I have experience, of course). The best part about leveling in WoW is that it doesn't feel like work. Most of your time will be spent questing, and Blizzard has done an excellent job making sure you don't have to grind through your levels. The quests progress naturally and smoothly throughout the game until you get to about the upper 40s. I'm sure Blizzard is still working on higher level content, though. They're adding a new high level instance with this upcoming patch. Crafting is the latter of what you described. Mining requires you to find different kinds of ore veins scattered across the world. Leatherwork requires you to kill things and skin them. For tailoring, you find cloth on various humanoid corpses. Alchemists can gather herbs from around the world. The only catch is, if you want to gather your own materials, you have to choose the corresponding gathering skill as your second tradeskill, and you can only have two. Of course, you could just buy your materials, but that gets expensive quickly.