That was my reason for the longest time. My buddy played and I knew I'd just get sucked in... I resisted until my husband bought the game, but then I made my first toon, a human rogue. I completely sucked at it, and I was completely enthralled with the game. xD

That's the reason I didn't start playing at launch. I knew a lot of people who started playing the day Vanilla released, but I was still in college and I knew I couldn't spare the time. It wasn't 'til a period of unemployment after graduation, when my boyfriend at the time suggested I play on his account during the day if I needed something to do, that I finally started playing. And I proceeded to spend practically all day he was at classes and work playing WoW--it only was a week or two until he bought me my own copy of the game and we built an extra WoW box so I could play together with him. :D

This was my reason for avoiding MMOs, even though my friends kept asking me to try this or that game. I finally gave up when a friend sent me a trial invitation for WOW.

Addiction was my excuse as well. I failed college because of a RPG (baulders gate 2) and when my buddy tried to recruit me into WoW I flatly refused for 6 months. So for my birthday he bought me the game and a 3 month subscription. That was about 5 years ago. My warlock jut broke 200 days played while my hunter, and pally arent far behind

I think if you can honestly admit to yourself before you even try a game that you will get addicted to it then he/she has some major willpower issues/ identify issues that need addressing.