Every day, every decision I make at work affects real people's lives. People are counting on me to keep them alive. They expect the buildings I design and the bridges I design to safely carry them through their day. They expect that I've done my job and they are safe using my designs. If I screw up, people die. Indeed, the Engineer's Creed even says "...and the public welfare above all other considerations." When I put good 'ol AEL C 11533 on something, I am saying "you will not die using this".
When I come home from work, the two women I love most depend on me to make decisions that will affect their lives forever. If I screw up, their lives are screwed up too. If a slip while giving Callie a bath, she could die. If I screw up on my taxes, or blow all our money on something, we don't eat and we die. Lives hang on every decision I make all day.
Even my drives into work and home, the other drivers are depending on me to make rational decisions and not to kill someone on my drive home.
Heck, even my other hobby of politics changes the course of history from time to time, and every decision there affects people's lives.
This leads me to the appeal of World of Warcraft. In Azeroth, my decisions don't affect real lives. Yes, someone could get annoyed at me, but nobody dies. I blow a raid, there is always next week. Rewards are still there, penalties are still there, but at the end of the day, people log out, and their lives aren't forever changed by what goes on in Azeroth. This is the appeal. Its some down time, where I can rest in the comfort that my decisions don't ultimately matter, and I can just enjoy the ride without responsibility. That's what it ultimately is, an escape from responsibility. A downtime when I don't have to hold lives in the balance of every decision. I can merely have fun and enjoy the ride. Everyone needs that time when what they do doesn't matter. Some go fishing, where they can just sit on the lake and not think. Others golf. Same thing. When you leave the course, you go back to your lives basically unchanged by what went on on the course. Azeroth is a place to play, like a golf course, when once you leave, nobody has died. Your decisions haven't changed any lives.
Its an escape from responsibility and a chance to relax.