Haha I see, well I think it's never too late to start playing WoW. You have quite a variety of servers to play on.
You get the classic editions Vanilla, Burning Crusade , Wrath of the Lich king etc, though Most people play currently on Wrath Classic and some people like to play Hardcore Vanilla WoW where you die you have to delete your character.
Classic can be a bit daunting in the sense that it's pretty old and people play it for nostalgia and would argue that was the best versions of WoW, though I think as a brand new player Retail might be the best (Latest expansion with quality of life systems)
You can always create a free account and play till like level 20 to see if you will like it or not
WoW starter edition
If you like it, you can pay for one month subscription as well which will allow you to play the expansions except the latest one and level to level 60 and include all the classic servers.
Personally I'm not part of a guild in the sense of joining discord etc, but that is just me, a lot of my friends have made really good friends with players from Germany and Netherlands.
There is also a scene where people like to push harder dungeons and raids, as well as player vs player.
I think there is a lot to do in WoW and you can approach it anyway you like, from casual to hardcore.
Side note, people tend to fixate on what to play according to the META, I would suggest to pick a faction, class, race that looks cool to you.
You get really nice armor in the game and you'll be looking at your character for quite some time.
