Breakfast topic: Did you play the previous Warcrafts?

Confession time: Despite playing WoW for almost two years, despite deeply enjoying the lore behind WoW, even despite being paid to write a feature called "Know Your Lore" — I have never played any of the previous Warcraft games. I got into WoW while watching a friend play his tauren shaman, and in spite of his cajoling, I started playing WoW without understanding any of the lore or the world behind it. In time, I caught up by reading books and web sites and listening to the arguments of guildmates ("What do you mean you've never played WCIII?")

I know I should really go back and play them, but I always get distracted by some other game, whether it be Kingdom Hearts, Oblivion, or WoW itself. Plus, I've never played a real-time strategy game and have a strong feeling that I would probably suck at it.

Have you played the previous Warcraft games? Do you think that they're a requirement to truly enjoy WoW, or is the divide between the games and WoW enough that WoW can stand on its own? If someone only had time to play one of the Warcraft series, which would you choose?