Was the wait worth it? In short No.
To begin with after playing the game for several hours it is obvious from the numerous bugs, glitches, broken content or for that matter missing content, that this game was released well before it was ready. This has become a staple of MMO launches, and frankly I grow weary of the trend.
From a technical stand point AoC shines if you have the hardware to maximize the experience, yet the game wasn't optimized even more minimum specked systems, which is odd. When it actually better to set settings to maximum to get better frame rates on a Minimum Specked system there is a problem. Also another major problem is the launching of the game without DirectX 10 support, this is by far one of my biggest complaints, as the box art displays the words "Enhanced for DirectX 10 & Multi-core processors" and neither are supported. DirectX 10 Has yet to be implemented, and most users have to disable at least one core when using Quad-Core processors.
There are many things that never made any sense to me during my time in Hyboria, why did the Developers out so much emphasis on the Tortage part of the game yet, once you leave the starting area the game feels vastly incomplete, broken and pointless. To me I felt that they put a lot of development into the first 20 levels to hook players, and then planned to develop the rest of the game months later. This is another element that upset me.
All in all I was deeply disappointed with AoC, and feel Funcom definitely ripped me off. If you are reading reviews to determine whether or not you should purchase AoC, be warned. But please judge for yourself, because there might be something worth your time. So be the judge for yourself.