Retail is gone to hell, but private servers are worth it.
The fact is though, this game insanely immersive, with story, lore, tutorials and some great art direction.
By today's mmo standards, the graphics are just great. Vast plains, massive towers piercing the clouds, everything just looks amazing.
The classes and races are all different in subtle ways and take a good amount of time to get the hang of playing. You can definately tell who's spent time playing and who hasn't.
I prefer low rate servers, due to the fact that it's fun to have an economy to play with. There are high rate pvp server that are fun, but it's usually more fun to take the slow road and learn a good deal about the game while doing so.
I've played WoW, Knight Online and Guild Wars, and I have to say, this game ranks up there with them.
If you've tried the others and got bored, it's time to get into ferocious clan conflicts and participate in server-wide politics. ;D