WOW: beautiful 1 to 60 experience, nothing after that. RFO: Hard tedious work till 50, then the game begins!
Anyone that has played DAoC will tell you this; not much to do before you hit max level. But that is when the game BEGINS! This is called never having to run out of goals, and RFO is such a game. You see, MMOs are about longevity, having always something to do and never saying "now what?" and leaving it to play something else because you don’t know what else to do. In RFO you have to work for your character. You have to care enough to build him properly, to understand that when you hear other people saying how much fun they are having in PvP, it is because they worked hard for it and are now enjoying the fruits of their labor.
Some might argue that since this is a game, one need not work for it. I would say that anything not worth working for it, is not worth doing!
Yes, the game is repeating; but only in the unimportant things. Keeping your character maxed in his skills need not take over your gaming life if you make sure that you can at least yield the next items. The argument against this is that you will not be good at PvP. My response is to wait until you are of a respectable level (40+, I plan to do it after 45). At that level your stats will have caught up with other people's and you will have done it in less time (if you don’t know why, then all I can ask is to take my word for it). Because even after you get to that level, you will continue to raise your stats by PvPing and the difference to others will be negligible (except the time it took to get there).
The game is beautiful, especially if you are already drawn to the eastern aesthetics (i.e. Manga). And while it is true that there is not great diversity, it only applies to the same race of the same level and the same class! Every race is vastly different, ever 2-3 lvls you get new armor, and every 3-5 lvls a new weapon, and all of those are of noticeable different design! It is like the army, every rank has a different design, and to me that is the parallel! You are a member of an army, this is mass PvP, you are doing your part, and your items will identify you as your race, your level and your class. That is all I require for diversity.
Also, the game is vastly more complex (but not complicated) than the review leads people to believe. The game mechanics are working perfectly, the economy is completely linked to the war results and because of the healing pots that one can consume in combat, the whole strategy of the war becomes not about one person, but about your team! You can no longer just go it alone, you have to stick to your team mates, build guilds and fight together, arrange plans and build defense lines! I've seen plenty of Chip Wars to know, that only organization will lead to victory.
This game is about the PvP. This game is about you working towards an end goal. This is about rewarding the player for the many hours he invested to not rush, to not power level. This is about a race, not an individual. And, finally, this is a game that you will continue to play for a long time, after you reach max level, because you will have a goal, always!