oddly enough the player-generated narratives and in-game media are way more entertaining than the ones the dev provides. on my server we have legions following the player-driven content (which you can't even participate in, might be one thing the dev might look into) just to escape the everyday grindfest.
also, don't get fooled by that "FREE" mmorpg bit. sure, you don't pay a subscription per se and you don't have to pay cash up front to start as a lvl 0 newbie with no skills but once you advance in levels there are certain in-game tithes to pay, for which you have to set aside a considerable amount of in-game time.
furthermore it costs you dearly to advance your skills. not only in-game-time but in-game currency as well as I have been told by those going the college-graduate skill tree. and what is up with those eight hour downtimes every single frecking day? you barely get to enjoy the fun parts of the game and I am not even going to mention the pitiful attempt to "expand" (stretch would be more like it) the game world by severly limiting travel powers. City of Heroes had teleport, flight, superspeed and here I need to drive a car through gridlock or take the train? way to save on content!
sure, you might go and try to beat the system (which is just a badly designed pyramid scheme tbh) by staying at the mean bum level but not only are you not going to see the high-end content but you will never even get close to being able to solo 1/10 of the content.
furthermore it seems to me that you have an outrageous advantage if you started in beta or even alpha. new players seem to have a hard time catching up with the ones that have been around and have already claimed the more lucrative ventures.