Then I stopped because the mid-levels were becoming too much of a slog and the game started to focus more of its good content into group quests, and finding a group to do everything in order became harder and harder.

In a nutshell, the game is very polished and the game world is absolutely fantastic. It's beautiful and explorable. The combat is slower than WoW's, with more strategy involved and with individual fights taking a little longer, especially as the levels start to increase.

The quests are interesting and the game uses a really cool "epic quest" system, whereby you can play through an interesting main storyline that includes solo quests, group quests, solo instances, and group instances, and it really does get pretty epic in places. The game places much more of an emphasis on good storytelling than any other MMO I've played.

The problem is that not enough people are doing the old epic quest series anymore. The game has been out long enough that most of the players are at the endgame (currently Moria, soon to be a new half-expansion into Mirkwood). Trying to find groups for the awesome lower-level group content is difficult -- similar to trying to find groups for Azeroth dungeons in WoW, but probably even harder because the total player base is less.

The game is worth a try because you can download the client for free and get a free ten day trial, no strings attached. The beginning areas, especially for humans, are pretty cool and can be done without a group. You'll get a feel for the game. It really is a good game. It's just that the only way to really experience it the way it's meant to be experienced at the moment is to skip all the lower and mid level group content and reach the endgame, and I wasn't up for that.