Despite what people want to believe, the game is pretty lively. Obviously the overall playerbase is much smaller than at the peak and it is supported by a smaller group of very loyal cash whales (who also subscribe), but as a free player you can't go wrong. Sure...you are going to be very tempted to subscribe, because some unlocks are annoying, but nothing is needed to play the game up until level 50. You have 8 stories to play through (though only 6 on one server) at no cost to yourself. Servers are populated and people are always playing. There's no harm in playing unless you have low download caps. Otherwise you should just not think about it and give it a try.
