It's solid and always expanding and being refined, but to be honest, it's still a pretty brutal march at times to get to the newer, better content - especially if you're a casual player: it's going to be a long, long time before you ever get a mount and get into their "modern" content.

Not that other established MMOs are any better in this regard, mind you. Though the big dog is doing their best right now to refine the new user experience, and Bioware will (and I'm making a big assumption here, though I see little reason to think otherwise given their track record) create the first MMO that's as fun to play from the outset as it is through the middle and "end game". Fully voiced and story driven and all, and being able to learn from all of the mistakes of their peers over the last five-or-so years.

So if I were offering advice to a newcomer of "should I try LOTRO or the new shiny?", I might just suggest the shiny, since it might actually provide a more compelling and enjoyable experience for the first month. Hell, to be truthful, until SW:TOR or Cataclysm goes live, I'd probably just tell them to try Mass Effect 2/Dragon Age/Batman/Assassin's Creed 2/Heavy Rain/any of the other awesome games that have come out in the last year. The MMO scene has been pretty stagnant for years now.