Hold on. Do NOT be misled by the fan boys. While the game may be “alive” or “not shut down” this game is very much a ghost town. If you play during the week, in any capacity, IE you get home from work or whatever, then expect to play solo. AO does have solo aspects of the game but the good stuff, to make meaningful progression requires a team. I say this, because AO wasn’t made in 2010 when MMOs provide a complete solo leveling experience. AO was made in 2001 when grouping was the theme of MMOs for many aspects of the game.
You can level solo, it is all subjective in what you know, how to do it etc. You can gain a couple levels a day just from daily missions. But if you were in a team you could gain 10-40 levels a day but gaining that many levels is subject to what level you are, like a 190 level player isn’t going to get to 220 in a day unless they play nonstop.
This game is somewhat active on the weekends. It still depends on the time you log on. Early morning until noon USA time, you should see some action, after that it starts to die down.
If you play as a froob there is little teaming with other froobs. Froob population is scarce, like almost non-existant, you may team with a paid player but most of the time they dont do froob leveling/content. As a froob you wont have much in terms of attacks. If you are melee, you get fast attack, brawl, dimach, sneak attack (you wont be using SA probably ever). But that is it, no nanos that do damage, no attacks you gain from leveling up, thats all you really get. The same goes for ranged (different skills though). Caster classes like NTs have multiple nanos they use so its a bit more varied. Being paid yields more attacks (called perks). But as a froob you will go Q /afk. Which means you will attack and just wait until the mob is dead.
This is touched up on (by me) in the threads I linked but as far as orgs go you MAY do content with them depending on if you are a froob or not. Personally, I have been in large orgs and alliance orgs. Sometimes you will ask for help and no reply. Maybe no one is reading chat, maybe no one wants to, but it is disheartening. It all ties back to when people are online and that is mostly during the weekend. If you ever get high level (or any level for that matter), just look at LFT and gaze in awe how blank it is on a regular basis.
If you haven’t read through these threads. It will paint a better picture of the state of the game.
In general, I am not saying you cant play this game in any capacity. You can, I dont want to list the variety of ways because there are many. But to play it how it was back in the day, you wont. You will play this game mostly on the weekend, if you are a paid player most of your time playing is on the weekend. Why pay 15 dollars a month for 8 real days of gaming? If you can justify it, that is on you. But to say AO isn’t a ghost town and AO is populated and active and you can find a team no matter what, is a complete fallacy.