I hear a bit from my friends that really enjoy the game, they play whenever a new update is out but there doesn't seem to be that much content or staying power compared to most MMOs.
It was popular because it was big MMO launch bu cit was a mess that was best enjoyed from afar. Year after (when I started playing) it got better and I quite enjoyed it. It does some things extremely right (combat is fun, gathering is satisfying, it's super pretty) but some aspects like questing is medicore.
I also feel like they still don't really know what they are doing with it, it lacks vision from where I'm standing. I still hope it will somehow thrive though.