I'm now 23, and can understand penny arcade's comic about it being a shiny loot leading to the everworm. Once past 20 the leveling exp becomes a lot slower, still nowhere near EQ style yet, but reaching wow 70+. Once past 20 you'll be looking at around 1 level a day as opposed to the 3-4 levels I was doing.
Gear is also becoming more important and I find my trade skill addiction paying off as I can craft not only my own armor, but sell to keep my addiction going. Down side is I'm throwing around 2 hours a night into it (I am however taking 4 out of the 6 trade skills >=D)
Reaching almost 80 hours+ played time now, I am still trying to find something I don't like about this game. Apart from the usual annoying chats which you can simply leave, the endless bazaar style player stalls you pass in the city which lag you out, and the gold spammers which requires blocking every time you login, I really can't fault this game too much. In fact I can safely say I'm indeed addicted on a level similar to when I first started EQ.