I played it for years. It had great writing, lots of content, and the member's fee was CHEAP. About a third of WoW's subscription cost. So for the people who are obsessed with graphics, I can understand why they'd prefer WoW or other MMOs, but Runescape suited me just fine. Great quests.
I tried playing WoW for a while, but I got really bored, really fast, so I went back to playing Runescape. What's that tell ya?
It has recently gained a reputation for catering to the younger players, but now that it's under new management, they are trying to reverse that. I don't play it anymore, but I'll still be interested to see what changes they make.