I played that game when it very first came out—(and I recently discovered that my account is still there. They like NEVER erase you as far as I can tell) I see kids at the library play all the time. Here’s what I see from watching them and from personal experience. I have played many pay and free morpgs similar to Runescape and this is is how I think Runescape stacks up.
The graphics have gotten much better better, but they are still far behind other similar games—including the free ones. There are some games that actually are almost WoW quality that are free. They just look better.
The community of Runescape is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Lots of spamming and little kids all over the place, whispering weird stuff to you and being uberannoying with blinking text and all kinds of bleah stuff.
The gameplay is—meh. Not too sophisticated. I’ve seen much better.
If you still want to play some online free to play games, maybe try Rune Quest or DnD online. If you really like Runescape better, don’t worry. Like I said, they NEVER seem to delete your account you your guy will still be there.