Yeah, the video quality sucks but the game's like 8 years old. If ya do a little searching on the forums it'll tell ya that they're getting a whole new graphical update (from the videos it looks as good as AoC).
Newbie island (the beach you're on) is usually pretty deserted, but that's because most people only spend 10 minutes on there and rush to the main land. As a froob (free player) you get access to a fair amount of stuff, but the paying customers get a whole different world to play on with more quests, towns, dungeons and stuff. Once you get to the main city for whichever side you pick you'll start seeing more people.
And yeah, the game can be really confusing at first. Just ask around for a good newbie org, they'll usually help set ya straight in trying to get your gear together.
It's definitely worth playing, and best of all there's NO grind. With most other MMOs you just walk into a forest or cave and kill the same mob over and over and over again, but here you get different story related quests (sorta like AoC) so it's actually fun to do stuff.
And the crafting in Anarchy is second to none, it's very deep and you can make ANYTHING. The only real issue with the game is it's not even slightly newbie friendly. You're gonna spend a LOT of time learning which profession gives which buff, which implants give what, and it can take you a good 10 minutes just to equip a new bit of armor.
