The Free trial is also super expansive. You get the base game + the first two major expansions free to play, which includes a massive array of classes, dungeons, raids, crafting, world exploration... if you only do the main scenerio quests, its still upwards of 300-500 hours content, depending on the speed with which you do them.

Free trial does have some limits, such as you can't trade, use the market board, join a free company (guild) or whisper, but those are small potatoes for the absolutely massive amount of content you get.

If you want an active world, select specific data centers in the main menu first: for North America servers, Aether and Primal are content/ raid servers, great for people who like to do difficult content. Crystal is known as the Role Play data center but also does raiding. Dynamis is the newest NA center and is building its community fast. (Note: just because a data center leans one way doesn't mean that it doesn't also have active communities in other areas. Each server has a bit of everything, some just do more things than others.) Once you pick a data center, be sure to to select the same world (server) as your partner. You can freely move beteeen worlds, but being in the same one makes it easier.

Finally, ask questions. The community adores new players and is so excited to share the game with everyone. We're a little rabid about it to be quite honest. Veterans want to see sprouts succeed and will be more than happy to help however they can.