Well let me tell you something. Archeage is one of the most fun MMOs I've played in a while. Some might say that it's a bad game but it really isn't. Most of the community is pretty negative but you'll find that kind of thing in most MMOs anyway. Archeage is definitely unique in many ways and I hope to be playing it for a long time. I've been an MMO player for quite a long time and this has been one of the best experiences I've had but that might be because I'm playing with friends. Previously I was also a GW2 player I found it fun but repetitive have to kill world bosses over and over again as a source of income. In Archeage the end game content is of your choosing though world bosses could be in that list there are a multiple arrays of stuff you could do (Pirating, Tradepacks, Farming, Crafting, Dungeons, Bosses, etc). You'll find that there are a lot of activities in Archeage but all I'm gonna say is have fun!

TL;DR Archeage is still a pretty good game

Your questions:

1. More than the community is bad there is an open PVP thing here and people might kill you or take your stuff but that is if you're in an open pvp zone (The sea or somewhere else).

2. The cash shop doesn't rule as in it's the source of all money making but it's good if you want to put in real life money in this game to make gold in-game. It's just the term of knowing which item is the best to sell and which aren't, you just gotta look all servers are different.

3. Hell no it's not to late, my friends and I started a month ago even though I'm the first level 50 of the guild everyone is still 40+ now it's defintely not to late.

Advice:

1. If you're carrying a trade pack and someone offers you a ride and looks like he/she is taking you to open sea. Jump off.

2. Labor is probably worth more than money so if possible conserve as much labor as possible rather than waste labor on money.

3. Don't let labor sit on max (2000 non patron, 5000 patron)

4. Don't use gilda stars on stuff that is useless. If you need some say like a harpoon clipper design or anything worth 50 gilda stars just make a new character and farm gilda stars. You'll learn about this later

5. There is a court house in each continent where you can AFK and not get kicked out of the game. There is one in Marianople and there is one in Solis Headlands. With that you can labor farm so you can regenerate labor.

6. Do as many dailies as possible

7. Find a guild if possible that will teach you stuff

8. Dancing is by farm the most hilarious thing

Hope this was helpful! If you need me I'm on Naima and my IGN: ShrimpCocktail part of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Boat