I've been playing Roma Victor since March 2006. It is a one-time pay game, with a compromising VERM system if you want extra in game currency (sesterces), although you could make your way in game without ever VERMing.
The game has actually come quite a way since the beta back in June 2006. Since, it has been a slow process to add additional content, but it does slowly come in. Like necromaniac says, you do get what you pay for. Although the teleporting still exists, it's slightly less random, or at least in my opinion. Lag is progressively getting better, and recently there's been a large addition of roaming bandits and many animals implemented. There are also new craftable weaponry, armours, etc.
It's definitely still got a long way to go to be called finished. The graphics are not all the great, they have had a certain level of "overhaul" but they still don't look amazing. They aren't too horrific though. Lag was always Roma Victor's problem. However; it has actually got quite a bit better since the testing, and early days of release. That kind of threw a lot of players off of Roma Victor. I wish that a lot more would come back to try it, because it could actually be a pretty decent online game with more of a populace. The community in general are usually quite pleasant, we have our oddballs and troublemakers, as every community does, but that is unavoidable. Seeing that it is a historical game, you may also find avid Roman history fans there as well, always a nice thing, seeing as you're reading a Roman-History forum right now.
The RedBedlam team is often very incorrect about their release dates, however. Currently a large overhaul of the system is being slowly implemented, to increase guild interactivity and guild relations. It's called The Escalation, and some of the things which are coming in, or have been claimed to be coming in, are rather good. For me to explain all of the features so people understand it, they would probably have to be players.
Seriously, if you want to be drawn in, or potentially drawn into a good community, where you feel like the game needs your support (which is often what keeps me there), you may as well try it. It's only
