Yeah, I had loads of high level alts. My main was a 220 enforcer named Nuthman. Haha. I was obsessed with that game for years.
A lot of people left when WoW came out, but a lot came back. I always felt like AO was way more cerebral and complex. But I suppose that can be a turn off for some. Twinking low level toons to ridiculous stats was so much fun in that game.