I played SRO for 3 years and tbh it's a great game, ruined by 2 major things:
1. bots
2. lack of interest from the GMs
1. basically if you want to do anything in the game you gotta buy a bot and keep it 24/7 in order to get to a decent level. Everyone who is high-level (70+, 90 is the max level atm) is botting for the sole purpose of lvl-ing, and by being legit you can't compete with that. If you're thinking that you're gonna be banned because of botting, read 2.
2.Aas Hmong_Lauj said, there is a Silk system, that can get you several items to improve your stats/skills etc. This is all the SRO GMs care about. As long as you buy silk you can bot/hack/curse/use a countless number of illegal programs etc. Therefore you'll find a shitload of kids stealing mom's credit card, buying stuff from the item mall and kick ur ass when they're 30-40 levels above "just cause they can and you're a noob <lololol>"... To ilustraste this, there is a "Premium Plus" item that costs 29$/month that can get you 5h/day of 100% exp increase, 10% damage/def increase and a couple of other things. If you use this generally a char of the same level as you who doesnt buy it doesn't stand a chance at pvp. Moreover, the "Premium" items allow you to connect when the servers are full (and disconnecting an unfortunate player not using Premium). I hope I was clear enough.
Also, there are goldbots there (hordes of them) that will make u curse ur grinding at lower levels. If you checked their site and saw the "war against bots", dont be deceived, they only ban low level goldbots not buying silk.
The game itself is awesome, the graphics rule, the trader/hunter/thief system is very original and captivating, BUT the game is ruined mainly by the above mentioned reasons. I played it for 3 years, quit it a couple of months ago when it all became too much for me. Got to lvl74 legit and got 2 characters to lvl90 using bots, so i might say i know a bit about the game.