Pre-order got you in the beta and early game access.
To be fair it does take a while to get used to and into the game, but once you do it's awesome. It's the state of the art for an MMORPG of course.
One of the main ways that the original Guild Wars differed from W0W is that it doesn't have any monthly subscription fees to be paid, and this new one is the same way. You just buy the game and that's it, although there are some extra things you can purchase if you want to, but they're not required. Also, most important to me is that Guild Wars isn't geared toward unskilled 8 year olds. It actually requires some real strategy and skill to play, and that's why I love it so much.
I haven't gotten far enough into this second GW yet to know if it's still a strategy and skilled based game, but from what I've heard it is.