I just rolled another toon, and Tortage is pretty crowded actually. And not only veterans are running around, there are a lot of new players (you can tell easily by watching what they are doing, what equip they use, where they put it and so on).
But there are two bad design choices, that make it really hard for new players.
1. Your first quest takes you into nightmode, where you are all alone. If you follow this questline (as most people do, I suppose), you can easily level to 14 without ever beeing in the daylight, where other players are. So your first HOURS of the game feel like a solo game.
2. Communication. As a f2p you are not allowed to even see the global channels. By only watching the new players help channel or whatever it's called you will get the impression that AoC is completly dead or only filled with goldsellers and ... very crazy people. As a f2p you cannot whisper to subbed people. The chat channel is set by default in a way, that most players even don't find the "say - everyone near you can read it - channel".
I think a lot of people quit after a few levels or hours, because they expected a MMO and wanted to play with other people, but instead found a kind of solo game and gave up to try to communicate with someone.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear the letter is on it's way