Played Ol' West in 2015. Can't really describe my first impression since all I did was roam around (it was that time when I didn't know all about identification so I lost my account) so I'll just count my impression after gaining experience on other GraalOnline servers back on 2018.
Era was the main server I play when I got a sudden interest in coming back to Ol' West after watching a video on yt titled 'How to earn 1k to 50k gralats a day'. Woodcutting caught my fancy cause it looked kind of fun and relaxing, which made me choose the job to earn gralats.
I wasn't the pker type, I was the type to fill my inventory/buy lots of hats that fits my custom uploads. Which led me to get into working immediately. As I said, woodcutting was the job I chose but I changed my mind cause I figured out it doesn't earn me much compared to fishing-- which is actually the FASTEST job up until now.
Leveling up was kinda fast? I think you can get up to level 30+ in a day. The gaps between the levels regarding the variations of sellable you can get wasn't bad at all. I think it took me a week to reach level 60 on fishing (which is the level required for the last fish you can get which costs 50$).
Bug catching, I didn't think it was that bad cause from what I remember the bug spawn rate is decent and bug jars cost 20$ while bugs won't lower than 40$. I used it as a side job when bugs spawn around me when I woodcut.
Guns aren't really pay to win as long as you have a decent level on any job even for just a week you can get 100k or perhaps even 200k while the most expensive gun back then cost 100k.
Farming crops! This one led me to the riches. I loved their farming system SO MUCH! I thought it was some kind of bonus job cause it's extremely easy to manage.
I thought I'd be some kind of solo player, I wouldn't interact with anyone since I was so into grinding and spending (i thought it'd be troublesome but it didn't matter cause of the low playerbase). Somehow I earned some friends along the way, they were my 'work' buddies!
Can't think of anything else. I'm sure I had fun! I wouldn't go tap tap tap for so long to reach my levels if i didn't!