Yep, you got it all right Delux. On WoWfusion, it took me 4 hours to get to lvl 70, and another 2 hours to get Arena Season 3 armor. On a real server, this could take someone a month of CONSTANT playing, or about 6 months of highly dedicated playing. Occasionally, the server experiences "rollbacks" in which you can loose some highly valuable gear. Oh, yeah, the lvl 3 mobs in the undead startup area usually drop like 3 gold a peice, and you get to lvl 3 ish with your first kill or quest.
Seriously, you can find a way to pull the 40$ for the game and the 15 a month or 30 every other month for the game. Its worth it.