Information Request from a potential player : GW Discussion

I am looking for a new game to play and I was wondering if you guys could answer a few of my questions.

A little bit about myself; I've been playing FFXI for a couple of years and I am getting bored with it. The grind is horrible to me. The fact that if you want to be succesful you have to be a "cookie-cutter" job build has worn on me too. I like the social aspect of it, with the "Linkshells" (for those who are unaware it's a loose network of people who can talk to eachother, outside of public channels, no matter where in the game world they are). I am also fed up with the fact that you pretty much have to be a "hard-core" gamer to make decent headway in the game. I am limited to a couple of hours a night to play, so i need those hours to be productive.

From what I have read, this game seems pretty casual gamer friendly. I like the no fees aspect. Some things I am curious about are:
How is the game socially?
How is the economy, stable or filled with gold sellers/buyers?
Is the high end/premium equipment available to casual players or do you have to be "teh sup3r l33t g0ld bUy3rZ" to get it?
Does the game suffer from a lot of Bugs?
and finally
Is the community in general helpful to new players?

Thanks for your help in advance.

heres my opinion i reckon get ya self a copy of Battle field 2 great game great gameplay hours of fun and can be cassual ie: u dont have to play hardcore to enjoy yaself! but thats just my opionion

Thanks, I will take that under advisement. But what about this game?

If you play, I'll be happy to let you into my guild if you like PvP and you can easily get through the game in about 3-5 days if you try. It's not that hard except a few missions and ascention (sometimes caused by stupid players)

this game is very user friendly and you dont need to put mass amounts of time to be 1337 it helps though speeds things up. as far as socially everyones always talking and getting a guilds not hard, you can also be as non social as you like if your good enough, i soloed every mission as a monk/elem. all in all its a very user friendly play for a hour a day and have fun game.

First of all, he has not solo'd every mission. Unless he means solo'd with henchmen. Even then good luck. Although it can be done.

As for Guild Wars it has 3 aspects: PvE (storyline and quests), PvP (different arenas to battle others), GvG (guild vs guild)

Like another poster stated, it's easy to find a guild. A good quality guild is a little tougher. Starting your own is next to impossible these days.

In-game (PvE) lvl 20 is max. Gold isn't an issue if you aren't worried aboutt every 733t item. However, for instance, the highest set of armor can be purchased for a reasonable 1500g per piece (also need crafting items) but if you are into farming and getting a bunch of gold you can get the 15k armor (which has same stats but looks cooler), which is as the name suggests 15k per piece. If you really want to be elite you can purchase FoW (Fissure of Woe) armor which looks totally different and is very cool looking for around 2 million after you purchase all the crafting items and actual armor (15k per piece). Its the crafting material that is expensive.

So as you can see, it has a lvl for all characters. Same with weapons. You can get max dmg weapons from collectors but some people insist they be purple or gold items.

There are some things it will take quite about of gold to buy (like runes for example) but it isn't to bad.

All in all it is very good gameplay. i beat the game 2 or 3 weeks after it was released (May) and i'm still playing all the time! It seems there is always something to do or to shoot for.

I hate to burst your bubble but i have as a Mo/war with no hench i could solo UW at 8 pls dont correct me on things i can or cant do because i can and have thankyou

Ok, Number 1, its impossible to solo every mission (dragons lair reqires party).
Number 2, lets stop bickering.
Number 3, Guild wars is an amazing game, accessable to even the most casual of players. This is due to a level cap of twenty, and an ingenious skil refund/secondary profession switch system, which allows you to change your profession enormously without having to work your !@#$%^&* off for it. Its a really player friendly environment, you wont find people calling you a noob. Just remember, dont join a guild untill your lv 10, joining a guild as a newbie player may be a bad idea.

You can't go around telling, people whatt hey can, and can't do. He might hav soloed every mission, ya never know.

no, its impossible, some missions require the use of henchmen.

how? I haven't soloed all the missons, but I haven't notice that

my mistake, been patched recently. i just rechecked.

lol

PS - admin could u fix the quotes so it won't be white font I can barely see it

Lol, i didn't mean to stir up trouble:P

Thanks for the info guys, I really appreciate it.

There we go fixed the quote boxes my mistake forget to get those