n00b question

if i buy guildwars, do i need to buy factions/nightfall in order to play, or is that an optional upgrade?

Each chapter is stand-along, that means you can play whichever chapter you buy regardless of which others you have.

You may find Tyria to be a bit of a ghost town up until about Lions Arch.

Thanks for the replies. I would like to buy all three, but as a college student funds aren't as sufficient as I would like them to be.

Thanks again.

When (and if) you choose to go with another chapter in addition to Prophecies, buy Nightfall. There's a lot of improvements added in NF that make it worth buying over Factions.

Thanks, I most likely will be doing that. I haven't heard to many good things about Factions but Nightfall on the other hand I've gotten many good insights.

As the OP is presumably unfamiliar with GW geography/plotline, I thought I'd take a moment to expand upon this statement.

Lion's Arch is one of five primary cities in the Prophecies campaign and the second one that a player will reach on his way through the game. It is usually the most populous town due to its role as the gateway to Factions and Nightfall.

What dansamy is referring to is the fact that many players have temporarily abandoned Prophecies and Factions since the release of Nightfall. Over time, people will probably revert back to the older games as the novelty dissipates. Until then, Prophecies is rather empty...especially the earlier missions and outposts.

A new player, barring the use of runners, should expect to put in as many as 40 hours of gameplay to reach LA.

I'm still pretty early in the game, I bought it yesterday and got it all figured out. Game's a little different than what I'm used to but I think I'll be able to handle it. I'm playin a Mesmer at the moment and probably going to either take a Necro or Monk as my secondary. Any insight on that subject would be greatly appreciated.

Necro.