Long-time player returning, some questions

Hello, and first of all.. thanks for your time!

I quit GW last year to check out other games, just after the Nightfall preview event. I enjoyed other MMORPGs, but never found what suited me best; so now I'm thinking to restart playing GW during the easter holidays.
Now as I'm quite the ol' skool player, I started playing GW during the summer 2005; I'm sure that there are players that played longer than I did, but still. I have been around for some time.

Now, I have serveral high-end items on my storage and like +-800k; 100k in materials (which I bought in the hope of making some money out of 'm during Nightfall's release) and +-40 ecto's.

Now, my questions:

1. How has the community progressed? Is it still the old 'mind your own bussiness' kind of community, or have things changed?
2. Is there any money inflation (Is my 1k now worth the same as it was last yer) or has it's value increased?
3. What's the current price of ecto's and shards? (I can't log-in because of some technical issues)
4. What is the most effective farm build atm? I never got into 55ing, but I have like all the core-classes (except a mesmer); and my monk got into 600hp'ing when I left. Is it still effective, is so: where? I loved how a 3-man group could clear FoW.
5. I read something about a new realm of the gods, what is it? The same as FoW/UW or something completly diffrent?
6. What's the current fame-farming build? Is it still ViM + iWay?
7. How is Nightfall? How would you compare it to Prophecies and Factions?
   (I don't need to know anything about updates, just the story line and the feeling they put into it)

Again, Thank You for your time

1. Kinda, with Heroes and stuff. Just join a nice guild.
2. 1k=1k
3. 9.5 and 3 respectively.
4. I guess most effective is A/E or E/A solo farmer.
5. It's Domain of Anguish and you only get in parties playing Core classes minus Mesmer .
6. IWAY and ViM arent played, I think a BoA team + SH ele's are Famefarming now.
7. If you want Heroes, buy it. If you don't, don't. I personally don't like the lazy style they put in, creating Realm of Torment and Vabbi is the only place I really like.

1 Community is a bit more isolated now. With heros, there is no reason to PUG. Thus all the good players generally don't team up with people in town anymore.
2 I'd say there is inflation, partly because of the hidden treasures (basically special chests that can only be opened once per character that give a gold item and money. There is like 10 of them in the game atm).
3 ^ what Mitchel said
4 There is a W/Rt build and a E/Me build that can both solo parts of UW. Actually, a lot of nice farming builds are out now for ele, mostly involving the NF skill, stoneflesh aura in some way.
5 DoA can only be accessed from NF and you have to have beaten the storyline missions before entering. Its pretty tough and requires fairly high end play. Its considered an elite area like the Deep and Urgoz but doesn't require a ferry.
6 Hero's Ascent is now 6v6 teams instead of 8v8. As such, ViMWAY and IWAY and Spikes don't really work so well. Now, people often run Searing Flames and sandstorm eles to do high end aoe damage.
7 I like it. Deccent storyline. Good elites. Nice scenery and some nice new inovations with the engine.

Sounds like a winner, I'll pick-up my copy after my exams

The community is more isolated now than ever.
IWAY+ViM= trashed, now it's BoA assassins+SS Eles

In Short: Farming is harder, there are fewer bots, money is still worthless, and the only way to get into DoA is with a core class.

Sounds cool, and exactly what I'm looking for.
I only play core classes, and would only touch a chapter-only class for a specific skill or maybe a PvP build.