New player to Guild Wars- Some Simple Questions

Are the pve/pvp portions of the game linked in anyway?

Is there an advantage (other then then the enjoyment) to playing through the PVE portion prior to playing on the pvp portions of the game?

Does a new player have a chance in the pvp portions of the game?

I am playing profiecies and I have just started exploring in the pre-seared portion of the game.

What is a good place to find a guild? I am 30 so I am not wanting to sit around with what little free time I have and waste it playing with a bunch of kids. No offenes.

Thanks for the time!

Where is a good place to go to for newbie information?

1. Underworld and Fissure of Woe are open based on how your territory does in the hall of heros (pvp)

2. more skills and exp for pvp if you play pve first (but not needed)

3. you do in Alliance battles and Random/team arena, not guild vs guild of heros ascent

4. anywhere there are people there are recruiters, most of the guilds with older players are pvp guilds

5. all the information can be found on guild wiki (not the official wiki)
look for builds now becasue they are removing the build section

I never tried PvP til I'd been playing a long time in PvE. Amazing the skills you acquire, you never thought much of them, til you got into a PvP context.

I don't know if what Alex says is true, that most older players are in PvP guilds. I have no way of gathering those statistics, but it seems to me that older players have more RL responsibilities and therefore must by necessity join a more "casual" PvE guild with PvP on the side. Just my two cents.

Post in the Guild section of this forum, "Looking for a Guild;" or read through the "Introduce your Guild" thread, posts by leaders describing what and who they are, and what they're looking for in a member. (You can find out an awful lot about a guild, by reading what the leader considers its most important aspects.)

as a new player to guild wars, you can not just hop right into pvp because you will have no skills unlocked and not know the basic game mechanics. start off with pve until you get to know the basics about each and every profession and their counters, weaknesses, strengths and their general role in the game...always keep in mind that pvp and pve strategies are much different though.

as for finding a mature guild, you will often see many people saying things like "mature guild recruiting members ages 17+" or things like that. also, guilds are easy to find so hop around some guilds until you find one you really like.

actually if you are totally uninterested in PVE then screw it and make a PVP only char and learn as you go....if u play thru the PVE portion of the game and then switch to PVP you will have to UNLEARN alot ....

Skills and such can be unlocked thru pvp via balthazar factions....regular skills cost 1000 factions elite skills cost 3000 factions. Although if you want to compete at a high level of PVP then you need to get all 3 campaigns...but like i said you can start with PVP if that is the only thing you want to do...although if u want both PVP and PVE then yeah start with a pve toon and learn the mechanics of the game...otherwise it is just a waste of time... note trolls i do both so don't flame me....

my girlfriend is picking this up for me tonight, i'm gonna do the whole pve campaign with her before i dabble in pvp and leave my trail of nubsauce all over the place