Start at the beginning or what?

Hi,
I've got 3 of the games, I skipped Factions because, well.. Let's just leave it as because.

I tried playing the original game when it was first released but just couldn't get into it, the world felt too empty to me after playing so many MMO's with people dotted all over the landscape.

But over time I've purchased the other two expansions/games (nightfall and the other one) and am wondering where to begin. Should I bother starting with the very first game? Is there any people that are still in those areas anymore, or are they all moved into areas of the other expansions.

Basically where should I start off in the game (PVE) where there are a lot of people in the towns for social interaction but a place where a level 1 character can go without getting slaughtered by a horsefly that clips me with his wing as he flew to close to me?

Thanks,

ive you're a completionist, then i'd start in prophecies becasue it the hardest one to get the the starting areas from another campaign. if you do it will be a while before you can get into the other campaigns with that character though.

start in prophecies cos the beginning of NF has to be the worst thing GW has ever done to every player that started ina new campaign. and, surprisingly enough, the areas in prophecies are still quite full of people.

Agreed, Prophecies is still reasonably well-populated.

1. Looks. Depending on the sex and the class - each chapter has it's wow-moments and each chapter has its "Holy smokes Batman! What the hell were they thinking including such an ugly character!??!"-moments.
2. C1 is boring like hell. And takes forever.
But at the same time - so does grinding the sunspear points and leveling up the newbie heroes in C3.
And it's because of this - Factions comes out as a clear winner. The 15 attribute quests are early in the game, you level up insanely fast and thus you are able to play the game as one should in a few hours.
But since people refuse to love Factions ...

Seriously - both options you have access to are far from ideal - and it's because of that - I'd go with looks. You'll be bored either way - might as well look at a sweet ass while working the boredom away.

I would totally go after the desired character looks.
No matter where you start, you can get to the other two campaigns pretty fast (if needed, with a runner's help) to get some max armor and heroes.

If you just want the easiest way to 20 and 200 attribute points, see the post above: Start in Factions.

If you read the OP, Factions is the one game he does NOT have.....
Start with prophecies, it is the best one anyway

Tough one...

I dont like the look and feel of nightfall, leveling the heroes is annoying, especially when they are required for a quest.

Prophecies is damn slow. Takes ages to level to 20. The first ten missions or so that ive completed are so freacking boring, long and full of annoying popups that i gave up on completing the campaign.

Thats why i always choose to start off in Factions.
And since you dont own factions, well, id say prophecies, because it is the "original" guild wars experience.

My bad. Upon first read I thought he initially skipped Factions, quit and now owns all three campaigns.

Anywho.

I would start out in Prophecies (simply because it's the original campaign),
get a runner from Ascalon to LA, get some help to get to Kamadan, grab the four heroes you'll instantly get there, and get back to playing Prophecies.

At level 10 I would do the quest to get from LA to Eye of the North - there you will be treated as a level 20 character (well, HP-wise at least) and can grab another few heroes.
Plus it's probably a bit more fun than the horribly designed, rollercoaster-linear Prophecies missions (with a few exceptions of course).

After that (with Heroes, max armor, and level 20) Prophecies will be a breeze.

Go with Prophecies - it is quite fun actually playing through the game and storyline, even before you hit level 20 and can 'play the game as one should' as some people believe. GW is, after all, a CRPG, even though it's played online and has grouping and social interaction. Looking at it as a CRPG (ie, experiencing the storyline), I'll definitely have gotten my money's worth from it by the time I finish the story...

Probably the worst thing you can do, at least with your first few characters, is buy a run to bypass lots of the story. Where's the fun, or the pride of accomplishment, in that? If you feel too weak to handle a mission, even after a few tries, wander the countryside to reach the next region and missions/quests, though there's a few chokepoints where you *have* to do the missions, and continue on...

Prophecies also has the lowest learning curve, the most storyline missions (and probably the most quests), and the most free (at the price of doing quests, anyways) skills - a lot of which are good enough to keep using throughout the game. In Factions & Nightfall you'd have to buy the majority of your skills, which is risky when you're new, even with the advice of others (because what might be a great skill for some might be a dud in your hands, and vice-versa, no matter what some here might say).

Personally, I played through the game in chronological order and I'm glad I did. Considering that some things in later campaigns spoil things from earlier ones, it's a good idea if you care at all about the storyline to start at Proph and not skip stuff.

ya can find a PuG in almost any outpost these days, though pickins is slim in a few. Getting a couple of others(players), and then adding Heroes/Henchies is the best option, as they tend to play better than most PuG players, chances of success improves with AI.

I agree that prophecies is a little underpopulated.. unless your merching then lions arch FTW.. as there is lack of bonus profs monsters as in (dervish para rit assassin) i think the game is a little too easy now and most people playing other campains before are put off by the lack of decent loot and green weapons.. other than small greens like a totem axe you have to go to sorrows furnace or TOPK.. They should introduce more green weapons with bosses imo more quests available to non prophecies toons that would bring more players back

Prophecies is proberly the best to start off in and learn the game as you progress and you can earn skills by doing quests along the way.
If you wanted to make a Paragon or Dervish then you will need to start in Nightfall.

Do it in the proper order.

You can go get heroes in Elona and level to 20 and get armor in Cantha, but after that, if you do so, go back to Prophecies and head to ascension.

The first time it's much better to play the plot in the appropriate order.

If you plan on playing one of the core professions definately start in Prophecies, once you get to LA it's easy to travel to NF and get your heroes and you can get your max armour in eotn as soon as you hit level 10.

Proff, but in Factions you get all Attribute Points before leaving Shing Jea Island, while in Proph you get first AP quest at 50% of the game and second at 60-70%.

Depends on why you are playing GW you if you are playing to experience the content start at the beginning and work forward. Doesn't matter where you play you are so late no one is going to be at any outpost en mass. Players finished the campaigns a long time ago, you are not going to meet tons of peeps because everyone generally finished the game. Heroes are overpowered in Factions and Prophesies they were designed for hench so don't worry about skipping ahead to get heroes, you don't need them.

I would do them in chronological order - meaning, start with Prophecies, which is what you should start with anyway. It eases you in the best, has a fair amount of people, and has the least new gameplay mechanics so you won't be totally overwhelmed at one time.

As for character looks:

Prophecies: Good looks, best place to get sexy female characters too.
Factions: The females are okay (if you can find one who doesn't have her mouth open all the time), but the males are the most hideous thing to enter this world.
Nightfall: Nice looks, but too many pirates and stuff.

How do you go about getting a "runner" and what is a runner?

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions they seem to vary as much as their are options.

Also I thought I noticed that if I start in Proph then there are some character classes that are not available to me to begin with, so I suppose that means playing thorugh with a character from Phroph then starting a new character later in one of the other chapters with one of the classes that I wish to play and go backwards to proph again?