Eye of the North..

my friend told me that if you play Eye of the north you will get better start in GW 2.. is that true?

No.... The Hall of Monuments will carry some stuff across to GW2 but ANET have yet to announce what... I think so far all that is confirmed is that your name will be reserved for you.

HoM monuments will give a few rewards, reportedly, but a 'better start' seems like a stretch to me.

Not a better start... anet wants everyone to start equal...but you will possibly have rewards

It's not the playing, it's filling your HoM that exists in EOTN. That's the bridge between GW1 and 2. And doing that will give you some reward in GW2, but that's going to be purely cosmetical to let you be recognized for your achivements in GW1. You won't be at an advantage, if that's what you're thinking.

You ''will'' (it is yet unknown) get visual things like pets, armor color, some emotes maybe...

is that GW 2 coming in this year or next?

No real gameplay advantages will occur if you play EoTN before playing GW2... anything that you get (and it's mainly conjecture at this point) will be purely cosmetic.

Based on the NC Soft annual report, Anet expects to release GW2 sometime between 2010-2011. So we all have a year or two to fill up our Halls with titles, armors, etc.

2011 seems to be the earliest it might be released. But it is just as likely be later then that. They do have to create an entire game code after all.

Let me put it this way: If you don't get EotN, you'll be guaranteed to be starting on the same ground as anyone else who didn't.