Thinking about playing Guild Wars but...

I just needed some input. I heard that if your soloing, and if you leave a town then you wont be able to see other players as you adventure on the map. Is that true? This is going to be a critical factor as to whether I sign up or not. The game looks great overall.

It's instanced.

You'll see other people in towns and outposts, but once you leave a town you see only the people you're partied with.

The only players you will ever see outside of a town/outpost are those in your party. If you are going solo (alone or with only henchmen and heroes), then you will not see any other players.

this is a good thing... no kill stealing, no chest stealing, no camping spawn points (there aren't even spawning points really), chat not filled with text of people you don't want to hear.

I'm sure there are advantages and disadvantages...now I cant power level anyone when I'm bored...

you still can, but you have to group in the town/outpost. Then when you leave you spawn together in the explorable area.

just invite them in your party in an outpost

You can, as long as you have that person in your party. You can invite them into your party at outposts, and they'll be in the same map as you when you zone.

EDIT: man, I didn't see the above posts before I posted, and aresfrombe posted at the exact same time... sorry for duplicate!

To clarify: You form your party in an outpost, and when one person in that party zones out of the outpost, the entire party will appear in the map with you. All 4/6/8 of them, depending on party size limit. So if you leave the outpost without any additional party members, you won't see anyone else, but if - say, a level 3 - is in your party, he'll appear with you and you can powerlevel him anyway.

considering the max level is 20, most people dont really need to be powerleveled.

You can actually in fact you can make money this way, just go to Droks and find someone looking for powerleveling.

Parties are made in towns, then go out into instanced explorable areas.

.

I like the instanced play better. You can choose who you want to play with in an outpost and when you leave that outpost..the world is yours.

As mentioned above, no kill stealing, getting ganked by a player 20 levels above you (or one that waits till you just finished or in the middle of a fight) to attack you. PVP..sure but its skill.

Instanced is good, the fewer idiots you have to deal with, the better.

You never really "solo" unless you are farming, you almost always have npcs with you. The instancing system works really well and it is unique the way gw does it. Just give it a shot and you will be able to make a decision, gw is so inexpensive nowadays anyway.

If you want other players with you when you leave a town/outpost, invite them to your party, this includes Heroes and Henchmen. Otherwise, when you leave a town/outpost, you are going to be the only one, aside from any NPCs that might be in the Zone you are playing in.

As fun as it can be to be in a non-instanced game world, it has its downsides. Many have been mentioned before, so I'm not going to run through them again.

Another thing to point out, towns and outposts are literally all over the place.