Which campaign should I be playing?

I just bought all three campaigns (Guild Wars [Vanilla], Factions, and Nightfall) and the "Eye of the North" extension pack and I wanted to know if there's any point in playing the first two campaigns or if I should just disregard them and start playing the last campaign and/or the exp pack.

All advice/tips welcome

It's all a matter of preference.
Prophecies is the one considered to have the best Storyline. You'll level slower but if it's your first time playing an MMORPG (which I doubt it is) you may want to start here.
Factions is the shortest but, You level the fastest. Not a bad campaign, I enjoyed it but, if you're inexperienced some of the missions may make you want to pull your hair out.
Nightfall is the inbetween IMO. The start can be slow because of the required Sunspear Ranks but, it can pick up a bit later on.
I may have gotten off-track... As for disregarding the first 2 campaigns, I wouldn't. Since all the campaigns are stand alone they each have their own storylines. I would highly recommended starting a char in each of the 3 campaigns.

The three campaigns are independent of each other (though characters you make in one can play through the others if you wish). They also all offer slightly different skill options. Some of the most effective skills in the game are ONLY available in prophecies, or factions, so I would definitely play all three.

Also, while they're arguably chronological, they don't actually flow in any sort of narrative sequence. The only thing that really makes NF the "last" campaign, in terms of the story's relation to the other two, is that it came out after they did.

The bottom line is that there's absolutely no conceivable reason why you should do what you suggested. It would be like only reading every third chapter of a book. It's all one game. Play it that way.

I don't have prophecies yet, unfortunately, so will have to wait on that. I'm new to GW but not to MMORPG-ing or gaming in general so am trying to gather as much info about this game as I can before I get to the point where I would say "OH! I wish I knew that earlier on".

Anyway, thanx for all the info. Just one more question: Do guilds exist across multiple campaigns or if, say, I create a guild in vanilla will it not show on the other campaigns?

Yes, that makes very good sense, I suppose. Cheers, mate

Not exactly, i'm thinking Gate of Madness here, it's fairly plain NF happens after the other two campaigns.

But you DO! The original Guild Wars was given the title "Prophecies" when the other campaigns were released. This is because ALL of them comprise "Guild Wars."

As far as guilds go, like I said, it's all one game, and you can treat it that way.

Not to be jerky, but I honestly think most of your questions would disappear after a few days of just playing the game through (and across) the various campaigns. Your experience with earlier MMO's may have led to a little hesitation here, but there's virtually nothing you can do in this game that you can't easily change later.

Yes, this is true...

I was really just trying to impart the notion that the three campaigns did not represent a continuous storyline, and there was no time to be saved by "skipping to the end," i.e. disregarding everything before NF.

I suspect what you are referring to as "Guild Wars [Vanilla]" is, in fact, Guild Wars: Prophecies. As I understand it, the "Prophecies" name was added to the original Guild Wars post-release to differentiate it from Nightfall & Factions. It's simply a chapter name for the original, basic ("vanilla") Guild Wars.

I've only been playing since October. Started with Prophecies, finished that campaign, took that same toon and did EotN and have finished the main story arc of that. Now I'm leading my toon through Nightfall, and eventually through Factions.

At some point down the road I'll start toons that will be native to Factions or Nightfall, just as this toon is native to Prophecies... but for now, I'm happy to just bring the same one through each chapter.

EotN is a lot of fun, but it's not one of the three chapters - you don't "start" with EotN (toons must be at least lvl10, and the game is geared towards lvl20), most people "end" with it. Among the three chapters, I'm liking Nightfall the best so far. Prophecies got to the point where even the missions felt like a grind to me. I'm not having that same feeling with Nightfall.

So if I were giving a friend advice on where to start, at THIS point in my limited experience, I'd be suggesting starting with Nightfall - if only because, TO ME, it is a bit more "interesting" than Prophecies was. I know that others feel the Prophecies storyline was more interesting and better conveyed... and while I agree that it is a very fleshed-out storyline, I felt like it wasn't enough of a benefit when compared to (what were, FOR ME) the very grind-nature of the rather lengthy and boring missions.

As said above, it is entirely personal choice in which campaign to start at. A lot of people would probably recommend prophecies (or vanilla as you call it ) but personally I find it to be my least favorite and prefer Factions. Factions is by far the fastest to level your characters in, and it seems to be my favorite choice for character looks (well female characters at least...).

Nightfall is a pretty good starter because of the addition of Heros. I think you will find it hard to find a group to play with nowadays unless you can find a guild who helps newer players or make some friends here on guru. The Heros in Nightfall offer you a way to work around bad henchmen AI and skill bars, and could make your play experience a bit more enjoyable. But some parts of the Nightfall storyline are better understood if you have played and beaten the other two campaigns. It isn't a requirement but if you care about lore it might be annoying To have characters from Prophecies and Factions talk to you like they know you when your character has never seen them before...

As a long time player I do have a fondness for playing the game as intended which would mean Prophesies then Factions then Nightfall.
As a new player this shouldn't matter to you and I would tend to agree with those who say start with Nightfall.

There is only a few things to consider before taking this rout.
You will not experience the Presearing of Prophesies but you can do that with a second character so its no matter.
You cannot gain the title Legendary Defender of Ascalon since this is done while in presearing but I would never advise anyone to attempt that with a first character either.

So only one decision left If you want to start with assassin or Ritualist as your first character you must choose Factions for any other Class Nightfall is fine.
You will have 8 character slots so just try a few out and see what you like to play and then go for it.

You can cross over to the other games later on when you have a better idea of what path you want to take in the game and you do not need to complete one game before crossing to another.
Once you access the main sea port you can move freely between all the games.

Yes, Guilds exist across all the campaigns. It doesn't matter where you create it.

I personally say start in Nightfall.
-It's the easiest and let's you grasp the game very fast.
-You get heroes, which allow you to train you own Henchman and not depend on ANet's NPC creations.
-You have almost-instant access to the city Kamadan, Jewel of Istan, the biggest center of trading in the game (while this may or may not factor very early on in the game, it will a little later)
-If you check out PvX (a wiki which contains lots of GW builds), you can learn how these builds work faster via putting these builds on your heroes.
-Reaching Level 20 is relatively easy.
-If you are able to get a good guild this early on, your guild should have relatively easy access to helping you in this campaign.
-You quickly gain max attribute points.
-You can move to any campaign in a relatively short amount of time.

If you want to learn the original approach to the game, play Prophecies ("vanilla")
-It's VERY SLOW (if you want to gain levels and do side quests)
-Don't start out on a Ranger (do so if you want a challenge). Ranger's in Pre-Searing Ascalon until you reach the city of Lion's Arch are relatively weaker than the other classes.
-The Scenery in Pre-Searing Ascalon tops about any other explorable areas (excluding Sorrow's Furnace).
-Making money and experience, even with quests, is slow, because the rewards are rather dismal. However, the rewards in early-on Prophecies quests often reward unique weapons with attributes that are impossible to make by conventional means.
-There are lots of guild recruiting messages in both Post-Searing and Pre-Searing Ascalon City- hope for the best!
-Reaching Level 20 will teach you the real meaning of a Guild Wars level grind.
-You cannot max attribute points until, essentially, the end of the Campaign.

Factions, I would say be the least preferable for the inexperienced. Unless you have a good grasp on builds, and gameplay in general, don't do it.
However, it does have its own advantages.
-You reach level 20 ridiculously FAST (doing every quest, and quests reward a lot more exp than Proph and NF)
-You will die a lot and by various means. Some included are: Shadow Stepping as an Assassin into every battle; your healer can't keep up with you. Trying to play as a Restoration Ritualist for the first time, and never have even touched Monk; early on, leave it to the monks to heal, you can learn how to heal as a Ritualist later.
-Instant access to Shing Jea Monastery, home to the Canthan New Year!
-You can move to Nightfall to obtain heroes relatively fast and make it easier on yourself.
-Attribute points are difficult to get without a friend/higher-than-henchman-level heroes.

Lastly, Eye of the North.
...Don't do it first.

If you are planning on starting a guild, my advice is don't. Not unless you already have at least 10 friends playing the game who will join your guild. You are better off joining an existing guild while you learn how the game works so that you have a source of advice and help when needed. (Visit our Guild Connections forums.) After you have in-game friends is the time to start your own guild.

If you have questions about areas, items, missions or quests you can visit either of the wikis. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page (Official - hosted by ArenaNet) or http://www.guildwiki.org/Main_Page (Unofficial - hosted by Curse)

If you want info on basics for any profession, visit our Campfire section's sub forums.

I'd say start in Prophecies and work your way through the 3 in order. I always found it a lot more enjoyable. But if you want to make life easy, go Nightfall and get heroes.

Don't start in prophecies unless you plan to devote 1 month (playing casually) to being able to have 200 attribute points. Prophecies has the worst henchmen, longest missions, and most map areas. You could get run to Droknar's but that defeats the point of the thread. Prophecies was only fun back in the day when people teamed. Also, prepare to spend all your gold buying skills as the skill quests give you the good skills really far into the game.

Start in Nightfall for heroes IMO. Starting in Factions worked back when everyone was active and teaming with other people. You'll get to level 20 in less than a day of casual play. Then you'll be out of luck. It can still work if you magically find people that are always up to the same part of the game as you are. This is unlikely though.

...which just means you should stop at every shrine to get all of the bounties and will actually have do regular quests instead of just sticking to Primary Quests and Missions.

Guilds are completely independant of which campaigns you have and, in fact, are account wide - once you join a guild, ALL of your characters go with you.

Hint: People still team and Prophecies is still very fun, even if you're using just Henchmen (though there are a couple of missions that might be next to impossible with just Henchmen - Aurora Glade, for example). Plenty of skill quests during the first 2/3rds of the game and a player will be buying far fewer skills because of them than they have to in Factions and Nightfall.

Hero skill trainers are generally better than skill quests.

Because of campaign-unique skills, armor, etc., you'll likely be playing all the campaigns, anyway. And it's really not unheard of to start in one campaign and then jump to the others when you reach the port cities. Regardless of the fact that the storylines are supposed to have taken place at different times, once you've unlocked certain areas in the campaigns, you can travel freely from area to area (with the exception of the "Pre" tutorial area of Prophecies -- once you leave it, there's no going back with that character). I skipped around (I was chasing animals for my menagerie). Granted, this made the lore a little jumbly in my newbie brain, but it was far from boring.

I suggest starting a character in each campaign (vanilla/Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall -- you can't start in North, nor can you go there until you're level 10). You have a heap of character slots, and as stated, certain professions are campaign-specific. Get a taste of the environments, the stories, then carry on with whichever you personally prefer. But bear in mind that if you play all the way through Nightfall first, you will spoil some storyline surprises from both Prophecies and Factions for yourself.

Prophesies I have to say is old style gw and its dated badly.

Its the largest of the games and it has to be because so much of it is devoted to low level play.
Players do not reach full power and have full sized parties till its half finished, it has to have two start areas pre and post searing ascalon.

This has never been repeated in the following games because its a bad idea and divides the beginners into two mutually exclusive areas.
If there was a way to gain legendary defender of ascalon outside of presearing it would be deserted.

The modern game needs to give players an easy start with good access to other players for trade and party formation access to the hero system which like it or not is a mainstay of the current game.

I like to think anet learned something with each game the wrote and made improvements, prophesies is a great place to adventure but no longer a great place to start a new character.

Most of this seems fairly correct to me (disagree about LDoA being the only reason people stay in Pre).

Except that if you're really into the lore and storyline, as some have said, starting in Prophecies is an obvious choice.

Won't take long to try each one. Just dive right in!

Depends upon what sort of "point" you require. The "point" to playing any of GW is to have "fun", so, yes there is a point to playing the earlier chapters.
However, that said, if you want to jump in and play the game in a manor closest to what is the current "meta", I'd suggest starting in Nightfall and going to EotN as soon as you get to level 20. This will get you into the basic gameplay, plus Heroes, plus more Heroes and dungeons (EotN), plus allow you to do War In Kryta content by completing EotN.
You may, of course, still want to finish Nightfall, Factions, and Prophecies [Vanilla] to get to the various other endgame content, but there is also the factor that GW2 will be coming out some day/year and you may want to migrate to that along with most GW players.

I would play nightfall first, but thats my own decision. I just love the end of nigtfall