GW PvE Size and time

I've read over a few different posts about GW's PvE world size, and I wanted to know just how big it is. I have the game and i've gotten to post searing and seen the map but about how much content is within it? Is it enough to keep busy exploring till the next 6 month expansion? I love it, but I wanted to be able to still have fun going with friends exploring, while still being able to PvP and stuff. So is this world big or not, I ask this for myself and as a sort of convincing for people looking at the game to see how great and big it is. (I Love this game and want everyone to know bout it) So comparisons to other games, hours spent, or anything else to give me and others an idea of the size and time of gameplay for the PvE world. Thanks!

if you do every single quest and explore every single area, it'll keep you busy for a good long while. This is a game that actually feels massive - especially if your a casual player, I've been playing non-stop for 3 days and I'm just now at Yak's bend, but I have every piece of the map uncovered along the way, and every single quest I could find done.

Here is a good idea of how big the map is...

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/map/map.htm

I know that there is atleast 1 place that is not on that map that I have seen in game, and also it only shows the top part of the map. Under the black part of the map is the Crystal Desert and that volcanic island.

In the map listed above, i was just wondering are the "defined" areas on it the only areas explorable in that piece of the map? and are there more major cities than that? thanks again!

One more question sorry but what is the best way to go about finding some people to join in a party with you, even if you don't know them. Say if you are going on some questing but want a real person, any suggestions on how to get some people to come or what to say in town? Last one I hope, how do you join a guild? Thanks a bunch!

That map shows the amount of the world that was available during the Beta Weekend Events. I just took a screenshot of the map I have explored with my current character(just overall world map with dots for cities and missions) to show a bit better.

I believe I've opened up all the "major cities": Ascalon City, Lions Arch, Henge of Denravi, Amnoon Oasis, and Droknar's Forge. However, I haven't explored a large amount of the area- for example, pretty much the entirety of the snowy mountains is explorable, the volcanic islands in the southwest of the map are also explorable. I've uncovered most of the desert, however, and the map linked to in the earlier post shows the northern part of the world quite well.

The "defined" areas on that map are the different "areas": for example when you step outside Ascalon City, you're in "Old Ascalon", from which you can travel to "The Breach" or "Regent Valley". If the area isn't in the white boxes on the map, you probably can't travel there(with exceptions noted above such as the shiverpeak mountains).

The amount of map that is uncovered in my screenshot is the result of 50+ hours of travelling- and I really don't have that much of the map uncovered. It would probably take me 100+ more hours to completely uncover the entire map(which I will do eventually). It's kind of hard to tell what all has been explored from the shot, though there's a slight color difference to show what has been explored and what hasn't.

From that map the game looks about the size of WoW maybe a little bigger.