Notice to players arriving from Guild Wars 1

Notice to Guild Wars 1 players just now picking up, or thinking about picking up Guild Wars 2

If you are expecting the same game with new content, prepare to be disappointed.

Guild Wars 2 is not Guild Wars 1.

Guild Wars 2 is a whole new user experience, build upon a whole new user interface, combat system, and game economy, with a ton of concepts and features that are entirely alien to Guild Wars 1. That said...

Guild Wars 1 carries into Guild Wars 2.

Sure, many of the 'things' in GW1 that you loved are gone, or utterly changed. You will even find things that if transplanted into GW1, would suck. But none of that's important. Don't latch onto the details. Take the time to find the big picture. While all the details are different, the heart of GW1 was brought into GW2. If you find something you don't like in GW2, it's possible you've not seen the full picture. Ask about it, learn about it. Odds are, once you have the big picture you may well find it to be a good decision.

What I'm saying:
Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 are completely different, but if you liked the first one, you'll love the second, because the same philosophy and ideals made both. You may find things you don't like about Guild Wars 2, but please understand, a ton of thought went into the system as a whole. If you find a detail you don't like, you might still be missing a piece of the big picture. If you think that may be the case, ask. It'd be a shame for you to miss out on a game just because you missed seeing the whole picture

//Yamagawa

And as a foot-note: The philosophy carries into the Thief 'Steal' command in PvP -- Thieves can't steal inventory, what they 'steal' are 'Environment Weapons', temporary objects created on the spot for the thief to use. Arena Net does NOT permit griefing on their servers.