I've now been playing the Prophecies campaign since the holidays and, honestly, I can think of only one word to sum up my experience so far: addiction. The fact that this is the very first MMO game I've played in my life is perhaps a major factor. Then again, there are so many things to see and do in this gigantic, open-ended world, that I can't see a reason to stop playing anytime soon.

My character is a fighter/mesmer hybrid and is now at level 11. It took me a while to realize that, although I could spend hours and hours just exploring the environment to discover new quests and new cool areas (and having quite a lot of fun in the process), the only way to actually advance the storyline is by completing cooperative missions. These are easily accessible on the map screen, and can be accomplished with other players or with a group of computer-controlled henchmen. I find this to be really fun and relaxing, because you progress at your own leisure. That's a nice change of pace, especially after playing more linear, tightly-paced games like Doom 3 and Quake 4.

My only concern for the moment is that I've only seen about 10% of the game world, after hours of playing time. How long does it take to finish a behemoth of a game like Guild Wars?