This could just be my time or place, but Guild wars does not feel particularly vibrant. It really does feel like a single-player game, with the capacity for becoming a small-group game if I find people I already know. The main chatter I hear is trade spam in Kamadan. There are people around elsewhere, but beyond the Eye of the North, they blend with the NPCs. I don’t see any reason they would want to interact with a newbie, and if they are interacting with each other, they are in a different channel. Maybe Embark Beach is where the action is.
The instanced exploration areas have a more severe version of the same effect. Like launching a game in a MOBA, once you’re in there, you’re cut off. This is your own little chunk of world. I like having my own zone, but you might pause and realize that you have not seen another player in an hour. It does not feel dynamic.
Guild Wars is a sort of accidental MMO, a something else that acquired more MMO elements over time. It was not built with the World of Warcraft feeling of soloing alone together. When you’re soloing, you’re not really “together” in any sense.
: ZUbon