Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone! I bought Guild Wars 2 when it first came out, but I only played about a day before I stopped and moved on to single player games which are more my style.
I’ve been itching to jump back in, though, and for much longer this time.

I have two primary questions I’ve been wondering, the first being the most pressing:

1. If I start now, will I be forced to only play the newest content, and miss all the earlier stuff? Is that how the updates work? Or is it all there, and I can play through it myself, before catching up with everyone? It’s something I always wondered about WoW, as well. If the Cataclysm DLC for that game changed the landscape, etc, did that mean the past content was lost for new players?

2. Does it really make a difference what race I choose? I chose the plant race before, but that seemed weird. Is one more fun than the others?

1. Currently the Living Story Seaon 1 storyline will be lost to you. They are hoping to bring it back someday, but not for quite some time. Right now, if you do the current Living Story stuff, you can, however, get many of the past rewards with the tokens. This opportunity only lasts until the end of the month. (Then comes the new stuff! *)

2. The difference between races is their Personal Stories and how they look and sound. Statwise they are equal. Any of them can be fun, just pick one that you like.

*New, Season 2, stuff will be permanently added to your account if you log in when it is new. If you cannot, you can later buy it with a small amount of gems.

1. Everything that came with the game at launch (including Personal Story) is still available to play.
In January 2013, the Living Story season 1 started, and it ended in March 2014. That content was mostly temporary, and is no longer available. However, ArenaNet has stated that they are considering adding a replay option for this content at a later date (if technical issues allow it).
On July 1st (next week), Living Story season 2 will start. It will also consist of both temporary content and permanent additions to the game. However, the temporary content will be (mostly) replayable through a new “story journal” feature that they will introduce at the same time. All you need to do is log in once every two weeks to unlock each new chapter of content. (If you miss it, it can still be bought through the gemstore.)
And then there are festivals, like the current Queen’s Pavilion and Labyrinthine Cliffs zone. These are temporary by nature, but they will return once per year (with minor changes and updates). Sometimes these events are woven into the Living Story, but not in a way that drastically changes the basic nature of the festival content.

2. Race choice brings a few differences:
- Each race has a different personal story for the first 30 levels.
- Each race has a few unique skills that can be unlocked. These skills are usually flavorful, but subpar.
- Your race’s size has some impact on how the camera behaves. This makes smaller races typically more desirable for doing jumping puzzles.
- Each race has a few unique armor skins that cannot be worn by other races. These are sold by vendors in each race’s home city.
- Some NPCs offer different dialogue depending on your character’s race. This has no further consequences on gameplay in any way, though.

As you can see, the consequences of choosing any specific race are mostly cosmetic.