I have found after playing since early access that no matter how you may attempt to be anonymous or invisible in the game, there is no possible way to. As soon as you login, anyone on your friendlist is notified that you have, even before you login to a character. In addition, even if you move to Invisible status, your location in the world will keep changing even though you are shown as offline. This could potentially lead to hurt feelings if friends or a guild see you login, then go to invisible status but your location keeps changing.
In every MMO I have played (FFXI, RIFT, SWTOR, TERA), there have been ways to login and be completely anonymous should you wish to merely adventure alone without any /tells or guild involvement. It seems in GW2, everyone can know every single alt you make if you accidentally login on it while representing a guild or even if they check their friendlist while you are creating a new alt. In my opinion, there is too much transparency in GW2 and I wish there were a way to be truly ‘invisible’ in the game. Does anyone else feel the lack of the ability to become anonymous? Also, before people say that this is an MMO and if I wanted to play a single player game I shouldn’t be playing one, that is not my complaint at all. All I am wishing for is a way to enjoy an MMO and get some ‘alone’ time while doing so.