Why Guild Wars 1 should have been a single-player RPG

After getting GW: Factions, ragequitting because I was a n00b, getting back into GW1 because of GW2, and acquiring Prophecies and Nightfall, I have made the inevitable conclusion that Guild Wars would have been better as a single-player game. (Or at least, the PvE part of it. I've never ventured into GW1 PvP, nor do I ever intend to...)

[not pictured: multiple players]

The initial issue I had with Factions was that it was simply too hard for a n00b like me. By the time I joined Factions, it had been out for a while, and there wasn't an abundance of people. I had no time to be dedicated to a guild, and was an anti-social dumbass who couldn't find herself a party if her life depended on it. Unfortunately, I also wasn't skilled enough to solo the party with henchies. I ended up slowly losing interest, basically ragequitting. Gradually.

If Guild Wars had been a single-player game with, however, it would have been designed as such, with the difficulty scaling accordingly, and it would have been easy to implement an easy mode for people who generally suck at gaming but still want to play.

Now that I've gone back to playing GW, mainly to have some lore background for GW2, I realize that I don't even need to interact with other players at all. The missions, especially with heroes in Nightfall, are generally soloable, and it's great fun to explore Pre-Searing Ascalon by oneself. (I now actually understand what people mean when they refer to Pre-Searing Ascalon!)

[Pre-Searing Ascalon at its finest]

Well, now we've covered why GW1 could have been a single-player game... but how about why it should have been?

Y'see, most people have this false notion that Guild Wars 2 is going to be just like Guild Wars 1, because they think that Guild Wars 1 was an MMORPG, despite Arenanet having called it a CORPG. This is because GW1, while not officially an MMO, certainly made an impression on many people as a backwards, maze-like MMO of completely instanced, closed-off areas. Many people will not initially be able to get over that, because people in general hate change :D

If Guild Wars was a single-player RPG? Well, it would just be like adding an MMO to a well-established franchise such as Final Fantasy (eer... except not since the FF MMOs kind of sucked... but you get the point). It would be a clear change in genre, and people would realize "oh, it's an MMO now, so we can throw away preconceptions ingrained in us from the first game, because it's a totally different genre now." It's all in the mindset. 

Obviously, Guild Wars isn't and never will be a single-player RPG, but the prospect remains interesting. Will GW's reputation damage that of GW2? Will it have any impact on how GW2 is marketed or received? Only time will tell.