Guild Wars 2 previewed at GamesCom

I am not sure whether it was this interview or the one with IGN, but if you see the game designer mentions that they balanced weapon damaged and conformed it throughout the game(GW1) because the focus was on achieving balance in PvP. However, in GW2 he continues that they will come from the other direction and that they will balance the weapon damage in serious PvP (not World PvP) & everywhere else folks will still get their weapon benefits. This clearly indicates that they are going to give stat bonuses outside the prefix/suffix mods in PvE & World PvP.
That was an aspect IMHO which should not have been changed. I can understand skill damage separation in PvP areas like they have lately but change in weapon base damages were not necessary & should have retained their balance in the game. I speak strictly as a casual player of course & that hardcore raiders probably wanted this kind of stuff especially to entice folks over from WoW but again this will lead to discrimination &/or layering of dungeons. The best part about the whole skill based game was that even if people did not have all the skills they could complete every & any dungeon. It would not have been optimal but would have succeeded with maybe a few wipes, however to raid for items is plain wrong IMO. One should raid for the challenge & fun not stupid items.

Well I can see where you are coming from, definitely. However, GW did an excellent job of really separating itself from the competition, and I fully trust ArenaNet can pull it off again with GW2. Just because they are introducing weapon benefits does not necessarily mean doom and gloom, how much it affects progression through content is really determined by how much emphasis is put on it. Games like Warcraft are highly dependent, whereas games like GW are not dependent at all, and since our boys made the latter rather than the former, and have absolutely no intention of alienating their fan base, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure the guys at ArenaNet are aware the last thing GW1 fans want is a gear grind!

You need new friends :)
Jokes aside, think of it as a really cool single player game you bought & play with heroes/henchmen & sometimes you can join with totally random strangers for some weird success/wipe (both fun IMO).