Guild Wars 1 was massive, Very popular since the start of the release and still is going strong, unlike SWTOR and Aion or Rift, they had nothing just a hype of fans. I know at least 70% of people I know that play wow are going to go to Guild Wars 2, They have even preordered it, including myself.
WoW is getting boring HB is getting overpopulated WoW economy is also dying even D3 economy, All D3 was is a fling for blizzard to get a burst of money
So I say GW2 would be a great step for Buddy to make money and learn new things.