New player =)

sup, I may not have been playin the game for ages but im almost lvl 16 and I know pretty much everything, im a huge fan of the matrix so it didnt take long to adjust. Anyway...
Those missions are grinding missions, when u get a lil bit higher I recommend getting infiltrator, for lock picking, it makes the missions VERY quick and u get tons of xp.
I live in the UK and I find most ppl are on about 10pm (gmt)
Look for a faction to join, but make sure u like the ppl in it, u dont want to wind up in 1 where all the ppl are jerks.
This is just something I do but,
ALWAYS CARRY A SHOTGUN 
lol

O and about the WoW thing...its pretty much same for me...i got perminantly banned lol
I absolutly hated the ppl on WoW and the worst part was all of them were complete addicts.
U could start with some1 at like lvl 5 to do some quests and stuff then go away when u both 8, next day u come on and they are 40 something!
I havnt met 1 person who stays on that long.