I cant help either of you in game, but i can help a bit here on the forums. This game is different then many other MMOs in that it doesnt really have a public "general chat" channel, which makes it feel a little quieter. All chat is either local, or somewhat private. Local would be you being able to talk to or /shout at people in the same area(like near the market board in town). As for the "somewhat private", these are primarily free company chat channels or linkshells. Anyone can benefit from joining the right FC as they can provide people to play with, chat with, and answer questions - plus FC buffs to things like experience. Linkshells are like permanent "private" server-wide chat channels. Someone starts a LS, and other people can join by invitation. You can have LSs for just chatting, or those that have a particular goal(for instance, a hunting LS where people share the locations of targets theyve found). And as a new player in particular, the shell you might want to get into is the Novice Network. Theres one on every server, and basically anyone with Mentor status can invite you. Go to town and /shout about getting an invite, and you should be in pretty quickly. There you should be able to find people to provide in-game help with almost anything. You can also put up a party-finder group asking for people to include you in LSs about whatever topics interest you. Often people seeing these will provide an invite or two to help.