My go at your questions:
1: Does PS have a friendly community?
In principle, yes. Obviously, there are always some bad apples, though. Also, friendliness depends on how you feel about certain essential things. If you can accept the rules that are set out to allow an enjoyable environment, and also adhere to the netiquette, then little problems should arise.
2: Does PS Play like a classic MMO (Wow, ect..)
Most definitely not. You are quite correct in leaving the \"RPG\" out of the others, because they are not about roleplay at all. PS, however, is only about roleplaying. Stats and levelling are secondary in PS, there only to back up your roleplay by giving your char the appropriate abilities, and to prevent the problems that free RP brings with in any large, essentially uncontrollable, community.
3: Does PS have any similarities to the following MMO\'s:
A:runescape
B:Guild Wars
C:WoW
I think the similarities are that you have a virtual world, a char with certain looks and skills, quests, other players, and items. It is not about getting better in stats (essentially playing past everyone else and only use the other players to assess your own rank by means of levels and / or wealth), but about playing a believable character (i.e., playing with the others, shaping a living world that is immersive).
4: Are the screenshots DIRECTLY out of gameplay? (once i downloaded a rather large game, thinking it had good graphics by seeing screenshots, and they ended up sucking!)
Yes. All screenshots are from ingame. Even with low resolutions, PS still looks surprisingly well.
5:Around What is the community size for PS?
Expect about 60 players online. Expect to have ~30 of these to be passers-by, leaving ~ 30 dedicated players online around the clock. I estimate the dedicated playerbase to be ~ 150 players in total. Add to this some 30 people who are mainly present on the forums or IRC channels.
6:Does it have many quests?
There are very few, because PS is very very early development, lacking a lot of polish, features and content. Also, as has been mentioned, quests are disabled ATM but will be back eventually.
7:Does it have many skills to raise?
Yes, but most are non functional ATM, because they are not implemented yet.
8:How does combat work?
Combat with monsters ios easy: target them, select an attack stance, and you are fighting. PvP is limited to duels, on which both sides have to agree beforehand. This is due to the immense problems that any sort of open PvP system brings with it.
9:What types of item varities are there?
Due to PS\'s early development state, there are only a few items, maybe 50 in total. Many more are to come, but they need to be made first.
10:Does PS have much of a storyline?
It does have a detailed background and history (though it is not as detailed as would be nice... yet). There will most likely be a continuing story, too, but since the game itself isn\'t really done yet, this isn\'t going to show in the near future.
11:Is it needed to download any large patches in the future?
Absolutely. Patches are frequent and occasionally quite large. The latest patch was some days ago, and about 5 MB (3+3 in quick succession). There was an 80MB update some weeks ago, and I expect another big one anytime.
Edit: disabled smileys.
