Just to follow up, If i join a friend's new game we can progress through the intro. My online character doesn't retain any of the experience or equipment I earned playing with him though. I'm forced to play through the intro when i try to play with the online character again, at which point i'm stuck at the same introduction quest. I can trade with my friend but he can't send a trade to me. He noticed I go offline when i join his game even though i'm clearly moving around and playing with him. When I load into game i'm without any equipment or even starter skills.

Still have the bug. I uninstalled and reinstalled and it worked but my character was kicked out of online play after about 1 minute. i closed and relaunched the game and I now have the same bug. Help! I seriously can't play online at all... could this be a connection issue that is causing the game not to load properly? I don't have the initial tutorial popup either.