1. Not sure about average, but my predictions are that we'll be doing plot-ish things until halloween, then have the war part that'll last... I dunno... a couple weeks? I can't remember how long the Maraqua war lasted, so I'm probably way off.
2. You don't *have* to, but TNT has said that there will be a war with this one.
3. It seemed like it up until this round, just keep your eyes on the plot thread to see if anyone's found something to do yet, they usually find it pretty fast.
4. Prizes
A couple items and some np, usually, depending on how much you participated.