Guild Wars 2

Here’s an interesting question, I have no clue why I thought of it so suddenly, but, ya know, it happens irl, so I am just as positive that it has happened in game.

If a person creates a character on Feb 29th, ideally their birthday would be the same day every year that follows, but… lol… yeah we all know this one.

So if say you created your toon on Feb 29th, then the following next 4 years will that toons birthday land on March 1st, but then Feb 29th again when the next Leap comes around?

I loved that I asked my husband this and it left him scratching his head, lmao

Its based on the number of days, so the 4th birthday would be on March 1.

Yeah, the birthday would just occur on day 365, and then every 365 days after that.

Will.9785:

Its based on the number of days, so the 4th birthday would be on March 1.

I thought think it would rotate back on to Feb 29th on the 4th year, even by the number of days… ugh now I’M scratching my head…

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yeah, the birthday would just occur on day 365, and then every 365 days after that.

wait wait wait… okay, so the Feb 29th birthday is obvious first year, but once it lands on March 1st on the second year, it will then forever be March 1st every year that follows?

Jaymee.1560:

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yeah, the birthday would just occur on day 365, and then every 365 days after that.

wait wait wait… okay, so the Feb 29th birthday is obvious first year, but once it lands on March 1st on the second year, it will then forever be March 1st every year that follows?

Until the next leap year. Happens to all players. Birthdays shift 1 day on the leap year and then again on the year after the leap year. (Or the year after the leap year and the year after that for those who make their characters before 2-29/3-1).

The game believes all years have 365 days so leap years with their extra day shift birthdays around.

If I’m right the birthday this year is a day early for people who made it before 29 februari.,

Most likely caused by the game not compensating for leap years. so it will be at march 1st for the years to come then on feb 29 next leap year (2020) and afterwards it should be on feb 28th…(2021)
if I extrapolate this correctly. until next leap year (e.g. 2024) when it will shift to february 27th (2025) after the leap year has passed. We’ll see if I’m right in a year or 10…

The premise is wrong. A year is not 365 days. A year is about 365 1/4 days. So every four years we’ve accumulated 4/4 extra days.. one day.

Our 365 day calendar is about 1/4 day too short, so every 4 years we include Feb 29 to realign the calendar to the ‘celestial time’.

If your were born on Dec 1 at noon, your birth time will be as follows:
year 1 Dec 1 6pm
year 2 Dec 1 midnight
year 3 Dec 2 6am
year 4 Dec 1 noon – because there was a leap day on Feb 29 to push the calendar.

If you are born at noon on Feb 29, subsequent years don’t have that day in the calendar and your birth times are in March 1 and March 2 until the 4th year when Feb 29 makes it appearance.

Ampa.2749:

The premise is wrong. A year is not 365 days. A year is about 365 1/4 days. So every four years we’ve accumulated 4/4 extra days.. one day.

Our 365 day calendar is about 1/4 day too short, so every 4 years we include Feb 29 to realign the calendar to the ‘celestial time’.

If your were born on Dec 1 at noon, your birth time will be as follows:
year 1 Dec 1 6pm
year 2 Dec 1 midnight
year 3 Dec 2 6am
year 4 Dec 1 noon – because there was a leap day on Feb 29 to push the calendar.

If you are born at noon on Feb 29, subsequent years don’t have that day in the calendar and your birth times are in March 1 and March 2 until the 4th year when Feb 29 makes it appearance.

But ANet doesn’t take that 1/4 day into consideration. It just uses a flat 365 days. So the day shifts by 1 as it takes into account the extra day every 4 years.

@Ampa True

@Seera
Not Anet. I am sure that the DATEDIFF function (SQL database) is aware of leap years and does the logic for GW2.

That assumes that the coding says “process this gift giving once a year” as opposed to “process this gift giving every 365 days.” The latter isn’t date but time based.

I had thought the one day early gifts were due to the server rollback somehow adding a day to the internal calendar, but the Leap Day theory makes much more sense.

The fuanction might be aware of it but if 365 days is hardscripoted it doesn’t matter

Ok, so there is no actual calendar that I’m aware of in game. And some people are comparing their character birthday to real-world calendar and concluding that the character birthday is shifting incorrectly??

Cool, never noticed. I’m just trying to hold on to the planet during our 2-hour day.

Game day is 2 hours, so one real-world day is 12 game days. Then one real-world year is 4,380 game days. So which game day is a character’s birthday? I’ll let it drop.

Lyp Sao.1375:

@Ampa True

@Seera
Not Anet. I am sure that the DATEDIFF function (SQL database) is aware of leap years and does the logic for GW2.

I got my 4th year birthday gift on 8/24/2016 for my main who was created on 8/25/2012, the day head start started. Which is 1460 days ago. 1460 divided by 365 is a perfect 4. 1460 divided by 365.25 is under 4 (not by much, though, but it would have been enough to delay my gift until 8/25/2016). She has never had a name change so there isn’t a case of name change affecting the exact birth date as is the case for some characters.

@Seera

I think the DATEDIFF function works with boundary crossings.

@d = DATEDIFF (month,dob,today)

The day when @d equals 48 your little toon can celebrate happy 4th toonday

Lyp Sao.1375:

@Seera

I think the DATEDIFF function works with boundary crossings.

@d = DATEDIFF (month,dob,today)

The day when @d equals 48 your little toon can celebrate happy 4th toonday

Don’t get what the month has to do with datediff, can you explain? And how having a difference of 48 means that my character is 4 years old.

@Seera

It depends on the server. DATEDIFF in tsql use a datepart identifier:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189794(v=sql.110).aspx
“Is the part of startdate and enddate that specifies the type of boundary crossed.”

DATEDIFF uses leap years: http://stackoverflow.com/a/38819901

Approach with full month (day accuracy): http://stackoverflow.com/q/1106945
(48 month = 4 years)

I have not tested this and date calculation is complicated.

Lady Althea would say: A developers burden

Lyp Sao.1375:

@Ampa True

@Seera
Not Anet. I am sure that the DATEDIFF function (SQL database) is aware of leap years and does the logic for GW2.

Actually, nope. Whatever they use don’t take leap years into consideration, which is why the 4th year gifts ended up being issued a day early.

RL calendars account for Leap Year. The current in-game birthday presents don’t.

Is it the end of the world if every four years ago, your character’s birthday accelerates by a day? Ok, of course it does for the OCD among us, but most players probably don’t remember their characters’ ages.

Of course, if ANet doesn’t adjust things, in 56 years, character birthdays for headstart characters will occur before ANet starts the anniversary sales, so maybe they should nip this issue in the bud sometime before then.

I don’t see this as a big deal. It’s totally simple, just have to accept that in Tyria every year contains 365 days.
Though there is a tiny contradiction here with the Brew of the Month thingy, since magically the 1st day of the new month in real is the same as in Tyria LOL.

I got my 4th birthday gifts on the 25th of August just as it should be, since headstart did begin on that date. Are all the people who got theirs a day early Americans? Because the the GW 2 day starts at midnight GMT, which is in the afternoon/early evening across the Atlantic, the reset for the 24th would actually taken place on the 24th over there.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

RL calendars account for Leap Year. The current in-game birthday presents don’t.

Is it the end of the world if every four years ago, your character’s birthday accelerates by a day? Ok, of course it does for the OCD among us, but most players probably don’t remember their characters’ ages.

Of course, if ANet doesn’t adjust things, in 56 years, character birthdays for headstart characters will occur before ANet starts the anniversary sales, so maybe they should nip this issue in the bud sometime before then.

“I’m afraid of eveything now. Its stupid, but I can’t stop it. I’m afraid of people, yet I love them. I want love, but I’m too cowardly to look for it. Instead I get caught up in the deluded fantasies in my head and wait for the world to go away.”
chic geek @ urbandictionary.com

my asura is concerned

Isn’t simply Tyria’s year different from Earth’s year?

It was the same for Guild Wars 1. Those chars birthdays shifted by one day earlier every leap year also.

Garambola.2461:

I got my 4th birthday gifts on the 25th of August just as it should be, since headstart did begin on that date. Are all the people who got theirs a day early Americans? Because the the GW 2 day starts at midnight GMT, which is in the afternoon/early evening across the Atlantic, the reset for the 24th would actually taken place on the 24th over there.

It’s the daycount. Everyone gets their present the first time they log in on a character that passed the 1460 days threshold. You can confirm it with the /age command. Most likely you’ve got your present the day before, but after you’ve already logged in.

Completely irrelevant to this discussion, but I was born on leap day