Guild Wars 2

Hello to the community, just bought the hard copy of the game. I just finished installing, signed up and all the other security stuff, what I didn’t realize earlier is that it’s downloading a rather large file (1% is 120 MB, then I assume it is a ~11.7 GB file). I thought since I bought the hard copy, the complete game would be there and the only downloading that would happen is if there was a patch. A ~12 GB file is not a patch. So I looked for the game in my directory, and surprise! it was a folder containing 13.5 GB into two files.

I understand that this is some kind of security measure, and it is reasonable to have the greater portion on the discs and the lesser portion downloaded by the client, but why half? Wouldn’t it be better for 3/4 data on the discs and then 1/4 data downloaded from the server? Was it more cost-efficient for two discs instead of three? Why even cut it? Why not just put the whole thing on the installer? It ultimately ends up with the user anyway. Was the serial code not enough as a security measure? Or perhaps the reason for cutting the file is because of the serial code?

Why was there even a hard copy of the game? Why was there no notice that what you bought is only half the game and the rest will come 24 hours later, or more if our servers don’t feel like it, in tiny bits and pieces? This is the reason for having the hard copy, for people who only have little to a few times to spare to play games, and not spend the rest of the day looking at a white bar to fill up with red pixels.

My gw2.dat file is 19gb.

Maybe it’s not made obvious anywhere but depending on when your hard copy dvd was pressed you’re downloading several months at minimum to a years worth of updates at maximum. Some of them fairly large.

I take it that you’re new to Guild Wars 2 so I’ll give you a bit more information on why the initial download might seem so overwhelmingly large.

Guild Wars 2 has been updated every 2 weeks for pretty much the entire last year. Every single one of these updates added new things in various places all over the game world. Some of them permanent some not.

Check here to see all the updates for the past year and what’s coming in the next update:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

Well, the build included in the hard copy is the base build, completely void of any updates prior to launch, and the game has been out for a year now. There have been at least 10 major updates not including the smaller patches for bug fixing.

Does that answer your question?

Hmm… I guess I should’ve expected that, I have had that problem with Lineage II and Ragnarok long ago, but why are they still distributing the base build? and not a patched build?

mikazuki.8457:

Hmm… I guess I should’ve expected that, I have had that problem with Lineage II and Ragnarok long ago, but why are they still distributing the base build? and not a patched build?

Who knows. Anet probably has very little control over that since they’re actually only the developer.

You’d have to look to their publisher for that kind of information which is NCsoft.

Actually, this game changes so fast, it would be the equivalent of downloading a whole new game anyway by now. This is true of most MMOs.

Even if the CD were updated, by the time a new version made it to store shelves it would be many patches behind.

NCsoft again.

fellyn.5083:

Guild Wars 2 has been updated every 2 weeks for pretty much the entire last year. Every single one of these updates added new things in various places all over the game world. Some of them permanent some not.

By the way, isn’t an update once every two weeks too much? It’s the same with L2, spent a good part of what should’ve been game time into update-the-game time. Shouldn’t patches and/or updates occur only when there are errors or bugs that need fixing or when there is a major addition to the game?

mikazuki.8457:

NCsoft again.

fellyn.5083:

Guild Wars 2 has been updated every 2 weeks for pretty much the entire last year. Every single one of these updates added new things in various places all over the game world. Some of them permanent some not.

By the way, isn’t an update once every two weeks too much? It’s the same with L2, spent a good part of what should’ve been game time into update-the-game time. Shouldn’t patches and/or updates occur only when there are errors or bugs that need fixing or when there is a major addition to the game?

Those 2 week updates are major additions to the game, for the most part. Go to that link I posted in previous reply and you’ll see.

There’s also this thread here if you want to look through the updates for the entire last year:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates

Here’s a wiki link that might be more user friendly for releases:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release

As far as updating goes.. Guild Wars 2 has very little down time and for the most part updates don’t take much time to download. The only reason you’re getting such a huge hit is because you’re downloading them all at once.

It only takes me a few minutes (less than 5 usually) to download each new major (bi-weekly) update. Once you have the bulk of the game installed, you will spend very little time updating. Welcome to Tyria. =)

Thanks for the info XD At least this is something I can tolerate since I’ve been looking into the game for a week now. Just got a little tense that I would need to download 107,097 files.
I’m really looking to enjoy this adventure.

Welcome to mmo’s

Everyone uses this system. Basically what most of us have done for years on slower connections is set it to download the game or updates overnight, that way we’re not sitting there staring at a bar.

mikazuki.8457:

Thanks for the info XD At least this is something I can tolerate since I’ve been looking into the game for a week now. Just got a little tense that I would need to download 107,097 files.
I’m really looking to enjoy this adventure.

For what it’s worth the number of files you have to download is not an indication of size. It’s just an indication of how many files you actually have to download (like it says). Some could be as small as 1kb others could be a lot larger.

It’s actually quite strange the way they’ve got it set up.

Developers who sell their games directly sell them as straight downloads. This bypasses the middleman (stores), putting more of the sale price into the developer’s pocket. Initial downloads of such games tend to consist only of the patcher. Once the patcher has been installed, the game is then downloaded through the patcher. If you’re setting up this system for your downloads, it’s easier and cheaper to use the same system for disc sales in a store. Why have two separate systems when one works?

The image printing was back form beta over a year ago. Like most publishers, they won’t release an updated image until they produce and expansion set.

They print it to DVD and stick it in a box so people will see it on a shelf and buy it. If/when they make an expansion, they will put it on the shelf again, so more people will see it and buy it. It’s a marketing strategy, product exposure.

I can tell you this: If you want to save yourself a lot of time in the future, you can back up your install easily enough. Once it’s done, copy the entire folder to a portable hard drive or USB stick large enough to hold it. Then, if you ever need to reinstall, just copy it back and run it, and it will update from there.

This method will also work if you want to put it onto another computer (I used this method to put the game on my laptop, my wife’s computer and her laptop (she has her own account)). Saved a lot of time.

If you’re like me, update the folder that you backed up once a month, and you really won’t have to jump through as many hoops if you have a hard drive failure or need to wipe your drive for some reason.

ProphetSword.5427:

I can tell you this: If you want to save yourself a lot of time in the future, you can back up your install easily enough. Once it’s done, copy the entire folder to a portable hard drive or USB stick large enough to hold it. Then, if you ever need to reinstall, just copy it back and run it, and it will update from there.

That’s sort of dirty. You would also need to copy registry entries and possible system files it installs to other directories. It might work now but it might not work in the future. I’ve seen mmo patches make changes to registry keys (other games), it happens. I haven’t really tracked install files with this game client, I’ve gotten lazy perhaps since another mmo I sub to offers backups from within the patching program, as well as a repair tool that actually works. But if you do it this way, don’t be surprised if you wind up needing to re-install at some point.

I’m getting this now too. I’d happily help a dev with debugging by generating a crash dump or something as soon as it happens for diagnostics?

Any ideas, devs?

Daywolf.2630:

That’s sort of dirty. You would also need to copy registry entries and possible system files it installs to other directories. It might work now but it might not work in the future. I’ve seen mmo patches make changes to registry keys (other games), it happens. I haven’t really tracked install files with this game client, I’ve gotten lazy perhaps since another mmo I sub to offers backups from within the patching program, as well as a repair tool that actually works. But if you do it this way, don’t be surprised if you wind up needing to re-install at some point.

I doubt it. When you first start the game, it adds the appropriate registry entries and some files in your documents directory if they don’t already exist (if you’re on Windows). I haven’t officially “installed” the game since it came out, and I tend to do a system wipe every two months…so I’ve done probably eight since last year. Never had a problem, and those registry entries currently exist, even though I’m still running from my backup copy and didn’t bother to actually install it.

The original Guild Wars did the same thing. I’ve got it backed up too, and I can install it in a drop of the hat by simply copying the files off my portable hard drive. It takes care of the rest for me.

I’m not suggesting you do this with other programs or games. I’m just saying it works for this one.

Daywolf.2630:

ProphetSword.5427:

I can tell you this: If you want to save yourself a lot of time in the future, you can back up your install easily enough. Once it’s done, copy the entire folder to a portable hard drive or USB stick large enough to hold it. Then, if you ever need to reinstall, just copy it back and run it, and it will update from there.

That’s sort of dirty. You would also need to copy registry entries and possible system files it installs to other directories. It might work now but it might not work in the future. I’ve seen mmo patches make changes to registry keys (other games), it happens. I haven’t really tracked install files with this game client, I’ve gotten lazy perhaps since another mmo I sub to offers backups from within the patching program, as well as a repair tool that actually works. But if you do it this way, don’t be surprised if you wind up needing to re-install at some point.

I believe, but i could be wrong, that the built in repair functions will patch those components and that takes only a tiny fraction of the time that the maps, textures, audio files, etc take to download.

Daywolf.2630:

ProphetSword.5427:

I can tell you this: If you want to save yourself a lot of time in the future, you can back up your install easily enough. Once it’s done, copy the entire folder to a portable hard drive or USB stick large enough to hold it. Then, if you ever need to reinstall, just copy it back and run it, and it will update from there.

That’s sort of dirty. You would also need to copy registry entries and possible system files it installs to other directories. It might work now but it might not work in the future. I’ve seen mmo patches make changes to registry keys (other games), it happens. I haven’t really tracked install files with this game client, I’ve gotten lazy perhaps since another mmo I sub to offers backups from within the patching program, as well as a repair tool that actually works. But if you do it this way, don’t be surprised if you wind up needing to re-install at some point.

No. It’s exactly how it worked in GW1 since the game came out and there was never any issues with that for the entire life of the game more than 7 years after release.

As far as I’m aware only the screen shot folder is outside of the gw2.dat file.

Bluebird.1890:

I’m getting this now too. I’d happily help a dev with debugging by generating a crash dump or something as soon as it happens for diagnostics?

Any ideas, devs?

Huh? I think you’re misreading this thread or something.

fellyn.5083:

Daywolf.2630:

ProphetSword.5427:

I can tell you this: If you want to save yourself a lot of time in the future, you can back up your install easily enough. Once it’s done, copy the entire folder to a portable hard drive or USB stick large enough to hold it. Then, if you ever need to reinstall, just copy it back and run it, and it will update from there.

That’s sort of dirty. You would also need to copy registry entries and possible system files it installs to other directories. It might work now but it might not work in the future. I’ve seen mmo patches make changes to registry keys (other games), it happens. I haven’t really tracked install files with this game client, I’ve gotten lazy perhaps since another mmo I sub to offers backups from within the patching program, as well as a repair tool that actually works. But if you do it this way, don’t be surprised if you wind up needing to re-install at some point.

No. It’s exactly how it worked in GW1 since the game came out and there was never any issues with that for the entire life of the game more than 7 years after release.

As far as I’m aware only the screen shot folder is outside of the gw2.dat file.

That’s pretty much been my experience as well, so I’m glad that others know that this shortcut trick isn’t “dirty” in the slightest. It’s a real time-saver, is what it is.

mikazuki.8457:

Thanks for the info XD At least this is something I can tolerate since I’ve been looking into the game for a week now. Just got a little tense that I would need to download 107,097 files.
I’m really looking to enjoy this adventure.

The game is good, prehaps the best mmo out their in terms of community since unlike others it encourages team work over fighting for the best loot. WoW comes to mind, the numbers of times I had to see players arguing over who gets what was stupid and then I came here and instead of people running straight to the loot they revived fallen comrades. It was a delightful sight.

fellyn.5083:

No. It’s exactly how it worked in GW1 since the game came out and there was never any issues with that for the entire life of the game more than 7 years after release.

As far as I’m aware only the screen shot folder is outside of the gw2.dat file.

This isn’t gw1. Not even the same dev group. Whole different beast…

Daywolf.2630:

fellyn.5083:

No. It’s exactly how it worked in GW1 since the game came out and there was never any issues with that for the entire life of the game more than 7 years after release.

As far as I’m aware only the screen shot folder is outside of the gw2.dat file.

This isn’t gw1. Not even the same dev group. Whole different beast…

And yet it works exactly the same way. Go figure.