Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet, please do something about that ugly checkbox in the Trading Post window. It’s in both the ‘Search’ window (as ‘Show Available Only’) and the ‘Buy’ window for selecting which ‘pools’ to buy an item from.

It looks like the standard Windows-style checkbox and sticks out like a sore thumb. The entire game has a nice interface and this checkbox… well… is an eye-sore.

I’d understand if this was beta, but come on now.. this is a fully-released product.

I am disappointed but not surprised. As much as I would love to see a native (non-port) client for the game, I don’t see one in the immediate future. However, I will try whatever ArenaNet is throwing out as a Mac client just out of curiosity’s sake.

Regardless of how Cider works, it reduces performance and introduces possible compatibility issues. As is the trend with many similar ports (like Civ V), there is a very noticeable performance difference (20-40% depending on settings). It seems the higher the settings, the more performance suffers.

Not only that, but features are missing. Windowed-Fullscreen is a feature that many of us with multiple displays enjoy. I’ve noticed that the Mac client lags the system a lot more, preventing multitasking such as music (stutters).

Though honestly, you know what disappointed me the most in the WINDOWS version? The checkbox in the Trading Post (‘Show Available Only’) which looks like a normal Windows styled checkbox? Really? You’re going to have an entire user interface designed and just not do a checkbox? Come on ArenaNet, that’s such an eye-sore.

Anyhow, I digress. I have a feeling ArenaNet did the port out of convenience and speed (development-wise). However, I think they will also find out that this is not the answer and eventually go to a native client. How long it takes them and how dedicated they are is yet to be seen.

27" 2011 iMac with Core i5, 6970M GPU and 12GB RAM — standard 7200rpm HDD.

I am running Win7 x64 Ultimate on the BootCamp side and it is actually the only reason I have BootCamp on the iMac. Under Windows, I run GW2 at native resolution (2560×1440) and high settings for everything except Shaders and Shadows (those are medium). I do run FXAA and I have reflections on all. I get between 30-50fps without issue.

The performance on the Mac side is no where near as good. I have to turn a lot of options lower, namely reflections, to get similar performance. Even when I do so, if I try to run something like Pandora in a browser, the music will stutter from time to time. I do not have this same issue on the Windows side.

Unfortunately, between the multiple monitor support (or lack thereof), reduced performance, and inability to multi-task while playing, the Mac port is simply unacceptable for me.

This is rather unfortunate and seems to be another issue of running a port instead of a native client. I have a 27" iMac with a Thunderbolt Display connected. On the Windows side, I can run Windowed-Fullscreen @ 2560×1440 no problem; however, in Mac I cannot.

There’s no legitimate excuse for this as WoW could do it with their native Mac client. So.. either ArenaNet or Transgaming needs this fixed.