Guild Wars 2

GW2’s download speed is lower because you’re comparing it to your raw speed. GW2 is also processing the files and managing Gw2.dat while downloading. It’s also downloading hundreds of small files, which has a much higher processing cost. If you have one 100 MB file for example, it’s going to take you a few seconds to make a copy. If you have 100k files totaling 100 MB however, it’s going to take a few minutes.

If I feed patches directly into GW2 for example, it should be able to download at over 100 MB/s, but at best it can only manage around 20 MB/s. When initially re-organizing Gw2.dat, it can drop as low as 100 KB/s, which is funny because it’s actually limiting the download speed, rather than downloading the file to a temporary location, then applying it. You can try my app if you want to try this, which allows you to manually download patches, then create your own asset server to feed them into GW2.

Densetsu.7946:

So lately, after the wvw update went live the client started to show approximately 30-40 KBps downloading. And after roughly 5-15 no,utes it would drop to nothing and then make my router lose complete connection to everything. And this is the ONLY thing that does this.

That would be your router not being able to handle the traffic and crashing because of it. There’s not much you can do to fix it, except for experimenting with its settings and updating its firmware.

OriOri.8724:

I don’t think downscaling is the problem, so much that event scaling only seems to take into account how many people there are, and not their levels.

If you need to scale events differently based on the levels of the players participating, that means downscaling is the problem. Downscaling was meant to make a level 80 roughly equal to the level of the area. The problem is, low levels are generally severely undergeared. When I max out a low level, I can also run around 2 shotting enemies.

The problem with scaling is gear. They should have stuck with the GW1 style and went stat-less. How are they supposed to balance events when everyone could be a max DPS zerker or everyone could be a no DPS nomads? It’s why scaling is so broken in zergs, because zerkers are effectively doing 10x the normal damage of an individual. Group buffs alone are 4×.

If you have a high ping, it’s possible to go right through a ley line. It doesn’t matter what you do, by time your client registers the ley line, you’re already falling out of it. Ley lines are basically a chain of AoEs that tell you to propel forwards, so whenever you lag through one, you have a high chance of falling out. On the plus side, you can lag through an updraft and fly into space.

Ayrilana.1396:

What if they had their very own unique skins that you could earn instead of mastery points?

Only a few masteries are actually required, so having points on adventures was always just a bonus, especially now with season 3. Masteries have always been very casual if people simply accepted that they were mostly optional. It was ArenaNet’s mistake for trying to sell them as an alternative level cap instead of what they actually are, which is no different from achievements.

If they moved the points to other solo-able content, it would have been easier, but if they put them on more group content, it would have been far worse. Most people aren’t going to LFG to play through HoT now, whereas the average player should be able to handle most adventures. Personally, I’d expect them to overhaul masteries for the next expansion since it’s such a poor system, but unfortunately, redoing systems was Colin’s thing, whereas MO is about pushing forwards.

Adventures should have never been tied to collections, simply because you should never require solo-only content. There should have been unique skins in the gold boxes to encourage them, but adventures were likely only thrown in as an experiment, so that luxury wasn’t there. At the very least however, there should have been an achievement for completing all of them.

Djinn.9245:

1. How would anyone know that?
2. Most people play an MMO RPG to play an RPG, not to play mini-games.

1. By trying an adventure once.

2. Mini-games are common in RPGs and these could have easily been events; what then? Bugs in the branches for example is collecting food for the Itzel. It’s not a random adventure, it’s the Itzel making their job less boring by making a game out of it – who can collect them the fastest.

Daddicus.6128:

You don’t build something for the 1%, and then lock the other 99% out of rewards simply because they choose not to raid.

Earning spirit shards after maxing masteries wasn’t originally a thing, so in this case, it’s more like they added it because it was the only the 1%. Raid masteries are locked for the same reason; to further incentivize raiding.

The reason for all of this was that GW2 had a problem with perception. Outside of the game, it was common to hear that there was no point in playing because the game had no purpose; there was no endgame. The problem is that raiding is generally perceived as the only purpose in MMOs, whereas GW2 expected you to play the game for the journey itself, much like any single player game. They needed to add raiding simply to stop that crowd, but they’ll never be able to keep them because there’s no point in raiding without actual vertical progression to provide them with a sense of superiority. Trying to incentivize raiding was simply to judge how they were going to move forward, as development will only continue if the population is there to justify it.

Now that the first set of raids is finished, the locks have lost most of their purpose and could be removed whenever they wanted. In a few months however, the next expansion will take over and it’s not going to matter either way.

Mitern.1563:

Will I be back? Probably, I am really into the Living World stories.

The last episode is only about 2 weeks away, which will also likely reveal the next expansion.

Faaris.8013:

I’m pretty sure only a tiny percentage of players would do mini games like “adventures” and “activities” if they were not tied to mastery points, collections or dailies.

Adventures are the best source of experience. If you’re near them anyways, why would you skip them? Most are a free rare and only take about a minute on average.

Bronze is easy enough that the average player should have no trouble with it. If they removed it from collections, it wouldn’t really matter. As is, they’re really only punishing those who are physically incapable of doing them and those with a higher latency where the mechanics fail to function properly, making them impossible.

This is the problem with solo-only content and why it’s so rare to see, whereas anyone can get carried through a raid for example. There should always be an alternative because of this. For example, an achievement for each adventure to play it for 15, 30 and 60 minutes, rewarding you with a one-time bronze, silver and gold chest. Keep in mind the other alternative is sharing your account.

The most they could do is give you more XP. They couldn’t give you any other rewards because people would just exploit it. It should be simple enough to increase the XP based on level difference, but the risk in doing so is people forming zergs to grind, then it’s the Queensdale train all over again where new players think the game is nothing but a grinder.

Personally, I level on hard mode naturally. It’s how you normally play when you simply play through the game. You rarely get gear as you would in other MMOs, so you’re always severely undergeared here. At around 55, I always head to the level 75+ zones for the free exotics to 80. Play condition builds if you want deadly enemies without the damage loss.

If it’s your first time playing, try forcing windowed mode:

Gw2.exe -windowed

If you’ve previously been playing the game and this just started happening, you’ve likely had Windows install the Creators update, which causes problems. Clean install your GPU drivers, disable any overlay or recording software and try setting the compatibility of Gw2.exe to Windows 7.

Ashantara.8731:

I don’t recommend disabling all non-M$ startup programs and services, as many may be of high importance to your system (like fan control to prevent your GPU from getting fried, anti-virus protection etc.).

You disable everything, then you re-enable a bit a time until the problem occurs.

OS-level fan control software is only to customize how they work. The core controller is on the hardware.

You appear to have the Windows 10 Creator’s Update installed, which has its own problems. Clean install your GPU drivers and disable any screen overlay or recording software, such as NVidia’s GeForce Experience Sharing/Shadowplay, the built-in Xbox app or any other GPU utility software like MSI Afterburner. You can also use msconfig (WindowsKey+R > msconfig) to disable all non-Microsoft services and all startup programs if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

You can also try setting the compatibility mode for Gw2.exe to Windows 7 (right click Gw2.exe/Gw2-64.exe > properties > compatibility). Lastly, try forcing windowed mode using the parameter: Gw2.exe -windowed

Yes, it’s possible, but the odds are very low and if it does happen, you simply contact support.

2FA isn’t actually going to help against phishing, since the attacker will just ask for the code, which they only need once to remember their IP. If you want to stop phishing, the original email authentication was the best bet, since you had to actually click a link to login, meaning the user couldn’t screw it up. It just needed a bigger focus on the login location.

The default email authentication is actually just as good as 2FA, because your email is the weakest link either way. If your email is compromised, 2FA isn’t going to make a difference because your email likely contains enough information to phish support into giving away access. If you actually want to secure your account, putting 2FA on your email is far more important. After securing your email, ensure that no forwarding or recovery options have been setup to create a backdoor into your account.

There’s really no chance that HoT would simply go F2P because it would be bad for business. If they made HoT F2P, why would anyone buy future expansions when they could simply play an expansion behind and get it for free? They would either need some serious purchase bonuses or do a restricted F2P model to encourage sales. For example, the maps and masteries would be F2P, while the story and elite specs would be bundled together and sold like the living world.

Ragnarox.9601:

I am hoping:

gw + hot=10€
gw + hot + new xpac= 40€
new xpac for hot owners=25-30€

The standard price for a B2P expansion is $50. If they were going to do what every other MMO did, they would sell the expansion by itself for $50 and a complete package deal for $75. Rumor is ArenaNet’s going to be doing smaller quicker expansions at around $30 however, so that would be $30 alone and $50 complete.

The original plan was to bundle all expansions together. HoT won’t be free by itself, but rather included for free with the next expansion. You can only guess what they’ll actually end up doing however.

Vayne.8563:

I also believe it would have continued to be done, if not for the engie farm> Once you break momentum for that sort of thing, it almost never recovers.

It’s a good thing it did. The problem with that area is that it should have never been implemented and only goes to show why splitting the population is a bad thing. Zerging that area became popular within the first few weeks, at which point the odds of seeing people elsewhere lessened each day. When AFKing became popular, the problem only worsened.

I’ve gone to Lake Doric every day and haven’t actually seen more than a few people outside of the farm since the first month. The day after the nerf, there was actually tags and groups of people doing the events again and I haven’t seen a zerg up there since. Lake Doric had previously been the worst populated map in season 3 because of the farm. Content like that should be kept in its own map to not screw everyone else.

Ashantara.8731:

Any alternatives to that website?

Use the API directly:

https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/characters/NAME/?access_token=KEY

Where KEY is your API key and NAME is your character’s name.

Sojourner.4621:

Perhaps a middle ground can be found…

The problem is, people would just use a macro, nothing would change and ArenaNet would continue with their whispers. They’d need something you couldn’t bot, like captchas. To counter actual bots for example, they could require a captcha after a certain amount of reports. The problem with Lake Doric however is that the majority was AFKing, so there’s no one to report it. In that case, they’d have to rely on something automated to flag them, like kills without movement.

ArenaNet’s solution was just something quick and easy they could throw in, specifically something the content team could put together. A proper solution would require a lot more work, which I doubt they’ll ever do considering this has a problem since launch.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Map completion ought to be solo play for the vast majority of players.

Why is that? Shouldn’t the emphasis in an MMO be on groups, whether PUGs or guilds or in between?

In general, the majority of players play MMOs as single player games. If they can’t simply show up and do it, they’re going to skip it. People simply don’t want to waste their time, which is why for example most people don’t bother with dungeons, yet WoW’s LFD (queue up and play) opened them to the majority. Events were originally designed for this, to naturally group solo players together as they played, but then they went zerg happy during season 1, which clearly influenced the design of HoT. They somehow failed to realize however that it only worked in season 1 because it was temporary content and thus always active. Group content is simply not sustainable – see the empty mid-level maps, or even the old current events, and imagine HoT in a few years. If they want to continue with bigger events, they would be far better of by splitting them from the maps and having you actually queue into them.

By making 1 single element of map completion group content, that means there’s no point in doing any of it. They’re only encouraging people to skip through the maps, though most likely would regardless. ArenaNet should already know what didn’t work however, since they have the numbers.

Shouldn’t the emphasis be on groups? They call those co-op multiplayer, whereas MMOs are simply virtual worlds with other people in them. MMOs were once group-only years ago, but then WoW cracked the market by being solo-friendly, yet still offering group quests, which later turned out to be a waste of resources as they had to rebalance them for solo play. Nowadays, most simply appeal the majority by making almost everything solo content and balanced for the casual players, as in easy mode. GW2 however is oddly going in the opposite direction, but it doesn’t matter as much as long as you play it while it’s active.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

and challenging group content has only recently been added to the game.

Dungeons were originally called “challenging group content” and people even complained that they were impossible at first, especially back in pre-nerf beta.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

This doesn’t really answer the question.

In the first post, she says doing the work is the easy part. If that’s true, it’s not programmatically hard, the problem is in being allowed to do it.

If you want to know the exact date, you can use the authenticated API:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2/characters

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

They’ve stated “2-3 months” between episodes.

Internally however, they have 3 teams working on 6 month schedules. Although they said 2-3 months, when one team goes over 2, all teams are affected. Episode 6 should actually be finished by now, assuming they’re on schedule, but they’d also likely want to put more work into it since it’s the finale. Following 2 months after episode 5 would already give them an extra month, so any further delays would simply be to space it out with the expansion, like wanting to hold out for Gamescom near the end of August for example.

Nirnaeth.1402:

- Else I got “Error: Patch-verify failed for 0×00073b8b:0×00000000->0×001a0f96”

Try using a different asset server:

Gw2.exe -assetsrv 64.25.41.2

(do not permanently use this specific IP)

If it still doesn’t work, delete %appdata%/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat and try again. If it still doesn’t, you likely have something modifying your network traffic and it’s corrupting that specific file. It could be triggering an anti-virus for example, which would interrupt the download.

Amaimon.7823:

I wonder, though, I now still have so many spare points, can I almost instantly play the elite spec when the Crys- The Mysterious Next Expansion comes out, or will they increase the curve again to.. say.. 25?

That’s why they bloated hero points in HoT. They could have alternatively used expansion-specific points, but the problem in doing that is that they want your past progress to matter. It was essentially balanced so those with 100% completion would start 50% into their elites, but for those starting with nothing, it’s not fun when it takes nearly the entire expansion to unlock.

If they want to try it again, the next expansion’s elites will have to cost around 800 points, since HoT doubled the excess. Another problem was the excessive amount of challenges, so there’ll likely be fewer of them this time, like 20 at 40 points each. If they wanted to try and justify it again, they could do something like 100 points locked behind metas, rather than having actual hero challenges.

Another problem is how they’re unlocked. Due to the traits, you’re intentionally nerfing yourself for nearly the entire expansion if you want to use the new specs while actually playing through the content. Remember, is it fun? They’d probably be better off just giving you everything right at the start with an actual story. Traits should at least be unlocked first and within the first map, while utilities should be unlocked within the first half of the expansion and the elite around 75% through.

Why even have hero challenges when they’re just regular events? Why not just attach points to regular events in that case? The trick with group events is to have normal events leading up to them, that way solo players naturally gather together on their way. It was their original design behind events. Hero challenges should have been something special like adventures, as in phased solo content. They could have acted like tutorials and tested basic mechanics such as combos, rallying, avoidance, etc, which is something the game severely needs.

The trick with AFKing is that the more people do it, the more they get used to doing it and the more likely they’ll be to resort to actual botting. Why not just join the toxic spore farmers and make ~1g/hour per character?

The forums allow you to change your own email:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Kain-Francois-4328/edit

Rhysati.4932:

I really don’t understand the expectation a lot of folks have that the new expansion should be cheaper for them than for someone new. It boggles my mind.

I know this is the MMO for people who don’t play MMOs…but come on now. Every game out there with expansions expects everyone to pay full price when it releases. It doesn’t matter if others had the expansions up to that point or not. It doesn’t matter if they include the previous ones. It’s ALWAYS the same price for everyone on release of a new expansion.

This topic is backwards. It’s not existing players that would be getting a discount, it’s new players that would be paying more by having to buy the full game. This is how it’s always been in other games and why people expect it should be cheaper, since they’re expecting to buy the expansion separately.

The funny thing is, ArenaNet’s reasoning for their 1 box model doesn’t even apply since HoT isn’t actually required. Why go through this mess every expansion just to be different? New players that want the full package (including the living world) actually end up paying more because of this, in comparison to other MMOs that would have bundled the DLC into a single package deal. Buying the seasons is almost as much as the full game and will only continue to rise.

Sartharina.3542:

(I wish they’d officially announce where we’re going, so I can start using my joke name for the expansion, which spoils the location)

All of the leaks were ArenaNet trolling and season 3 was nothing more than a distraction. Aurene for example is just an illusion made by Lyssa and everything will be tied up in the final episode. We’re randomly going to Cantha, accidentally, by using the unstable rifts.

They can’t reveal the expansion yet because they have to wait for the final episode.

Amaimon.7823:

Most people have an easy time getting the necessary points.

But only due to the excess from core. The average player is likely going to reach HoT with 30-60 points, so there’s just enough to comfortably unlock the elite solo. Just imagine what it would have been like if they stuck to their original plan and required 65 for the core unlocks and 400 for the elites.

The system will likely be changed, but only for the next expansion since they don’t have the resources to waste on HoT. With their new goal to run the living world and expansions back to back, they simply have no room for mistakes, like how they were forced to pull resources from the next expansion to fix HoT originally.

Rasimir.6239:

The Morrowind upgrade for ESO was almost as expensive as the full HoT game at launch (40€ for Morrowind vs. 45€ for HoT), while the full ESO+Morrowind package was considerably more expensive (60€ if I’m not mistaken).

That’s how it usually works. $50 is the standard price for B2P expansions.

If GW2 was like other MMOs, HoT would have been $50 by itself while the core game would have remained at $25. A year in, they would have bundled in the core game for free, then later dropped the price to $25 to repeat the cycle with the next expansion.

Login through https://account.arena.net/login, then click support at the top, then the sign in button next to submit a ticket. It should login without requiring you to enter your information. If that doesn’t work, you likely have a browser problem.

If you can’t login, you can submit a ticket anonymously:

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

mtpelion.4562:

Current players should be expected to pay no more than $30 for an expansion (ignoring any premium editions, of course).

There was talk a while back that suggested ArenaNet was going to do half priced, but yearly expansions. More recently, MO revealed their plans to run the living world and expansions back to back, which would mean an expansion every ~1.5 years since seasons were meant to be a year long. With HoT’s permanent reduction to $30 at such a late time, which is likely within the refund period for the next, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the new standard price. If they aren’t planning on dropping their 1 box model, which doesn’t make sense for HoT considering it isn’t actually required, it would have certainly been easier to keep a fixed price and simply upgrade accounts. If it is the new price, the trick is that $30 every ~1.5 years is the same as $50 every ~2.5, while the deluxe+ ends up being more profitable.

They could only offer a discount in the form of gems, but don’t expect to see that since they’d give items instead. They can’t offer an actual discount because that would mean having to sell a secondary expansion-only option and having to produce physical boxes for it.

Daddicus.6128:

That’s not how they advertised it

It was originally revealed as:

Mike O Brien.4613:

This release will also include a new, challenging group-farming spot for leather.

… which of course just ended up being more zerg content. If it was actually intended to be challenging for groups, it would have scaled and decimated the zerg. As is, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t just be a normal area.

The core game has been nerfed several times. If you want to see the original, play in +10 level areas and use a condition build to counter the damage loss.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

On some of the Spacial Surge is doing 100 more or a 100 less not sure if it’s a trait or scaling?

The 211’s were due to a trait reducing damage taken by 40% for ~2s.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

That would explain why why when their critting a lot I die super fast.

Enemies since HoT are basically in berserker’s gear, so they have low health, high damage and stronger crits. 150% is the base crit damage.

goodbugs.5409:

I have been playing the game with no problems on this machine prior to this update

Prior to this update as in today’s patch? If you’re using a DPS meter or any other program that hooks into the game, they’ll break when ArenaNet makes any major changes, causing the game to crash.

Have you checked what IPs have been remembered and compared it to the IP of the VPN?

Ashantara.8731:

Have you tried activating SMS verification? Faster and better IMO.

Email authentication is actually the most secure option for advanced users. SMS is the recommended option because it’s the easiest to setup. If you want speed, an authenticator is the fastest option.

The funny thing about 2FA is that it’s not going to make a difference if your email is compromised.

I doubt the change will actually do anything. Surely there’ll be plenty of safe spots. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it screw over everyone else, since ArenaNet has habit of doing it.

The thing is, they could easily stop AFKers by simply requiring actual input every 10 seconds or so, otherwise loot is disabled, but that wouldn’t acually stop real bots. A generic solution would be crowd sourcing it, where you report the player and they have to solve a captcha within 3 minutes, otherwise loot is disabled until it is. This would also stop actual bots and could also be automated in cases of simple AFKing, but something like this would require development, so a proper solution is unlikely to happen.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You’ve shown the turret farm. You haven’t explained how it’s killing the map.

It’s pretty obvious. I noticed the map die out as soon as people started zerging that area, then the casual AFKing made it far worse. Maps only hold around 50 people before the megaserver logic screws it up, so it only takes half that many to control the map. With a majority of the map at the farm, it means you’re far less likely to encounter players anywhere else, hence the dead map with nobody doing events. Those actually wanting to play end up being spread amongst all the maps, but since AFKing is so popular, the zerg is almost always in control, so the maps are dead and people stop showing up because of it.

This wouldn’t be a problem if megaservers were area based instead of the entire map, but that’s not really a possibility due to events. This is also why ArenaNet should stick to smaller maps, since you’re far more likely to run into other people, making them feel more populated even when they’re actually not.

Vayne.8563:

We know that sales are down, but we also know that when games are older sales DO go down.

Launch quarter sales were also poor, which NCSoft/ArenaNet said themselves were disappointing. The population was estimated to be around 3 million at the time, up from 1 million the previous year, but they only sold around 300k boxes; 500k being generous. Since it’s all estimated however, the population could simply be much lower and down ~50% since their last official reveal years ago, so we won’t know for sure until the next expansion’s sales. Considering the leaks however – them caving and introducing one of the biggest sale items in MMOs – they’ll likely be trying hard to appeal to the masses this time.

slashlizardy.9167:

its trying to be a niche game now

ArenaNet has always been a niche however, as they’re for the gamers rather than the casual majority as seen in most MMOs. The problem is, they heavily nerfed the game during the original 2012 beta due to players face tanking enemies and likely in fear of early losses. If they would have never done that, the difficulty of the core game would have been similar to HoT, where enemies could kill you within seconds right at the start in Queensdale. Going in this direction is obviously bad for business, but if they do plan on continuing, they need to revert the core game instead of misleading players.

The problem with some break bars is that they’re balanced around the assumption that everyone has the equivalent of a 5s stun, when realistically most have the equivalent of a 1s stun at best. It’d also be a lot more fair for groups if the conditions ticked simultaneously.

To make it fair for everyone, they should simply use counter magic to give everyone an ability that damages the break bar whenever it’s time sensitive. It probably won’t be a problem in the next expansion however, assuming they use mounted abilities.

Donari.5237:

I-XI

XI-I

Djinn.9245:

Why do you believe that people should be doing something they don’t like during their entertainment time? I completely disagree.

People need to be encouraged to try different things, otherwise they never will. Forcing people however, and without any alternatives, will only lead to failure. Mastery points for example should have simply been a way to speed up your progress and essentially worth something like 1 million experience each. The problem in doing that is that some people will never change unless forced to, so they’d simply grind and complain about it. Catering to that audience is a very bad idea, however ignoring them will only create bad press, as they’re the ones who rush and are the first to complain when they haven’t actually played. Only the initial launch really matters however, so people only need to be forced for the first few months.

With the next expansion, they should simply blanket nerf HoT to allow the more casual players to get their turn, while those wanting a more challenging experience stick to the latest content. Every other MMO basically does the same, but with vertical progression. For mastery points, the simplest option to implement would likely be dailies, but a future-proof solution would be a repeatable experience track.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Are you talking the ones in Bloodstone Fen or the ones in Doric which is what this post is about?

Lake Doric

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Bomber sounds like

Bomb kit engineer

BrunoPuntzJones.5348:

It seems obvious that once you’re at 80 HoT is worth it, but is it worth it beforehand?

If you really wanted to, you could use the level 80 booster and unlock gliding for your account. Other than that, there’s no reason to buy HoT if you already have a paid account and are not 80.

BrunoPuntzJones.5348:

Should I just take my time and enjoy the game and wait to buy HoT, see if it drops below $30 on the way to the new expansion?

From ArenaNet, the price isn’t going to change. From 3rd parties however, it is currently and has always been cheaper, but I wouldn’t recommend it at this point, since it would actually end up being more expensive if they offer refunds again.

The next expansion will likely be revealed with or shortly after episode 6, which is only about a month away. HoT will likely be discontinued at that point, and replaced with pre-purchasing.

IndigoSundown.5419:

At a guess it’s probably being kicked from a squad

or simply being bullied into leaving.

If you actually want to kick people out of the map however, join a zerg guild and spawn your own private instance.

Zaoda.1653:

I just attempted to submit a ticket and my god there were a million things I had to fill out.

There’s really only 2 questions – your account and billing information. Your billing information is also entirely optional, and only asked to speed up the process of validating it.

Digital River is a payment processor, a service ArenaNet uses to handle transactions and why they’ll show up on your billing. In some cases, the error (as shown in the screenshot) is the result of Digital River considering your information a high risk and blocking the transaction. If you’ve ever done a chargeback for example, or your information simply matches someone else that has, you’d be a risk. Only support can tell you the actual reason, but if you do happen to be blocked, they can force it.

Menadena.7482:

Have they actually said one way or the other?

It was said shortly after the initial backlash in their business model clarification.

Menadena.7482:

Their existing content went FTP showing they knew the $$ was in the new stuff but they needed the old stuff on computers for it to work.

According to the quarterly report, going F2P was essentially done for advertising purposes. They were disappointed in the lack of HoT upgrades from F2P.