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So, no disk? Did I waste my money?
Trolldefender99
Member UncommonPosts: 416
I'm on dial up (I live in middle of the desert, a bit outside san diego, and I'm either stuck with satellite internet or dial-up) with bandwidth limitation. Beta weekend install estimated Guild Wars 2 would take 1 month and 2 weeks to download. That doesn't even count patching it. I really hoped for a disk to install it, but I heard it is download only. Even at release.
I really want to play GW2, but why does everything keep going digital? What happened to going to a store and buying it in an awesome looking box and dvds? The only games left like that are console games.
A big shame too, since GW2 is shaping up to be a great MMO and it looks awesome. But why no love for people with weaker internet 
Why do I have to download spyware (steam) or some other spyware download manager? I want a box, and I want a dvd to come with it!
Anyone else agree? Anyone else in the same predicement?
Comments
Better question.
Once downloaded, how the hell do you plan to play this game with your internet?
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OP I suggest you move away from the middle of the desert, because sooner or later disks will be a thing of the past. Digital just seems to be more convienient to consumers and people are picking up on it (Xbox 720 rumors all digital, xbox 360 already has a digital game shop, renting is now a thing of the past). Its safe to say the only reason im not all digital is because of collector's editions.
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I can play WoW just fine, I just turn the graphics down and I get around 30 fps. But I upgraded my PC for GW2, so it is better than what I used for WoW.
And how do you plan to patch it every time they release a patch?
You asked why things keep going digital? It is really very simple.
If you intend to play a game which is online(especially online only), or if you intend to play a game which will require you to download patches of indeterminate size at regular intervals, they have to presuppose that you will have an internet connection sufficient to download the patches and play, otherwise you would not be buying that game.
I wish you had better internet where you are, but unfortunately you don't... So given that you don't have a connection good enough to support playing/patching online games, you should probably avoid those(at least for now).
What I would do, if I were you, is look into Point-to-point and line-of-sight services. Similar to wireless, but they usually use rf, laser, or other directed signal to get to you. Would require putting up an antenna for them and having line of sight to whatever antenna they have up(where I am, one of the providers has an antenna on top of a mountain nearby). Barring that, you are probably SOL.
ANET is selling digital only copies thru their website but you can buy a boxed copy from a brink-and-mortar store and other participating retailers (like Amazon)
also according to the official FAQ :
Physical Pre-Purchase for Guild Wars 2 is only available at select retailers. The details of how this will work will differ slightly depending on which edition customers purchase and where they purchase it.
Standard Edition (North America)--Customers who pre-purchase the Guild Wars 2 Standard Edition will receive their Pre-Purchase serial code in different ways depending on where it was purchased.
U.S. customers will receive their Pre-Purchase serial code on a store receipt or in an email from the retailer.
GW2 is not digital only, you can get a physical disk if you purchase from a store
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Ok this sounds like if you purchased a box from a store like gamestop you got a hard copy of the game. Good deal.
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OP you might want to look into this http://www.hughesnet.com/, they provide some good speeds, one of my friends in oregon has that and says they do say 2mbps, but you get a little bit less 1-2mbps which is still great.
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This game is 100% online with no offline options. Because it's 100% online, they can do the option of 100% digital distribution, just as F2P games do that have no store version or how Indie games do through Steam.
Being that it's 100% online, I'd really suggest either getting a higher internet provided to you (such as that through Dish) or to not play the game. This is not to be offensive, but having a dial-up speed when the suggested connection is ....
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Line of sight RF or satellite are really your only options.
GL
Don't live away from civilization if you want to participate in it.
Not gonna be as much of a jerk as some other people in this thread but...gotta agree. MMOs are pretty much unplayable on dial-up now. Was bad enough in the EQ days, and there's a lot more data moving around now.
The disk thing is a concern to be sure, but it's the lesser one.
Sorry your area isn't broadband capable. I'll assume your situation doesn't allow for you to be elsewhere. I know not everyone is that lucky to have broadband overflowing.
...you guys realize that fps stands for frames per second, which has nothing to do with the quality of your connection, right?
Because it isn't 1995 anymore. If you internet connection is worse than 5th world countires, I am not sure what to tell you. My question is how you can live outside San Diego (a high tech industry region in the USA) and still be on dial up.
It sucks, I guess, but I am not sure what to tell you. Progress can't be hindered by the bottom 1% with shitty internet. Personally, I love digital downloads and am tired of stocking my closet with more and more game disks. This is 2012, welcome to the future?
Participating in beta weekends requires you to download everything, but if you wait until release, you will be able to buy a box from a store and get a physical copy. You'll probably still have a patch to download before you can play, but I've never seen anything besides random forum posters that suggest that GW2 won't ship with the majority of the game on DVD's.
I don't know why people are so rude in responding to a simple question like this- internet availability isn't equal everywhere, and people don't always have a choice as to where they live. The OP had a valid concern/question, and deserves an answer, not a barrage of posts criticizing him for his living situation and internet connection.
If the deep hills of Appalachia has access to High Speed internet then theres no reason why the desert cant either.
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There will be disc at release but I doubt they will deliver disc for a beta version of the game
I'm from Cuba and there are not internet connection at all, I didn't play a single online game in 19yrs b4 I left the country. I just played game using local area network and todays games don't have that option at all, I think you can live with no online games
Listen its really simple. I live in a 3rd world country and right now im in a place called tarapoto. Its literally, LITERALLY a jungle here, two steps outside and i can meet monkeys kinda deal. And i got internet that lets me download at 130 kbps with no limits.
do you know how hard is to bring internet in the frickin jungle?
If i can have this here, anybody in america should at least have equal or higher footing in terms of service.
[mod edit]
Even if it does come with a disc, the disc will contain an old version of the game by the time you get it, so you would have to expect the possibility of days (weeks?) of patching anyway at launch and again with every patch.
Asking why you can't play on dial-up is a little like asking why you can't run the game on a toaster.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
That's not a nice situation to be in these days but frankly, if your internet access isn't going to be capable of dowloading the data required to install the game, you won't be having much fun playing it either. It'll be choppy and you'll be rubberbanding all over the place.
Modern games simply aren't designed to cope with the limitations of dial-up these days. You can try it, of course, but I think you'll be disapppointed with the results.
Not to mention that even if you do get a disk verison, it'll still need updates and they'll need to be downloaded.
OP- I understanbd what you are going through as I lived in the Mountains a couple years ago and had very much the same issue... People saying "Move" are idiots (sorry- Its true) since I am sure your enviornment there is beautyful and more mportant than "Blazing internet speed" lol.
You are going to either have to get a laptop (borrow one if need be OR go to rent a center and "rent" one for the minimul downpayment and return it when done) and go to Mcdonalds or other free wifi places (library?) and spend a day dong your downloading.
Someone mentioned Hughesnet or Satalite internet- Its a rip off and you will be paying about $200/month if you use your internet alot...Seriously, I know people who werre completly ripped off.
you cant play modern mmorpgs on anything less then a 1mb connection anyway, and even then the lag is bad in alot of places that dont have proper 5-20mb dsl/cable connectivity.
gw2 is a pvp lobby game, so the packets being sent will be extensive, dial up = not a snowballs chance in hell of being enjoyable for anyone forced to be in a match with you.
dont worry, if you have 4g lte coverage on cell, soon youll have 50 a month ish internet options with speeds compareable to cable. they can do it now, its just not price effective yet. give it a year or 2 and theyll be wanting to get the 4g modems out there (think about it, no running fiber all over, just set up cell towers and bam, wifi broadband if you have a modem and pay for a monthly access fee!) less infrastructure to build/maintain = a good thing.
I was in the same case scenario before they installed adsl in my island, and it was a headache, but honestly more because of the totally stupid bill i had to pay to get the worst possible connection, i mean adsl per month is super cheap, and they charge you for minutes with phone connection.
Anyway the best you can go is satellite for your downloads and surfing, they all say satellite is pretty bad for gaming because of heavy latency, but i'm pretty sure they made a lot of progress since i was in your case, and honestly i cannot see being it worth than phone. I think a satellite connection is not that much more expensive than a usual cable or adsl connection, you should try it, i know i would have if they never put adsl here.
PS i use my comp and internet a lot, but i mean even if you use it only few time a week, i'm pretty sure a satellite would be cheaper nevertheless
There are many places in the United States that don't have High Speed Internet yet.. There are almost 30 countries that have better internet than us. Pretty pathetic....
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200$? I think you are wrong i just checked their offers to make sure because i recalled other price, i think you can have a decent con for not that much (80 to 100$), i'm sure his net bills are way higher than what they ask for satellite if he use internet a lot (and i don't mean download movies, just basic surfing and gaming). The guy would just need to make sure to not go out his limit but if he use phone he probably already use all kind of softwares to know how much he spend already, i know i did personally when i was like him. So he will just have to use some tricks like downloading a bit each day or month depending on his connection limits.
He's not wrong, I used to have to use hughesnet. Not only will you be paying, yes close to $200 a month, but you will also NOT be receiving the connection they will advertise to you. 2mbps connection speed? Sure. Actual ping? 300-500ms. This is because it takes close to a second to send a signal from your dish to the sattelite in outter space and back. So regardless of how fast you download, which the download is honestly not that bad 300kbps or so, you will still have lag on any MMORPG. Usually about like I said 300-500ms ping on a good day with no clouds or anything like that. I know this because I live in the middle of Arkansas surrounded by trees out in the country. People around here don't even know how to pronounce internet, much less provide a decent internet service speed.