Curse

Gibush · Mar 24, 2010, 12:12 AM // 00:12

Hi. I've posted here before a year or two ago. I had just bought Guild Wars Game of the Year edition and was really excited to play it, installed it, found out how big the download was going to be (I'm on dial-up), tried to download it, gave up.

Anyway, I had a thought. I've heard people say they can play GW on dialup, just that the updates are really painful.

I was wondering, since there are newer ones and everything, how often is the original Guild Wars updated?

Also, Guild Wars uses a client, I believe, and it downloads areas when you're doing other stuff, right?

I was wondering if there was some way to download all of it. ALL of it. Like, the areas and stuff, in a file. Is there? Because I go to the library to download big files onto a flash drive.

If so, how big is it? I only have a 2 gig flash drive but if needed I'll get a bigger one.

So to sum up, my questions are:

Is the original GW still updated much?
Can you download all the content in one file and put it in the client folder or something?
If so, how big is it and where could I get it?

Thank you very much. I'd love to be able to play.

Snograt · Mar 24, 2010, 07:00 AM // 07:00

One of our most frequent of FAQs, this

Updated much? No, not really. It's hard to tell when you're used to the convenience of broadband, but big updates only tend to happen on special weekends or when skills get re-worked.

Downloading the content as one big file - yes you can, and I'll get on to that in a bit, but first the size - you're looking at around 3.6-3.7GB.

The download method is not as straightforward as you might think as it's all handled by the game client. What we need to do is run the client using the "-image" switch, which is most easily achieved as follows:

Make a shortcut to gw.exe - call it something like "GW updater."

Right-click on this new shortcut and alter its properties, changing the "target" of the shortcut so that the command -image appears right at the end of the line, leaving a space after the last quotation mark of the existing text. Assuming that your game is installed in the default location in Program Files, the line should look like this:

Code:

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" -image

Okay, double-clicking this shortcut will now launch the download process. Be warned that on dialup this will take a considerable amount of time. Start it up when you're going to bed and check again in the morning. It may take more than one night! (Interrupting the download won't be a problem.)

Quaker · Mar 24, 2010, 02:52 PM // 14:52

To add to what Snoggy said - you can also go to the "Start" menu and then "Run" and enter that line directly into the run box (instead of making a shortcut).
The main problems for you are:
1. You need the GW client to do this. The client would either need to be installed on the computer at the library (probably not allowed

), or you could run the GW client off a flash drive or external hard drive - that would try to set some values in the library computer's Registry though, which could be blocked.
2. Even on a broadband connection, the download will take many hours. Most people do it while they sleep/work/school. Tying up a computer at the library for that long could be a problem.

Gibush · Mar 24, 2010, 06:48 PM // 18:48

Wow, thanks for the informative replies...

Well, I downloaded a game that was 1.6 gigs at the library once and it only took like 20 minutes... so 3.6 might not take that long, right? Unless it's a really slow speed or something.

So, to recap, this is what I do:

1 - Go to staples, buy a 4 gig, or just to be safe a bigger flash drive
2 - At home, install the guild wars client onto the flash drive
3 - Make a shortcut to the exe in the flash drive, something like "e:\guildwars\gw.exe" -image
4 - Go to library, put flash drive in, launch the shortcut
5 - wait
6 - get home, shut off runescape and play GUILD WARS!

Right?

Snograt · Mar 24, 2010, 10:12 PM // 22:12

Yes, that's it in theory.

Whether it will work on a computer that won't allow registry changes is another matter - let us know how you get on.

As gw.dat is the intellectual property of Arenanet or NCSoft (I forget which way it is!), I think anyone hosting a copy on a file sharing site would be frowned upon. Shame really - having access to a recent .dat like that would be a godsend for people who are still stuck with dialup.

HEY ANET - set up an ftp server with the latest dat on it, pretty please?

Gibush · Mar 30, 2010, 07:38 AM // 07:38

Hmm, I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to ask here, but seeing as that *would* be a big thing to go and download, is anyone willing to exchange addresses with me (privately of course) and send me a DVD with the data on it? I'd provide the blank DVD, if so.

Sorry if that's not allowed.