Guild Wars 2 Arrives on Mac With Beta Client Release

Silly ANet, there's no 17" mid 2012 MBP

Very glad for the release of this client though. Part of the reason I haven't been on the game for over a week is just the motivation to boot Windows...

I wonder how well it will run my 2009 13" MBP. I suppose if people are getting it to run on the MBA, my MBP should be fine, right? I got the base model (2.26 GHz C2D and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) although I upped the HDD to 1 TB and it has 8 GB RAM in it.

MacPod said:

Downloading it now, rMBP. Will post how it goes!

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Very interested also. Thinking about getting this also for my rMBP 2.6. Let me know!!

Well goodbye Windows bootcamp, don't need you anymore, lol.

This game ran so-so with everything on low/off on Windows, hopefully it won't be any worse on Mac. Using a crappy GT120 vid card, but will probably be getting a PC 560Ti soon.

Rogzilla said:

I wonder how well it will run my 2009 13" MBP. I suppose if people are getting it to run on the MBA, my MBP should be fine, right? I got the base model (2.26 GHz C2D and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) although I upped the HDD to 1 TB and it has 8 GB RAM in it.

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The 9400m is probably not up to par for it. Notice all the listed MacBook Airs either have the 320m (which is twice as fast as your 9400m) or the newer Intel 3000 HD based Sandy Bridge Airs.

MacPod said:

Downloading it now, rMBP. Will post how it goes!

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You'll get sub-30 fps (idle) @ retina resolution, but you can get upper 50 fps if you turn on subsampling (graphics become lower-res, but the retina resolution is still kept, and so you still get sharp text with decent framerates).

KnightWRX said:

The 9400m is probably not up to par for it. Notice all the listed MacBook Airs either have the 320m (which is twice as fast as your 9400m) or the newer Intel 3000 HD based Sandy Bridge Airs.

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That is highly disappointing. I've got a good friend who loves this game and, back when I had a PC, we played the original all the time. I was hoping this would allow me to play the game without having to Bootcamp (which would be expensive as I don't have a copy of Windows I can use).

If anyone has a MBP like mine that they tested this on, let me know. If it works, I'll definitely get the game.

Cougarcat said:

If I dislike MMOs, will I enjoy this? Never played GW1.

For the record, I felt like Diablo III was decent but not great. I liked the flexible spell system, but the game lacked variety in almost everything––spells, environments, events. It was also too short (and don't get me started on the story.)

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Depends. Anet did a lot of stuff right with GW2, but with most character classes, it's difficult to solo above a certain level. You almost have to run across another player or find some friends. They're also encouraging player cooperation: you get the same reward regardless of whether or not you accomplish something solo or in a group, and so you can't "steal credit" like you can in other games. You also get a nice chunk of experience points for resurrecting others, and so there's encouragement there, too.

The level of detail in the game is unfarkingbelievable. For example, there are these things called "minis" in the game, which are do-nothing tiny cosmetic pets that follow you around. One of the minis is some robot-like creature. I zoomed in to take a closer at it, and was expecting to see some pixelated textures. Instead, the detail grows, until I'm able to see a tiny-gerbil-like creature, wearing steampunk googles and holding levers, piloting the robot, mech-style.

Some of the lower-level dynamic boss events are a lot of fun: Swamp shadow behemoth, the entire dynamic event chain leading up to the Svanir shaman, and Tequatl the Sunless (where I don't even bother attacking the boss, but instead spend all my time defending the Hylek batteries and the Asura laser cannon).

On the other hand, there are issues:

• Taking advantage of an "exploit" will typically get you permabanned or (less likely) suspended for some days. "Exploit" can be arbitrarily defined by anet. In a recent example, a valuable item was accidentally priced at 27 instead of 10000+ (?). Everyone who bought more than 50 or so were either suspended or permabanned.
• Don't even think of even (mildly) insulting other players. If you get reported, you can be suspended or permabanned. In one case, someone used a phrase like "jerking off over corpses" to refer to a group of players. He got reported and banned. I think it later got reverted to a suspension, though.

Getting this game... wondering whether on the lowest settings it will run at all on my 2006 iMac 17" C2D.

Might be worth noting:

I've been playing this game on a 2010 Macbook Pro under bootcamp. If I use an external monitor and have the Macbook Pro lid closed, the computer crashes after a while - it's probably overheating.

It hasn't crashed at all when using the built in screen though (lid open obviously).

does anyone know where it downloads the game files to so I can duplicate to another mac after it completes? Thanks

TLewis said:

Depends. Anet did a lot of stuff right with GW2, but with most character classes, it's difficult to solo above a certain level. You almost have to run across another player or find some friends. They're also encouraging player cooperation: you get the same reward regardless of whether or not you accomplish something solo or in a group, and so you can't "steal credit" like you can in other games. You also get a nice chunk of experience points for resurrecting others, and so there's encouragement there, too.

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Thanks for the reply. I have RL friends who play, so I wouldn't need to solo. (And it's more of the "grind" aspect of MMOs I dislike more so than the other players.(

turtlez said:

does anyone know where it downloads the game files to so I can duplicate to another mac after it completes? Thanks

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Just copy the 16GB~ GuildWars2.app in your applications folder, everything needed is inside the package/app.

Based on feedback from the guild wars 2 forum, this cider port works great with ATI macs, but sub-par with nvidia GPU macs. I have an rMBP (nvidia 650m) and the mac version performs far worse than on bootcamp. (bummer)

Finally downloaded and got a chance to play. It runs well enough if I turn the options down (still playing with which options to focus on), > 30fps, so that's the main thing, but I definitely see room for improvement.

That they are calling it a beta gives me hope of being able to run it at maximum settings (maybe one or two of settings lowered a bit) and retina resolution. As it is, for me it's acceptable, but only just.

I am wondering if my 21.5-inch, Late 2009 iMac will comfortably play Guild Wars 2. I might buy it anyway, however just wondering if anyone has tested it using an iMac like mine

Processor 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB

Sweet, hope I can get this to run on my 2012 MBA (Base 13" with RAM upgrade) Bunch of people have been trying to get me to give it a shot.

Thunder82 said:

Just copy the 16GB~ GuildWars2.app in your applications folder, everything needed is inside the package/app.

Based on feedback from the guild wars 2 forum, this cider port works great with ATI macs, but sub-par with nvidia GPU macs. I have an rMBP (nvidia 650m) and the mac version performs far worse than on bootcamp. (bummer)

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oh of course thanks! I love how os x is so simple with packages hmm yeh. Well hopefully soon I will have the new iMac with the 680m or 7970

MacBook Pro 13", 15", 17" (Early and Late-2011)

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Really? The integrated-graphics-only 13" Macbook Pro?

Guess it "will run" ... but look like a PS2 game in the process. ><

XandeR803 said:

Is that at native rez on your 27" iMac?

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Yes, native resolution. I also have an external 21" Acer monitor connected as well for dual-screens but when playing GW2 I'm using fullscreen on the iMac monitor.

So here are my fps comparisons (note; I only did this quickly to test and I'm only at level 10 on my toon. I barely engaged any combat and it was more of a general fps test in some areas):

1. Bootcamp Windows 7 64 Ultimate - All settings are maxed in game and I am getting around 50fps in Divinities Reach and around 40fps throughout the Queensdale area.

2. Mac OSX 10.8.1 - All settings are maxed in game and I am getting around 40fps in Divinities Reach and around 30fps throughout the Queensdale area.

3. Mac OSX 10.8.1 running Parallels 7 using the Bootcamp install with Windows 7 64 Ultimate - All settings are maxed in game and I am getting around 35fps in Divinities Reach and around 25fps throughout the Queensdale area.


When comparing the three; running the game in bootcamp feels slightly better or more smooth. But nothing that makes me want to boot into windows. As a matter of fact I will probably jump into this game a lot more now that I don't have to boot over.

Everything felt fine with the Mac version. I have not run into any issues, just a bit of a loss in fps.

As you can see running in parallels wasn't much lower in fps than on the Mac. However, running in parallels definitely doesn't feel smooth. Lots of hiccups in parallels and little things like losing control of your "view" when moving around randomly. This doesn't happen in bootcamp or on the OSX version. That's why I would only randomly use it via parallels to do a few quests here and there (just to avoid rebooting into windows).

I'm happy with this port and excited to play the game more often as I can avoid the reboot.

I'll test my i3 iMac when I get a chance and post back here.

Cougarcat said:

Thanks for the reply. I have RL friends who play, so I wouldn't need to solo. (And it's more of the "grind" aspect of MMOs I dislike more so than the other players.(

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There are some things to note, though:

• Unlike other MMOs, you and your friends don't all have to be at the same level. If some of you are way ahead, or some are way behind, the people who are ahead can simply go back to the earlier areas and play with the friends who are behind. If you do, your advanced stats are simply downleveled to the earlier area; your advanced stats don't give you a huge advantage, and so the earlier area is then still challenging. You do get to keep any advanced skills/spells, which does give you a modest advantage, but they're downleveled.

• However, it is strongly recommended that you and your friends all arrange to be on the same homeworld (server). Meeting up is a lot easier if you're all on the same homeworld. You can all be different races/professions, but you really need to be on the same homeworld. While you can switch homeworlds, it can be very expensive (like up to US$22.50), although I think switching is still temporarily free while anet fixes some issues. (Note that the gameplay content is identical for all homeworlds, but a given homeworld can have tiny improvements, such as slightly increased experience point awards, all affected by separate and massive world vs world tournaments.)

• While there is some grinding (especially if you go solo, which you're not), account enhancements, such as extra storage, are paid for in "gems", which are obtained either by grinding or by RL cash (800 gems for US$10). The base account comes with 5 character slots, and extra slots cost 800 gems (US$10). Extra account-wide storage is 600 gems (US$7.50) for 30 item slots (not sure what the max is, but they're happy to let you buy more than one ).

• There are 5 different races, and 8 different professions. For your first character, do NOT choose thief. Ranger, warrior, or guardian are probably the easiest to play, but elementalist, necro, or mesmer are probably more fun but more difficult.

hirshnoc said:

"The Mac beta client will be available for anyone who has purchased Guild Wars 2 on the PC."

They're assuming that all Mac owners also own PCs?

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Uh, I do. Gaming PC and Retina MacBook Pro.

turtlez said:

does anyone know where it downloads the game files to so I can duplicate to another mac after it completes? Thanks

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Guild Wars 2.app -> Contents -> Resources -> Transgaming -> c_drive -> GW2

The one file you need to transfer the is the single ginormous file, "Gw2.dat" (depending upon the system, probably around 15-17+ GB). This is the file that gets downloaded and periodically updated.

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Thunder82 said:

Just copy the 16GB~ GuildWars2.app in your applications folder, everything needed is inside the package/app.

Based on feedback from the guild wars 2 forum, this cider port works great with ATI macs, but sub-par with nvidia GPU macs. I have an rMBP (nvidia 650m) and the mac version performs far worse than on bootcamp. (bummer)

Click to expand...

In the graphics options, set the resolution to full-screen retina (yes, retina), but set the "Render Sampling" to "Subsample". At the lower-quality (best performance) graphics settings, this bumped my fps from ~29 to ~58 (idle).

GW2 Mac Beta runs beautifully smooth on my iMac (2010 21" i5 midrange), I've been playing this since the launch in Bootcamp. I have to turn the quality levels down to achieve the same framerates, but I honestly can't tell much of a difference in graphical quality.

Rock solid: I put in a good 5+ hours on it, tabbed out a couple times, never crashed. Still a couple of glitches here and there: some character encoding is off, with a lot of "É" showing up instead of a short dash. Also wasn't able to buy gems; got an error after finalizing the payment info. Also had an instance of firing wildly and unstoppably for a little bit, but apparently that happens in the windows side too.

I doubt I'll be playing that in Windows much anymore.

My daughter reported it runs acceptably on our iMac Core i3 (w/ 4GB RAM).

She's not running at the highest texture levels though - but she couldn't in Boot Camp either.

TLewis said:

• Taking advantage of an "exploit" will typically get you permabanned or (less likely) suspended for some days. "Exploit" can be arbitrarily defined by anet. In a recent example, a valuable item was accidentally priced at 27 instead of 10000+ (?). Everyone who bought more than 50 or so were either suspended or permabanned.
• Don't even think of even (mildly) insulting other players. If you get reported, you can be suspended or permabanned. In one case, someone used a phrase like "jerking off over corpses" to refer to a group of players. He got reported and banned. I think it later got reverted to a suspension, though.

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I don't think these are issues at all.