Can Dial Up aka 56k PLAY GUILD WARS?

JetX

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Sep 2006

hi guys, right now i have dial up... it's so slow, i heard rumours that some players on guild wars use dial up to play it... so i am wondering if the rumour is true.. because i am planning to play

so please help me out

D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E

D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Mo/

well you can, but the streaming procress would take days, maybe a week. Well you can play it, network traffic on gw is about 200~300 bytes a second well within the 32 kilobytes of bandwidth you have.

I pwnd U

I pwnd U

God of Spammers

Join Date: Oct 2005

in the middle of a burning cornfield...

Scars Meadows [SMS] (Officer)

Yes you can play on dial up. The load times are much slower but you can still play. I used to play on dial up at home before we got cable and here at school i have cable as well. So yes you can play it but the load times will take longer and you may expirence lag in places that have very defined graphics. I would suggest putting graphics on the lowest setting to try to stop some of that lag. You should be ok you just need to be patient with the load times.

Phaern Majes

Phaern Majes

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Anywhere but up

The Panserbjorne [ROAR]

R/Mo

Yeah it playable but after this update (still downloading 12 mb = 1%) I don't envy anyone running the game on it. Thank god I have broadband.

DeanBB

DeanBB

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

Arizona

Wizardry Players Guild, http://4guildwars.7.forumer.com

I've had guildies playing on 56k and never noticed any difference other than slower load times. When you get to a new town or mission outpost you can help by launching the mission or visiting the next zone so as to pre-load them before teaming up with others.

Also on game update days let GW sit at the login screen while the lighning bolt is in the upper right corner to preload the new stuff. Go eat dinner or watch a movie while it loads. I even do that for big updates with my DSL connection.

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by JetX
so please help me out
Yes, Guildwars is perfectly playable with dial-up.
The reason it's so slow right now, is because a huge amount of data is being downloaded in preparation for the upcoming Nightfall PvE preview event, and because there's been some changes to graphics and sound. Right at present is not a good time to be on dial-up, but yes, the game is perfectly playable. Once it starts.

ZenRgy

ZenRgy

Zookeeper

Join Date: Jul 2005

Australian Discussion Posse HQ - Glorious leader

҉ ̵̡̢̢̛̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟&#

N/E

Yes, I played with dial-up. Don't expect to do any PvP using vent etc. ;]

lightblade

lightblade

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

The Etereal Guard

Me/Mo

dial up doesn't mean it have to be 56k. Many ISP allows their dial up user to go faster than 56k. THe speed is not controled by the user, but by the server side of ISP.

tomcruisejr

tomcruisejr

Banned

Join Date: Apr 2005

if you can wait for like weeks or a month to get a major update, yes dial up can play guildwars.

but take note of your phone bill.

Painbringer

Painbringer

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2006

Minnesota

Black Widows of Death

W/Mo

I played for months on a 56k with little to no problems. Loading new areas takes a while, and large updates make you want to cry. 2 hour load once This was the only reason I switched to highspeed. (I suggest doing a preload on missions before going with a group the first time otherwise they could finish the mission before you join) I was being run to Droks for the first time, and the runner did a pit stop at Grenths Footprint I was left by myself there when it finally loaded. luckly it was a free run.

lord_shar

lord_shar

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2005

near SF, CA

It's playable, but it isn't pretty.

I play from my laptop at work on an EDGE connection through my cell phone (~80kbps GRPS). I'd prefer a 3G connection for 1mb/sec wireless, but T-Mobile won't be ready here until late 2007.

jesh

jesh

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

San Diego, CA

Penguin Village

Mo/

Ever since I moved from my last residence, I've had no choice but dial up. Did I quit GW? Heck no. The key is to save/backup those gw.dat files. Once you download it, you don't want to do it again. XD
Whenever there's a new patch out, for instance the recent Nightfall update, leave it on like someone else said. For the major updates, it could be a couple hours, like it was for me this morning.

Load times: If you've already been in an area, they are not ANY slower than on broadband. This depends entirely on how fast your computer is. I often load faster than people with an OCXX connection.
Graphics: The same goes for graphics. My brother plays with dial up as well, we run all settings max, 1240*1280, 4x AA, and 1600*1200, 4x AA, all setting max.
Lag: Yes, there can be spikes of lag that you will hate. I often seem to find them at the moment of a crucial infuse or in front of a mob of trolls when I'm trying to run. This is part of dial up life.
As for the average lag, it is barely, if at all, higher than broadband. I have no trouble playing an infuser or interrupter. My favorite build for mesmer is fast cast protection - yes, I can make use of that 1/8 second cast time.


Just leave the game on overnight when you can, eventually you'll have no load times for any map. (2.64gbs at this point in time)

imsystem

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

northern cal

yeah i didnt mind playing on dialup and no one knew i was when i played either. the updates i would leave overnight to update noproblem. But this current update is about 450mb maybey more so thats kinda hard to get on dial up.
if you have a laptop you can take it to someplace that has wifi and download the client just to let it sit and get the gw.dat file updated then copy it to your main pc. Thats what i had to do. Plus most nicer hotels offer free wifi so just park near one and hijack it for a bit to get update.

thrice

thrice

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

Grotto

No guild

Mo/Me

plays it fine except vent/ts makes everything lag incredibly bad so you cant do much high end pvp and this update i'm gonna have to run it overnight a few days to download

Mesmer in Need

Mesmer in Need

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

[ToA]

get dsl already!!! sbc yahoo only cost 15 $$ a month. tons faster.