Do I need to buy another game?

Hi, I'm new to the game...but not to the world of online gaming. My husband bought Guild Wars yesterday from Target (the Game Of The Year edition) and we were both kinda pissed that you can only have one account per access key. I found a trial code in the box, so I'm using that one because we discovered that you really can't have totally separate characters on the same account (I joined a guild and my husband got pissed off at me because then it automatically joined him into the guild too). What would it take me to get my own access key? Do they put access keys in Nightfall and Factions or can I buy an access key from NCSoft?

Any help is appriciated. Thanks

You would have to buy any copy of Guild Wars to get an access key. I would recommend getting the same game your husband got because if you get a different game, you guys won't be able to meet anywhere except in a couple of areas. You can get the key online or at a store.

But we share the same computer. Would it really be worth it buying the same game twice? Seems kind of pointless to me- besides with the trial I got access to all three games and I'm kind of enamoured with Nightfall

When you buy the game, all you're really paying for is the access key, not the CDs (because the client is available for download on the Guild Wars website. So if you don't want to buy the box, you would go online and get a key from NCsoft.

And I don't blame you for liking Nightfall, heroes make everything 10x easier.

So I can buy just a key? I couldn't find out anything about it on the Guild Wars store a few minutes ago. Or do I click to buy the game and they just give me a key?

I just like the gameplay of Nightfall. Factions is a little bland and the other one (can't remember the name!) feels a little like playing FF

Any character you have is automatically part of the guild you join. No characters from the same account can be playing at the same time.

Buy another copy of the same game and install it on the other computer, then you can play together.

Also, if I was to buy Nightfall from the store, would I have access to the other game that we already bought or just Nightfall?

You can go through NCsoft to buy a key. You need to create a master account there first. Their URL is http://www.plaync.com. And I think, though I'm not 100% sure, but if you log on to your trial account and go to the Guild Wars store, you can purchase a full version of the game there. They automatically add the content to your account without shipping you a box.

And if you bought Nightfall from the store, you would only get access to Nightfall content. You won't be able to go to the Factions or Prophecies areas until you buy those games, too.

Yeah, I discovered that the hard way. And unfortunately we don't have another computer. We just wanted to share the game with separate access keys

Ah okay. Even though the game is already on the computer?

Yeah. Just be sure to do the purchase through your account, not your husband's. Otherwise he gets the content, not you.

Okay then. Thanks for all your help. NCSoft's customer service isn't the best

Essentially, what you pay for is the access code. Even if you bought additional campaigns, the only thing you need is to add the access key to your existing campaign.

You only need to put in the CD-ROMs once, regardless of the number of campaigns. The data would be downloaded automatically.

For you, with one computer, maybe you just wanna share the account with your husband. Since you can't both log on at the same time and play together anyway. Its quite common for couples to do that.

I guess I'm sorta curious - what game out there allows you to purchase one access key and make multiple accounts? Since you expected it I guess you have seen it before? I do not know of any out there but I will not say they do not exist - I would also be curious as to how they separate who is logging into an account if they all have the same login.

As has mostly been said all you are really purchasing is the account, everything else you can easily download all you want That account has so many character slots and you can do with them as you want - many people "share" accounts (even though it is against the EULA) and there is no reason you can not also. However, account wide setting and actions (say, for instance if one of you happens to get a ban) will go against the whole account. Again, this is the standard way online games work.

Purchase a new key, either through a store in a box or through their online store. You will need another e-mail address as that is you log-on. After that it is like any other client - just put your account name + password and it is your account.

However, new or not to online games I would suggest you expect any game your purchase to work this way from this point on out - one account per access key.

Yes it is, But you have to know before that it's only one person at a time. And in general MMOs do NOT make this clear. But nowadays you can get Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall for only £15 (24euros?), even saw Proph at £10 somewhere 2 days ago (but can't remember where).

To her defense, "online gaming" existed before MMOs. For example, networked games like CS or Quake, where a single install could be used by a single family (may have been against certain EULAs though ). Times have changed, now there's a new business model where you can rely on network connectivity and ask everyone to buy one "key" instead of the game (and tbh downloading the content from the server is much more conveninent than having to install CDs/DVDs, and you can access it from any computer!).

To sum up:

You don't need two installations of the game. But you do need two accounts. When the game starts up, you just need to enter your own Account Name and Password. (I assume you already do that since you have your own account with the trial key.)

If you buy the game through the on-line store, all you get is an access key, but you don't need the CD and box to play the game.

If you buy the boxed game through a local store, all you need to do is add the enclosed key to your existing trial account. (Not his!)

If you buy the game (key) through the online store, be sure to buy it from within your account, as it will automatically add the key to the account that's logged in. (They don't 'send' you a key)

All of the data about your characters, items, keys, etc., is stored "server side" (i.e. not on your computer). When you log in (from any computer), you will only have access to your own characters, campaigns, etc. This has the benefit that, should something happen like a complete hard drive melt down or some other disaster, you only need to reinstall the client & enter your Account Name and Password and all your characters, items, keys, etc. are still there. (You don't even need to put the keys in again.)

Unfortunately, you won't be able to move your character(s) from his account to yours, you'll have to start fresh. You can transfer items from one account to the other through storage, but you'd have to have both accounts running at the same time. There may be ways of running two accounts on the same computer at the same time, but it would require some sort of fancy manipulation, or "hack". The normal way would be to use two computers - you can install GW on any computer temporarily (friend's, relatives, etc.) and access your account to swap items.

If hubby doesn't want to remain in the Guild, you'll have to get your character to leave the Guild and then have them invite your new character. The Guild membership is account based - once one character on an account joins, they all join. If hubby stays in the Guild, he will always be listed as your original join character (when he's not online) even if he deletes the character. He can change that by also leaving the Guild and re-joining.

Since all you really do is log into the game with an Account Name and Password, if at some point you decide to get another computer/laptop so both of you can play at the same time, all you need to do is install the game on the new computer and, as usual, log in with your Account Name and Password (in other words, you won't need to buy the game yet again.)

Wow, thanks for that...it really helped. When I was on GW last night I thought about the access key thing and realised that you could add other keys to an existing account. So what I'll probably do is buy Nightfall and then add the key. I'd like to buy it online through the store, but at $50 it's rather steep. I've seen it for $26 on Amazon, so I'll probably buy it through there. Does anyone else know where I can get Nightfall for a cheaper price?

Exactly. I've played both Quake and Diablo in the past, and they didn't have ny of the key business. It's a whole new world of problems for me

If you buy the game from amazon make sure it isn't used. There have been reports on this forum about people buying off of amazon and getting a used cd key.

Also if you purchase it throught the Game Store if you spend more than $29 you get a free Bonus Mission Pack sometime in November. I have purchased all of the games thru the Store and have had no problems what so ever. Be sure if you purchase somewhere else that it is an unused copy of the game..what a lot of scammers do is...buy the game...use the key for thier account then put the package up for sale on ebay or some thing and sale it for half price...then the person who buys it goes to add the "new" key in and it says its already in use. and if that happens you are SOL because Anet says its illegal to resale thier games.

Good luck.

Nope, the ones I'm looking at are under the 'New' category. I know about the key issue that's why I'm kind of wary about buying used GW copies