hour tracking

Does anyone know if the hours still count if you are on the character select screen? As in, making a character and such.. would the timer still count then? or is it only once you've selected a character and went into the game?

If you mean the trial code, I'm pretty sure as soon as the code is used the timer starts, even if you don't enter the game. I've received trials for all three campaigns (I guess from eotn preview purchase) and never used the trials but still had them expire.

it should start as soon as you log into your account
weither you're using the trial or not

and it stops when you log off, that's why it's 10 hours or 14 days(if you don't play the 10 hours within 14 days, it expires too)

lol sorry if it was confusing o_O
i actually meant the command when you type /age
if those hours count for the character select screen also..

oh, if you mean that...
the charactors age won't get older...
dunno about the account age though

I believe it does count, because I've gotten the "you've played for 4 hours" message, when I go back in to play after thinking I had signed all the way off earlier.

Hours spent just 'being' for a character do count, as mules that rarely get played still get birthday presents (happened on my boyfriend's level 3 Ele mule).

They count. I've gotten the "You've been playing for 5 hours, please take a break" message even if I've just logged in and started playing. I thought that was odd until I realized that I actually logged in earlier that day and stayed on the character screen while doing other things.

I'll also notice that message popping up even when I'm switching characters. I'll play my warrior for an hour. Switch to my ranger to help out on a mission. Switch over to my mule for 10 minutes then settle down with my Elementalist to work on vanquishing and still see the "you've been playing...." message. So the timer doesn't restart when you change characters either.

if you make a character but don't name him and leave him for an hour, type in a name and go to an outpost and type /age he will be 1 hour. Just tried it.

ooh okay. thanks a lot for the replies : D
that helped.

When you type /age you get a numbers of times. The age of the character, the overall age across all characters, the age of the account since creation and the hours logged in. Idling on the character selection screen I believe will add to the overall age across all characters and the hours logged in. Since you aren't actually logged into a character, the individual character ages shouldn't be affected and the account age is based on something else.