Copying Guild Wars to another computer

I have a friend who wants to play Guild Wars and has downloaded the client. But because he is on a 56k modem, downloading all the new content would take a while.

If I were to give him my Gw.exe and Gw.dat file, would that work and be the same as if he had downloaded all the content himself?

I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds quite dodgy to me. Most probably bordering on the illegal and in total disregard of the EULA!

Well first of all with 56k then trying to play guildwars won't be too pretty.... and I don't think it is illegal, but I doubt it will work.

There is no private content in those files, as all your personal information is stored on the servers. I don't see how this breaks the Eula. He bought a key, got the client, but wants to play as soon as possible.

To me, it's analagous to giving a friend a map pack for a game. You are just sharing data that is free to everyone. You even save ANET some bandwidth (if only miniscule) cost.

I seriously doubt this could be considered 'illegal' or even against the EULA. If it was a case could be made that backing up one's own DAT file before doing a system rebuild and then replacing that file after an install would also be 'illegal'. I for one can and will do that with any rebuild on a computer that has Guild Wars. I sure won't be downloading the 1.5GBs of accumalated over time. As for copying the file to a friends system, I fail to see an issue here. As stated you must have a valid key / account to use the game anyway... so all that's going on there is the saving of time and bandwidth.

Not only do I approve, I recommend it!

Don't need to copy the EXE file though, just the DAT should do. Unless updates have changed the EXE, which I suppose they have. Ah, I'd just copy the entire folder as it's only 3 files anyway.

whats wrong with 56k? i use it all the time when im at my grandmas house and hers works perfectly fine never lagged once...it might take around 10 mins to download a new update but i think its worth it and why dont u just let ur friend use the cd to install into his computer? thats what i did with my friend...

Nothing illegal at all, they give away the client to anyone. You can go play at a friends house (and download the game). Nothing about your account is stored in the gw.dat file. If you want to be 100% sure, I just would shoot an support ticket to Anet asking them if it's ok if you have any doubts.

Eragon - The cd dat files are way out of the date now. I have cd version 1.0 when launched, no new gui, no dx9 engine, no new ds3d audio, nor Sorrow's Furnance and they have tweaked about every map since then plus even if you don't by Factions, you still will need a ton of data (weapons, armor, skills, etc) that a C2 character coming to C1 in the same zones as you.

GW runs ok at 56k it's the blasted 100mb+ updates that hurt them.

I would do that if I have a friend getting GW and does not have high speed so they can get up to play quickly.

I do actually believe it's taboo, since you ARE given away assets that can only be downloaded by a client. However, given the cryptic nature of said assets, I don't think ANet will bust your face in for burning the .dat on a CD to let your friend get the files.

I thought this was about moving onto another computer, like getting a new comptuer and wanting to use your game and characters on it. Is that possible? Are the characters saved on your computer or on the GW servers? I'm assuming the servers to keep track of guilds and stuff.

Yes it will work.
That's what we do in iCafes (Internet Cafes) here in the Philippines and other South-East Asian countries.

It is perfectly legal to copy the client. What you need is a CD-Key to play the game.

It is the same with copying Microsoft products to each computer via the use of Norton Ghost. Yes they will all have the same authentication code, but legally, by rule of court, it is still legal because you literally own and bought the licenses for each computer.

In GW's case (and other online games), you have to buy a CD-Key. You can have the client, even the box, but without the CD-Key you can't play the game.

That is also the reason why they sell CD-Key's only at plaync.com or NCsoft. And just offer the client free to download. That's the "Korean" way of gaming. Free Client, you pay monthly, in GW's case, free client, free monthly, buy the CD-Key.

So again, yes it's perfectly legal to copy the client over and over again, just don't distribute it publicly without NCsoft/ANet's permission Among your guild is fine as well.

^_^

Hope that helps. Copy the files, it will work fine. Don't copy the Direct Song folder tho, or you'll use up your licenses

Another question, can I purchase another CD key to switch accounts on one installed GW on one computer? Basically to have another 4 characters?

Yes, that works perfectly. As mentiones above, the GW client program and the GW account are completely seperated from each other. You can access any given account from any given client program (well, you can't access Asian accounts from European or American clients, and vice versa, as far as I know...). That means you can access multiple accounts from one client program.

You can't access both accounts simultaneously from the same client, though,(i.e. to transfer stuff from one to the other), as you normally can run only one instance of the GW client at a time. See here on that issue.

I know I wouldn't be able to run two accounts at the same time. But if I had two and was logged in with one, I could completely log out and log back in with the other account, right? Basically using one account at a time. I'm sure all the characters and stuff are saved on the GW servers?

Yes. Character info is stored on the servers. Textures and other stuff are stored locally.

You can, if you have the time/patience to do it.

Too lazy to read any of the posts, but yes, it does work.

Then don't post.

I use a @ncjapan account along with my American account on a NA client with no problem...I think the clients are all the same.

I just remembered, the Gw.dat file stores program settings like graphics quality/volume (and your account name if you have ticked the "remember" checkbox - might be a good idea to uncheck that setting it if you're going to be transfering it).