Why does GW download so much on character selection?

I'm on a capped 2 GB/mo broadband service that's just right for my needs (although I'm over this month due to E3 video downloads!). As a result I keep a BW monitor running. The other day I loaded up GW and went to look up some skill info off GWGuru, leaving GW in the character selection screen where I presumed it wouldn't be downloading any data unlike in game.

When I came back after a few minutes, I had downloaded 88 MB I realise now that that's what the little lightning icon is, downloaded so far. When I run GW this value goes up rapidly.

So, why does GW constantly download during character selection?

It doesn't CONSTANTLY download - it's downloading important things that it needs. I'm not sure why GW sometimes keeps downloading content when the game actually opens up at the login screen, but it's just the way it works - perhaps some technically-knowledgable member can explain why it doesn't download everything before login.

So once again, GW is downloading stuff it needs. Don't complain.

Okay, but why doesn't it need this stuff to play? If I interrupt it, it plays the game okay, and it's not like a usual update. ArenaNet announce when they've updated the game and then there's a download, which tells me how much is being downloaded. What's the difference with these unannounced background downloads in the character selections screen, and why only the character selection if they're important - why aren't they included in the usual updates?

BTW - It only stopped on 88 MB because I selected character. Without any indicator of how much was being downloaded I don't know how long it would go on for. And I'm not complaining (don't know why you think I am?), only asking questions. I'd like to know if they're downloads I want/need at which point I'll let it finish instead of ending it with a character selection.

It preloads all the maps and such when you leave it 'idle' on the login screen. Less stuff to download when you get to the area and you are in the game quicker. The whole game is some ~2 gigabytes uncompressed, and you only need ~200-300 megabytes to start up the client first time, lots of loading when entering areas for the first time.

Same thing can be archieved by starting gw with -image switch, ie. "gw.exe -image" which downloads and uncompresses _everything_ there is to download, it just doesn't start the actual client at all.

no i leae as sson as charr selection screen loads up but when i go to school i turn it on and let it load all the way i found it dosent lagg as muchwhen fully donladed. i rember it was sill donloading it after school thats what i dont get....

Aren't these files already on my computer since I installed the game? It doesn't appear to download multiple megabytes of maps and things while playing. I can zip from Kryta to Ascalon to the mountains,wandering around for an hour, and only download a few megs.

If you mean installed from CDs.. There's Sorrow's Furnace that was added long after the CDs were made into Prophecies, and there's Factions stuff that needs to be downloaded as well.

Ah, right. Getcha. I'm surprised as I don't have Factions so wouldn't have thought it download, but I have seen Factions characters in Prophecies. so it will eventually be a finite download, perhaps 480 MB as Azagoth found?