Difference between online client and discs

Is there a difference? What I did was I downloaded the online client from the website and then i bought the game and I just used the access key. Now every time I enter a new city it takes forever to load. so should i install it on discs? Because all my friends load citys wayyyy faster than me. I see them sitting there going,"is he in yet?"

no...you are getting bad latency. it has nothing to do with downloading the client.

what connection speed are you on?
how much RAM do you have?
what video card?
what router/modem combo are you using?
Who provides your internet access?

If you use the tiny client, then it doesn't start with any information about the world. It needs to stream the data to you each time you enter a new area. Entering an area for the second time should be just as quick for you as other people.

So, for entering places for the first time, there is some advantage to installing from disc (but since most areas have some updates, there is still SOME streaming to do anyway). But in the long run, it really doesn't matter.

yeah every time i enter a new area with my party I have to download it because i've never been there. Then they get impatient and they just leave.

I have 256mb ram
DSL
qwest
64mb graphics card

ahhh...this is a one time only thing. you need to download and decompress new areas because they weren't installed on your system. admittedly I have superior internet...my cable is 6mb/s...it took me about 2-3 seconds for each area to download and decompress.

you won't experience this the second time you enter the area.

The online client was the whole reason that I started to play Guild Wars. Whereas other games (*cough*WoW*cough*) require that you get out and buy the discs (which are not always easy to find in some countries), go through a lengthy installation process, followed by an even lengthier update process, I was playing Guild Wars just a few minutes after I had purchased an online key and downloaded the online client!

The whole incremental installation/update of Guild Wars really is one of the most impressive features of Guild Wars, and in that respect it's miles ahead of any other online game out there.

with the exception of all the content offered through Steam...which has been doing this for many many years.

Steam isn't directly anaolgous to what Guild Wars does, in the way areas are streamed to players who need them (with updates as needed during gameplay). Steam is a much bigger system for a lot of other things. GWs streaming is more incremental; you start off with a miniscule fraction of the "full" game, getting whatever you need when necessary during gameplay.

Both are fantastic technology, used slightly differently. (The main executable updates that happen when your start GuildWars are more like Steam or other traditional technologies.)

agreed....what Guild Wars is doing is just a slight variation of an age old technology. I like how they've implemented it though...it works quite nicely.

Steam is not really the same thing as what Guild Wars does. When I started to play Half-Life using Steam from a online install, it still did a download of almost one hour, installing basically the complete game. Guild Wars, as mentioned, is much more incremental, and I was playing from starting on online install within 5 minutes.