Katiekaboom.1980

Thank you! I had to login to find that out for my friend who is having the same issue. Thank you Inculpatus cedo.9234 you rock!

I will suggest that to my friend who has been playing for years but when her IP changed she was told to supply her SMS code. Except no SMS code was sent. Clicking on "Visit our Support Site" only brought her back to having to login for support so again with the SMS code. It really does seem like Anet needs to relook at or update their SMS system as it is causing people to be locked out even if they DO have SMS set up and the phone number is correct.

I am a witness for my friend as she cannot login or get into support or get into the game. The only way she can get help now is through me. I have edited the screenshot into one image and had her type her issue on it. I don't see an attach image option though so hoping this works as it has no identifying info in the images: https://postimg.cc/zHwtqN2v My suggestion to ANET would be to change the link "Visit our Support site" to "Contact us" with a page that you can see without logging in that tells them to contact via email and give the email address. Or perhaps have it as a popup that gives that email address instead of having to go to any site. She asked me to make this post on her behalf so I did (I logged in with my own account) just to get this information for her. Found the info here that my friend could not find. The link on the launcher when you don't get your SMS code should link to https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/201862918-Trouble-Logging-In instead of the page it currently has as I believe they can see this without logging in. I will have to check by having her see if she can see it. She will post if she gets into her account. If not then I will update on if she is still having issues but the email should be fine. I would think as I have found it pretty fast in the past.

Ya I was talking about the starter maps. Not Sandswept Isle. Don't know how that got brought up but ... it DOES seem there are less issues now that most high level end game players have gotten their achievements in the starter maps and are no longer overwhelming new players as much. But Aspirine's experience is exactly what I am talking about.

I noticed this as well

I came to this because I know now in 2022 when you guys PoF from Anet it comes with HoT but be careful as it depends on version and where (I was wrong about this. Read correction in Quote from Anet's site below). From Anet it comes together as the version is the latest. But from sites who got keys from Anet previous PoF may NOT come with HoT. ALL expansions come with the CORE game now though (used to not). THIS is why they call the CORE game a free game and the misunderstanding of many free players who think the whole game is free and are confused. Anet has been working on making this easier to understand though and does listen to the player base quite well. They are a huge reason as well as the wonderful player community which this game rocks! Correction to what I posted: I posted this because even though the thread is old, when searching for this information, THIS is the thread that came up.

Steam restrictions listed here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Account#Steam_accounts

So ummm... ask for a refund?

Reply to that email. It is an on going support but without any replies from you or them within 72 hrs it closes the support ticket. Clarify that the game worked fine until you tried to do what ever you did (that your account worked just fine until you tried to buy gems on your STEAM GW2) and tell make sure that they know you are through STEAM. You are submitting the ticket the only way you can and it is the correct way. Are you able to access and search https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us ? Were you able to actually go through the steps to purchase GEMS in game even though you have a STEAM account? Did it lock before (unable to get) or after getting GEMS? I am wondering if it locked to prevent you from trying to get gems because of being a STEAM account. But that is just a guess as I am no one. Could just be a bug if you did not get any error message. If you did, make sure you note the code. You CAN reply to the existing email they sent you back as it is an on going ticket until they close it (72 hrs of no reply either way). If the email support ticket has closed and you DO decide to just do a new email to support then say in it that you had previously contacted them and that Castiel (Guild Wars 2 Support) had replied to you but that your issue was not resolved. This way they know it is not a brand new problem but an existing one. Mention certain things first: You are a STEAM player. You bought GEMS and state HOW you did it (through the Gem store IN game or through a way outside of game be it a giveaway or offer or card). What happened when you tried. At what point your BLTP locked. As you were trying, or after if successful. Also which part were you on when this happened. The Gem store part of the Trading Post part? And anything else you can think of in that order. Hope this helps.

Another issue for New Steam players is not knowing that if they win any of the giveaways going on where they get a Gem code to put into their account they cannot actually redeem because they are on Steam. https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230890448 So that doesn't help the impression Steam players are getting with GW2. Was just reading about the disappointment on the Steam forums. People are very upset saying Anet hasn't told people when they try to purchase as it only says on wiki and forums which Steam users are not familiar with this. A few have been griping saying that Anet just wants to take their money. Not exactly the case and it is not all just Anet or Steam but a combination of how both accounts work being the reason why they cannot redeem gems. It seems however with the hype having died down new players are no longer being overwhelmed as much in GW2 in general. So that is good. Now just the technical issues involving gems and gem store items. But with time all things smooth out right?

Steam is an issue for Gems I know. There have been a few complaints on the Steam forums already over this: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1284210/discussions/0/3321988498665891811/?ctp=2 As for the issue with the Trading Post (is it just the Trading post or the Gem store as well??) I hope that is fixed for you soon. regarding Gems in general for Steam GW2 accounts... On the GW2 site https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230890448 it says this: Also I noticed this: "3rd party gift card do not work on Steam since hey are not subjected to the steam fees. It is pretty standard."

Just keep your eye open for offers on Twitch, Twitter, etc and from gaming and technology companies that may give out keys at certain times. June 2022 saw NVIDIA give out keeys for the Heroic Edition and a LOT of players took advantage of that.

Ya starter maps do not need a lot of power to kill any enemies. If you match the level of the enemy then for sure you can kill them. And it scales up for the amount of people in the event (not level but amount of enemies) which is also good (Some events have poor scaling and leave people waiting for an enemy to kill) and down levels anyone who is higher level that comes to that same event. The problem seems more to do with mounts and skills and of course just age old abuse of what they can do with complete disregard of those around them. Anet has already down scaled mounts since the release of mounts back when they came out with Path of Fire but their abilities still give them a huge advantage over new players trying to just learn the game and use 1 to hit (might be all they have unlocked so far). The only way I could see on evening this out is if in starter maps there were "no mounts allowed" for certain events (like they did for jumping puzzles) or no elite skills. Not sure that would work or even be at all productive but this would take some thought on Anet's side as they know what is possible and what isn't. The issue has been there awhile but the release of the the achievements for new players -- Character Adventure Guide -- also being for 80+ level characters just made it worse. This brought players who were doing all expansion and high level stuff for the last few years suddenly coming back to the starter maps and playing them as if the starter areas are in the hardest maps of the expansions. I noticed that some end game players do not even want these and are bothered by them (as in this thread). I really do not think that most experienced players would have cared if they did not get offered the same thing the new players had and it probably would have been for the better. After all, those of us experienced already got achievements for things we learned way back then and really are now just getting double the recognition for the things we already were rewarded for when we first started playing. Having it only for those who are new who just came to the game or those under 2000 AP even would have made this a whole lot smoother for new player's first time experience with GW2. Most likely then the only high level players would have been the ones who genuinely wanted to help new players with food buffs and banners and gifts of bags. That would have been fine and a lot less overwhelming and frustrating. But that is just my take on this.

An issue with this topic may be in your wording of the Topic. I just noticed this. Core Tyria is a vast area comprised of more than just starter zones. Pic of Core areas Video taken in 2012 of Core areas Perhaps the Topic should have been "Core starter maps..." and the rest of your topic. Not sure if you can edit the subject line but it would be more accurate of what you were getting at.

I can agree with that.

You have a point there. With the Decade buffs we are all a lot stronger yet the new players might not know what to do fast enough or know their skills well enough to get their hits in. I did not consider that but you have a point. However, saying that a level 80 in a starter zone is automatically set to low level is not the same as a new player at that same said low level. Why? Because the level 80 still has all the armor that the low level does not have yet including the 1-9 skills where a new player might have only skill 1 unlocked. Plus they are still learning. I don't know what could help there but honestly ... perhaps the mounts in starter maps are making it too much of a competition for new players to really learn the game as the Core game was intended instead of focusing on doing as well as the 80+ accounts with mounts and food and buffs, etc. but I would not want to go back to no mounts in starter zones ... I feel so slow when doing map completion without them.

Think Anet is listening to the complaints as I noticed today logging in that higher level toons were now getting those achievements automatically without having to revisit .. which I think is a start on fixing this issue.

I just found out that this thread was made after I posted mine. However, the problem with the idea in the subject line would never work because there is map completion and if someone has only let's say 2 - 5 characters and none of them are human, they will most likely do human map completion on a higher level character that they already did map completion on their own race maps. On top of that there are the dailies. Dailies require certain things from certain maps, including the starter maps. Be it fighting Shadow Behemoth or taking advantage of the potato field in the Asura starter map.

Naw man. I have heard the complaints firsthand. Some of left and I told them if they want to take a break do it but don't just shrug off the game as a loss but come back to it later after the hype has died down and all the 80+ level players already got their achievements on all their characters (many have a LOT and this IS a per-character achievement making the problem take longer to calm down). I even made a new account on Steam just to see what all the problems were and saw first hand, it is real and not any overthinking on anyone's part. If anything, high level long time vets are just shrugging off the complaints thinking they are nothing and going on with their day without any regard to new players. Yes not ALL high level players with many alt accounts and more than 8 character slots on each are like this, but it is a noticeable problem now.

You hit the nail right on the head there! I hope someone at Anet reads this but probably better chance if mentioning this on their twitter instead.

I wonder if new players do not realize that GW2 is unique in the way that you don't have to wait for your turn but can shoot the same target as we share in the results. The only time this is different at all in PvE is if we have to collect an item and it counts how many you hand in (for example: Apples).

Thank you for that input. This is very important as it shows that it is not "just new players complaining" but a real problem! Thank you!

Ya that is it in a nutshell! Sure Anet might have wanted to starter zones to look especially active but this just went wrong.

VERY well said (your whole post) and right to the point of the issue. I hope someone from Anet is reading this thread so that they better understand things from a new player perspective but also ideas. Thank you.

EXACTLY! 👆