NEW ACCOUNT means "account created and logged into after this patch"

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

the confusion surrounding the default movement keybind stems from the patch notes specifically stating that the change for keybinds is for new accounts. in practice, the change affects (EDIT: some) old accounts as well. and the some people with old accounts (ie, accounts existing before the patch) were hit with this change.

in the past, the title was explained by anet, and that's how all "new account" changes were made. if the account existed before the patch (i suppose it should be said "logged into" to be more specific), then any changes to "new accounts" would not affect the account. this set player expectations.

THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT! EDIT: SOME old accounts are being changed when the notes say "new accounts", and this is against expectations and all previous expectations by ANet.

Many players logged into their old accounts (created and logged into before this patch) to find changes made to their accounts that were supposed to be made ONLY for new accounts., and many people are clearly upset over this change. (Thankfully i was NOT affected by this keybind change).

unfortunately, in the many threads started about this change, there seems to much confusion about the patch notes. some people are saying it's a change for everyone, and some people say it's not, which is why i started THIS thread: to hopefully clear up this confusion without repeating myself in each of those other threads.

there was another change that was designed to affect all accounts, and that was DX11 / DX9 setting. it was changed from OPT-IN (select DX11, but DX9 as default) to OPT-OUT (DX11 is now default, must select DX9). i personally think that a coding error for the DX11 setting somehow got mixed up with the default keybind change, randomly changing some old accounts' keybinds.

EDIT: including the patch notes quote:

• Quote

   

  • Updated default selections in the Options menu for new accounts.
    • General Options:
      • AoE Loot on Interact: On
      • Autoloot: Autopickup: On
      • Show All Enemy Names: On
      • Show All Usable Object Names: On
      • Show Skill Recharge: On
      • Show Target Health Percent: On
      • Disable Player Camera Shake: On
      • Right-Click to Attack/Interact: Off
      • Melee Attack Assist: Off
      • Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range: On
    • Graphics Options (skipped if Autodetect would choose lower values):
      • Reflections: Terrain & Sky
      • Character Model Limit: Medium
    • Control Options:
      • Strafe Left: A
      • Strafe Right: D
      • Turn Left: Q
      • Turn Right: E
      • Special Action: N
      • Information Dialog: - (dash)

   

  • •  

Edited August 3, 2022 by Forgotten Legend.9281
added the word "some" for better clarification

[Danikat.8537]

It's not affecting all old accounts though. Both my guilds were talking about this last night, as were some people in Labyrinthine Cliffs, and it seems like about half of existing accounts had their keybindings changed and the other half didn't. Even for those who had them changed it wasn't consistent. Some had keybindings (most often E or Q) duplicated, so it now showed as doing 2 things in the control menu, some had key bindings wiped entirely so they don't do anything and others had some but not all of the new defaults.

I'm pretty sure it's a bug, as a few people have suggested. What Anet expected to happen is what's in the patch notes - the changes would only affect new accounts made after the patch - but for some reason however they made the change meant it affected existing accounts as well. 

[Randulf.7614]

If it’s a bug then Anet should have mentioned it yesterday.

What they should have done is just give new players a control map to choose from as default in the tutorial (as many games already do as standard). Forcing a change was always either going to be controversial or break stuff unintentionally.