YES you CAN link your ANET account to Steam. And it's really easy.

[radumitrescu.3821]

I'm surprised a lot of people still don't know this.

So here. Right click Guild Wars in your Steam library, choose Properties and in the launch options enter "-provider Portal". No quotes, capital P. And that's it, now you will be able to play on Steam with your existing ANET account.

DO KEEP IN MIND, however, that any expansions you purchase, you must get them from the website and not from the Steam Store.

Edited September 6, 2022 by radumitrescu.3821

[Andur.9275]

The thing I never understood is: why would I want to link GW2 to steam? Are there any advantages like tradable achievements and collectibles? Or is there another reason to use a third party launcher?

[Crono.4197]

3 minutes ago, Andur.9275 said:

The thing I never understood is: why would I want to link GW2 to steam? Are there any advantages like tradable achievements and collectibles? Or is there another reason to use a third party launcher?

Same, I fail to understand why people think the game is "unplayable" if you don't have it on Steam and make such a big drama out of it.

[Andur.9275]

Exactly, whenever I open up steam (approx. twice a week) there are annoying ads and updates I have to deal with and I don't really like the UI of the launcher. So why would I want to go through that hassle addionally to the original launcher? I'm seriously curious.

[Zebulous.2934]

Perhaps they want cred when they post on steam forums. They may not get taken seriously if they make a post and their steam profile says that they don't even own the game. Idk.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

I hate having to start Steam to play any game and honestly, I don't understand all the fuss about GW2 being on Steam.

[Andur.9275]

As you might have noticed (😅) I dislike the Steam launcher as well, but can anyone using it for GW2 answer what the advantage could be?  Will the steam launcher override the ANet launcher or is the main reason just to have everything in one launcher? If the latter, how do you handle games connected to other launchers like gog, blizzard, epic, the ms xbox-thingy, etc? Can they all be integrated?

[Khisanth.2948]

4 hours ago, Andur.9275 said:

As you might have noticed (😅) I dislike the Steam launcher as well, but can anyone using it for GW2 answer what the advantage could be?  Will the steam launcher override the ANet launcher or is the main reason just to have everything in one launcher? If the latter, how do you handle games connected to other launchers like gog, blizzard, epic, the ms xbox-thingy, etc? Can they all be integrated?

Some people also care about showing off their play time of a particular game in their Steam profile for some reason.

Then there are the Gaben worshipers ...

[Farohna.6247]

I've read people say they like to see all their games together in one place.  🙄.  I really don't see the hype or interest, or that some refuse to play a game unless it's on Steam.

Thanks for the info though OP as it's a frequent question lately.

 

[radumitrescu.3821]

I don't know about other people, bu I can tell you why Steam is important to me.

I've had this account since 2013. I used to play a lot. I played the betas (on yet another, different, account). I took time off work for the launch of GW2. But then, soon after, around 2014, I stopped playing altogether.

Every now and then, years after, I would get nostalgic about GW2 and feel like playing it again. But you see, I'm using Linux now, and have been for a good few years now. And GW2 with Lutris is hit and miss at most, mostly miss on my system. However, GW2 on Steam via Proton is just flawless. I even feel like it runs better than it does on Windows on the same hardware.

So for me it's important to be able to use my ten year old account, on my six year old laptop, on Linux, with Steam.

Edited September 6, 2022 by radumitrescu.3821

[Andur.9275]

Oh, sure, thanks for the input. I totally forgot the... erm, social aspect of comparing and displaying achievements to friends or even a wider audience. That's not my cup of tea, but could be important to many people I suppose.

And beeing able to run GW on Linux is a pretty specific but also a very relatable reason. 😊

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, radumitrescu.3821 said:

I don't know about other people, bu I can tell you why Steam is important to me.

I've had this account since 2013. I used to play a lot. I played the betas (on yet another, different, account). I took time off work for the launch of GW2. But then, soon after, around 2014, I stopped playing altogether.

Every now and then, years after, I would get nostalgic about GW2 and feel like playing it again. But you see, I'm using Linux now, and have been for a good few years now. And GW2 with Lutris is hit and miss at most, mostly miss on my system. However, GW2 on Steam via Proton is just flawless. I even feel like it runs better than it does on Windows on the same hardware.

So for me it's important to be able to use my ten year old account, on my six year old laptop, on Linux, with Steam.

Thanks for an actual reason why it might be used, interesting to note.  

[Andur.9275]

Oh, and what Farohna said: thanks for sharing the info OP.

I didn't want to distract from the topic, but I just was curious why someone would want to use steam instead of the original launcher.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Andur.9275
edit: typo

[gateless gate.8406]

1. Easy Linux support

2. Playtime tracking

3. Keeping games in one place

4. Easy in-game chatting with Steam friends

5. Using SteamDeck for portable play

6. Wanting to support Steam

7. Wanting to support consumer choice

8. Achievement tracking/displaying

 

I'm sure there are a few more reasons, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Btw, I can confirm that using the -portal Provider workaround DOES allow Steam's Linux play for non-Steam GW2 accounts.

Edited September 6, 2022 by gateless gate.8406

[Ashantara.8731]

13 hours ago, radumitrescu.3821 said:

I'm surprised a lot of people still don't know this.

So here. Right click Guild Wars in your Steam library, choose Properties and in the launch options enter "-provider Portal". No quotes, capital P. And that's it, now you will be able to play on Steam with your existing ANET account.

That still won't turn it into a Steam account.

13 hours ago, radumitrescu.3821 said:

DO KEEP IN MIND, however, that any expansions you purchase, you must get them from the website and not from the Steam Store.

Exactly. So, what's the point?

Totally useless "advice."

[gateless gate.8406]

46 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

That still won't turn it into a Steam account.

Exactly. So, what's the point?

Totally useless "advice."

 

Read my post.

[DexterousGecko.6328]

No you CANNOT link your guild wars 2 account to your Steam account. You can open guild wars 2 IN Steam however. Stop spreading misinformation.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Why would players want to support Valve instead of ArenaNet? 

[gateless gate.8406]

3 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Why would players want to support Valve instead of ArenaNet? 

 

There's definitely a direct, obvious answer to that question, but you should know that playing/purchasing via Steam supports both.

[DaFishBob.6518]

5 hours ago, gateless gate.8406 said:

1. Easy Linux support

2. Playtime tracking

3. Keeping games in one place

4. Easy in-game chatting with Steam friends

5. Using SteamDeck for portable play

6. Wanting to support Steam

7. Wanting to support consumer choice

8. Achievement tracking/displaying

 

I'm sure there are a few more reasons, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Btw, I can confirm that using the -portal Provider workaround DOES allow Steam's Linux play for non-Steam GW2 accounts.

Well you still won't be supporting Steam this way since you don't purchase anything via Steam but that Linux support thing is surprising to read. I thought the client download from Steam was identical to the client download from this site, opening the launcher straight out of the Steam directory will make it act exactly like the launcher downloaded from here. Actually, I think my computer gave up using the client download I had and is now updating the one I got off Steam.

I'll admit that if this turns out to be a better way for Linux users to play, then it is worth downloading the client off Steam.

[Dualumina.1760]

Can anyone confirm if there are Steam achievements for GW2? It's not overtly clear on the Steam page and I'd really rather not got through the trouble of downloading a second version of GW2 onto my computer just to discover there isn't any.

Currently using Windows so there's no mechanical reason to bother switching to Steam, but if there's a handful of extra achievements exclusively on the Steam version the achievement hunter in me might be tempted to do that lol.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

4 hours ago, gateless gate.8406 said:

 

There's definitely a direct, obvious answer to that question, but you should know that playing/purchasing via Steam supports both.

Not sure how giving Valve 30% of revenue supports both, but...ok. 

[DexterousGecko.6328]

46 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Not sure how giving Valve 30% of revenue supports both, but...ok. 

You're not sure how giving Valve 30% and Anet 70% split of the revenue supports both?

[radumitrescu.3821]

2 hours ago, Dualumina.1760 said:

Can anyone confirm if there are Steam achievements for GW2?

As of yet, there are no Steam achievements.

Edited September 7, 2022 by radumitrescu.3821

[radumitrescu.3821]

What's most surprising, however, is how a lot of people seemed pissed off with the Steam launch, and with me for this "useless advice". It's like it's taking something from them, diminishing their experience somehow... Boggles the mind.

When in reality, the Steam launch has brought many new and returning players to the game. Just take a look at the amount of new content on Youtube.

Edited September 7, 2022 by radumitrescu.3821