Guild Wars 2 Steam Users Locked Out of Hall of Monuments

[Buzz Bomb.3756]

According to the Guild Wars 2 Steam FAQ:
 

Quote

 

Can I link my Guild Wars 1 account to my Guild Wars 2 Steam account?

No, Guild Wars 1 accounts cannot be linked to a Guild Wars 2 account that was created via Steam. If your Guild Wars 2 account was created via Steam, you will not have the option to link a Guild Wars 1 account within the Account Management page of your ArenaNet account.

However, if you have a Guild Wars 1 account that was created via Steam, you will be able to link it to an existing [non-Steam] Guild Wars 2/ArenaNet account that was created via the Guild Wars 2 website.

 

 

For those who are new & coming into Guild Wars 2 through Steam that have taken an interest in playing the original Guild Wars, the Hall of Monuments & it's rewards are nonsensically locked away. Why? I can't imagine it is too difficult to allow Steam accounts that have both games through Steam to be linked. Or to lift the restriction to Steam Guild Wars 2 accounts.

I would love to play & support both games, but this is just an unnecessary slap in the face. While it may not be the end of the world that one relatively small thing is locked away, If I am going to buy Guild Wars 1, I would like to have access to everything I payed for.

[Astralporing.1957]

3 hours ago, Buzz Bomb.3756 said:

For those who are new & coming into Guild Wars 2 through Steam that have taken an interest in playing the original Guild Wars, the Hall of Monuments & it's rewards are nonsensically locked away. Why? I can't imagine it is too difficult to allow Steam accounts that have both games through Steam to be linked. Or to lift the restriction to Steam Guild Wars 2 accounts.

That might have been true if GW1 actually used steam account - but it does not. All it does is launch the game through steam, and then you have to use Anet account to actually log in.

The original "joining" system works by unifying login data and account for both games to the GW2 version one, but in case of steam version you can't do that, because GW1 has no capacity to use steam login.

Notice, btw, that you can join the steam version of gw1 with non-steam version of GW2. That's because those two use the same login system.

[Khisanth.2948]

6 hours ago, Buzz Bomb.3756 said:

Why? I can't imagine it is too difficult to allow Steam accounts that have both games through Steam to be linked. Or to lift the restriction to Steam Guild Wars 2 accounts.

In the original intent of HoM it was going to be limited to people who bought GW1 before GW2's release.  Might even have required completing it before GW2's release. It was basically a way to keep people engaged with the franchise while waiting for GW2's release. That has an impact on how things get designed and implemented. It is not a restriction. The code to enable it simply doesn't exist. It's like the difference between a stop sign and a non-existent bridge. The sign could be easily adjusted but the bridge would need to be built.

Is it possible to update the code? Of course.

Is it worth the dev resources? Probably not considering the low numbers https://steamcharts.com/app/1284210

[Ashen.2907]

Any time I read that some aspect of development of a video game is a slap in the face I am reminded of a child crying that the other kid's slice of cake has more sprinkles than his.

[Buzz Bomb.3756]

20 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

The original "joining" system works by unifying login data and account for both games to the GW2 version one, but in case of steam version you can't do that, because GW1 has no capacity to use steam login.

If Steam accounts can play with ArenaNet accounts all the same in Guild Wars 2, the data is all in the same place. I still see no reason that it could be that hard to create a simple code handshake between GW1 ArenaNet & Steam accounts. You just change the input from Guild Wars 2 ArenaNet to Steam.

12 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Any time I read that some aspect of development of a video game is a slap in the face I am reminded of a child crying that the other kid's slice of cake has more sprinkles than his.

While my wording could have been better, these are not the same. I just want everyone who plays a game to have access to everything the game has regardless of playing since day one or day ten thousand. Linking accounts is something that can reasonably be done. Fixing sprinkles is not reasonable.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Buzz Bomb.3756

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, Buzz Bomb.3756 said:

If Steam accounts can play with ArenaNet accounts all the same in Guild Wars 2, the data is all in the same place. I still see no reason that it could be that hard to create a simple code handshake between GW1 ArenaNet & Steam accounts. You just change the input from Guild Wars 2 ArenaNet to Steam.

The issue is that there is no handshake at all. No "connection between GW1 and GW2 account" either. Nor does it actually know anywhere what your GW1 accout is. It was coded to use the credentials of the account you are actually logged on to check your GW1 status. The "linking" process is being done completely outside of the game, by changing your GW1 account to use GW2 credentials, which makes the abovementioned process work.

It could be done the same way for steam version, but since there's no steam login for GW1, you would not bee able to log to GW1 after such linking, which is not a good solution.

Could it have been done differently? Sure it could, but it would require writing a piece of code much more complicated than the one we have now, and having the gw1 login data saved somewhere in GW2 account data. How complicated it would be? I have no idea.

Another thing to consider is about how th linking should work. Should it make it avaliable to link GW1 and GW2 only within one platform, or allow for cross-platform linking? If first, how the game could differentiate between steam and non-steam GW1 version? If second, whether there would be any legal issues tied to it?

Again, i have no answer to those questions. Except, i suspect that the issue is not really as simple as you make it to be, because if it was that simple to solve, Anet would probably just have done it already.

[LSD.4673]

The Steam release was a one-trick pony that went nowhere. They pushed it out, it went basically nowhere, amd now it's been left in the dust.

Anet cares about it like they care about every other abandoned game mode and feature.

[Ashen.2907]

8 hours ago, Buzz Bomb.3756 said:

If Steam accounts can play with ArenaNet accounts all the same in Guild Wars 2, the data is all in the same place. I still see no reason that it could be that hard to create a simple code handshake between GW1 ArenaNet & Steam accounts. You just change the input from Guild Wars 2 ArenaNet to Steam.

While my wording could have been better, these are not the same. I just want everyone who plays a game to have access to everything the game has regardless of playing since day one or day ten thousand. Linking accounts is something that can reasonably be done. Fixing sprinkles is not reasonable.

One has to choose to not have access to the HoM. Someone joining the game on day ten thousand can just as readily as someone joining on day one. 

[Buzz Bomb.3756]

21 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

One has to choose to not have access to the HoM. Someone joining the game on day ten thousand can just as readily as someone joining on day one. 

What? How do you choose? Do you research everything about a game before playing it? No one does that. Someone can just as readily do what? If you are going to poke at the way I say things in your first reply, maybe make your second reply actually make sense.

[Buzz Bomb.3756]

On 1/24/2023 at 10:00 AM, Astralporing.1957 said:

The issue is that there is no handshake at all. No "connection between GW1 and GW2 account" either. Nor does it actually know anywhere what your GW1 accout is. It was coded to use the credentials of the account you are actually logged on to check your GW1 status. The "linking" process is being done completely outside of the game, by changing your GW1 account to use GW2 credentials, which makes the abovementioned process work.

It could be done the same way for steam version, but since there's no steam login for GW1, you would not bee able to log to GW1 after such linking, which is not a good solution.

Could it have been done differently? Sure it could, but it would require writing a piece of code much more complicated than the one we have now, and having the gw1 login data saved somewhere in GW2 account data. How complicated it would be? I have no idea.

Another thing to consider is about how th linking should work. Should it make it avaliable to link GW1 and GW2 only within one platform, or allow for cross-platform linking? If first, how the game could differentiate between steam and non-steam GW1 version? If second, whether there would be any legal issues tied to it?

Again, i have no answer to those questions. Except, i suspect that the issue is not really as simple as you make it to be, because if it was that simple to solve, Anet would probably just have done it already.

Thank you for being insightful & explaining this. I wish the information you provided could have been easily available (Perhaps in the Steam FAQ) so I didn't need to ask about it.

Edited January 25, 2023 by Buzz Bomb.3756

[Zebulous.2934]

On 1/24/2023 at 11:17 AM, LSD.4673 said:

The Steam release was a one-trick pony that went nowhere. They pushed it out, it went basically nowhere, amd now it's been left in the dust.

Anet cares about it like they care about every other abandoned game mode and feature.

I am not sure the steam release was a "one trick pony that went nowhere."  I have met entirely new groups of regulars in the hub areas since the steam release.  Groups of people, not just one or two, who simply weren't there before.   It is interesting to see new folk become regulars at my favorite idle chatter spots.
The forums are also much more active.