When a game enters STEAM after a few years...

[Daishi.6027]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@"Daishi.6027" said:I find it funny.Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

Your 2/3 are based on game modes though, not on player activity. If we went by player activity, Spvp and WvW would not even make up 1/10th of what players engage with in this game.

As such, even "if" only some players get sucked into PvE, that would be a benefit to the game.

I do not disagree that Spvp and WvW (a bit less) are not in good spots, and I'd love to see some additional dev attention for the modes, but as far as the game overall is concerned, if the devs were to remove Spvp tomorrow, literally no one would care.

Which is fair. If we reallly want to get into it even among the PvE players, most don't raid and fractal either, and despite all the people who do open world content the vast majority of our player base afks in town and treats the game like a chat room.... Or spend their day complain about other people with skysclaes.

But that isn't an excuse for poorly designed systems, and people are going to notice that. All while competing in the same space with things like PSO2 which arguably do the whole casual 'hang out and life sim stuff' better by offering more tools and customizable personalized spaces. Or FFXIV (which unfortunately is a sub, but I think they doing to lv60 free now?) which arguably does story better. But that's really neither here nor there.

I don't think going to steam is a bad move in any respect. And ya, it might get them a good chunk of money. But my point in saying what I did is that it's literally delaying the inevitable if they don't fix the core foundations of the game, and it's not like those 2/3rds aren't heavily pushed as big selling points of the game. So, what happens when the well runs dry on Steam? Go to Epic?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the best way to compete is to have a superior product. Yet here we are 8 years later with the same problems in the same 2/3rds just with different faces of the same core issues. But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be. Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be far more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.

Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

[battledrone.8315]

@"Konrad Curze.5130" said:Its ANet being scared of WoW, nothing more, nothing less

we got an expac announcement so people are somewhat hyped now. but the expac is a good year away from happening.and up until last week people were pretty down on the saga thingy and the pace and depth of new content and playerbase numbers were hurting bad.

in a few months when the announcement is old news and the distraction is spent everyone will be back to complaining about "expac level features" and lack of content.and by the end of october WoW will release a new expac and as its typical sweep a huge chunk of the casual playerbase that is here.

going to steam and ensuring a large flow of fresh blood with money might let them weather the bad times ahead until the expac hits.

wow isnt casual anymore, far from it. it is super slow and grindy, and the combat is awful now. and given where they took the story,that wont sell either.steam will give them a CHANCE to get more business. but without streamlining the game, i doubt that they will get muchthe end part of core is still atrocious. it wont motivate many players to pay for the next part

[Pifil.5193]

@Randulf.7614 said:Do people sit around their house thinking up new ways to put down the game and claim it is dying?

To be honest, I don't think many of them put any real thought into it at all. More often they put some random thoughts into a forum post and claim its dying.

For example, there aren't enough red dyes in the game, GW2 is dying!

[Scavarius.6059]

@"RedBaron.6058" said:...usually means that it is unable of getting new players by itself and accepts sharing part of its meagre revenue with the gaming platform trying to remain alive. An old game getting into STEAM is usually the beginning of the end...

Thanks and best regards.

didnt we already have our weekly "the game is deeEeed" thread?gw1 and it's expansions are also on steam and are still played by a lot, but what do i know :Vif, for the highly unlikely event, you're quitting, i'll take around 70 mcoins pls

[Vancho.8750]

Pretty sure Arenanet just started doing by the book default marketing with all the basic stuff, getting on steam check, getting on the bigger game news platforms check, kinda doing the Twitch thing check. For some reason the basic marketing works way better then all of other things they tried over the years, maybe the whole word of mouth thing would have worked better if they did the basic shit earlier.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@Randulf.7614 said:Do people sit around their house thinking up new ways to put down the game and claim it is dying?

I mean even if the thread was correct (and we know it isn’t), so what? What does anyone gain by making such a statement?

Most people tend to think that their opinions are correct. Couple that with the very common tendency of people to express those opinion. Sometimes, we do so with the hope of building agreement. Other times, it's just because the experience of being heard -- and maybe heeded -- is so intoxicating. So, there's a lot of emotional payoff.

[lare.5129]

I don't know what it is "steam" before that anonce, now I have non solid understanding, some service, like any other site ..So for me message look like "now you can buy GW2 and on site blabla.com" ...Don't see some big magic or changes for that

[Randulf.7614]

@"lare.5129" said:I don't know what it is "steam" before that anonce, now I have non solid understanding, some service, like any other site ..So for me message look like "now you can buy GW2 and on site blabla.com" ...Don't see some big magic or changes for that

Steam is the largest gaming platform in the World - it hads over 90 million active users as of 2019. During lockdown in March, it reported 20 million concurrent users.

That is not like any other site. Steam - for better or worse - is extremely popular with tens of thousands of games available on the platform and has proven vitally important to sustaining wider PC game sales, especially indy games

[Scoobaniec.9561]

Going on steam means the game is dying and is not attracting many new players who are willing to stay. Theres only so much you can do pve and with the "balance team" killing off spvp/wvw... it is what it is i suppose

[lare.5129]

@"Randulf.7614" said:Steam is the largest gaming platform in the World - it hads over 90 million active users as of 2019.I don't trust statistics.

That is not like any other site. Steam - for better or worse - is extremely popular with tens of thousands of gamesthere is no "thousands of games". There is 10-20 games. Others is one day game.

indy gameswho worried about then? not me

[Firebeard.1746]

@RedBaron.6058 said:...usually means that it is unable of getting new players by itself and accepts sharing part of its meagre revenue with the gaming platform trying to remain alive. An old game getting into STEAM is usually the beginning of the end...

Thanks and best regards.

O so ffxiv should be dead then?

[Downstate.4697]

@"Scoobaniec.9561" said:Going on steam means the game is dying and is not attracting many new players who are willing to stay. Theres only so much you can do pve and with the "balance team" killing off spvp/wvw... it is what it is i suppose

If you take time to research you will find this isnt true. The game has sustained the same income for the last 2 years and is on the rise. Spvp and wvw problem is veterans quit the game leaving other veterans of the game mode a false belief of an inactive game, when really its just an inactive community. The numbers are half to 6 years ago though. Heart of Thorns saw the largest dip in player population while Path of Fire saw the largest rise. The numbers fluctuate and its directly related to new content

[Scoobaniec.9561]

@FrownyClown.8402 said:

@"Scoobaniec.9561" said:Going on steam means the game is dying and is not attracting many new players who are willing to stay. Theres only so much you can do pve and with the "balance team" killing off spvp/wvw... it is what it is i suppose

If you take time to research you will find this isnt true. The game has sustained the same income for the last 2 years and is on the rise. Spvp and wvw problem is veterans quit the game leaving other veterans of the game mode a false belief of an inactive game, when really its just an inactive community. The numbers are half to 6 years ago though. Heart of Thorns saw the largest dip in player population while Path of Fire saw the largest rise. The numbers fluctuate and its directly related to new content

I did and they were in decline all the way until recent Q2 report due to corona. If the game was doing fine they wouldnt decide to put it on steam after 8years

[Teratus.2859]

Last I bothered to check steam had something like 75% of the gaming market on PC.. so yeah putting games on steam = game dead right? lol

That's such a silly argument, specially when so many other successful MMO's and even a bunch of failed ones are still alive and active on the platform.Steam doesn't = dead game.Steam = more players.

[waxx.3619]

lol what ? the 2nd most popular MMO if not no.1 is on STEAM ( FFXIV ) and only getting bigger. SWTOR boasting 12k+ concurrent players almost always since steam which was a game that went f2p after a year of release.

[zamo.7089]

With the exception of WoW and maybe Lineage2 pretty much all "big" (well known) MMO's are on Steam. Also as a kinda newish player, I see more people when playing this game then I did in ESO, and ESO's population is healthy (and on Steam).

[Dante.1508]

@RedBaron.6058 said:...usually means that it is unable of getting new players by itself and accepts sharing part of its meagre revenue with the gaming platform trying to remain alive. An old game getting into STEAM is usually the beginning of the end...

Thanks and best regards.

While some mmorpgs (very few) have done very well if added right, most i agree have done terribly and with GW2 excluding existing accounts i feel GW2 will join the later sadly.What a lot of people don't understand is the Steam 30% goes down if a game does very well, big AAA games do not get charged 30% on steam.

@lare.5129 said:

@"Randulf.7614" said:Steam is the largest gaming platform in the World - it hads over 90 million active users as of 2019.I don't trust statistics.

That is not like any other site. Steam - for better or worse - is extremely popular with tens of thousands of gamesthere is no "thousands of games". There is 10-20 games. Others is one day game.

indy gameswho worried about then? not me

You seem very very out of sync with gaming.

[Vayne.8563]

@"Daishi.6027" said:I find it funny.Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

[battledrone.8315]

@Scoobaniec.9561 said:

@FrownyClown.8402 said:

@Scoobaniec.9561 said:Going on steam means the game is dying and is not attracting many new players who are willing to stay. Theres only so much you can do pve and with the "balance team" killing off spvp/wvw... it is what it is i suppose

If you take time to research you will find this isnt true. The game has sustained the same income for the last 2 years and is on the rise. Spvp and wvw problem is veterans quit the game leaving other veterans of the game mode a false belief of an inactive game, when really its just an inactive community. The numbers are half to 6 years ago though. Heart of Thorns saw the largest dip in player population while Path of Fire saw the largest rise. The numbers fluctuate and its directly related to new content

I did and they were in decline all the way until recent Q2 report due to corona. If the game was doing fine they wouldnt decide to put it on steam after 8years

this is a common thing with ALL entertainment, the popularity decreases with age.

1. it has been dying since launch day, just as a baby would
2. it isnt dying, because it was never alive in the first place
3. being on steam makes it so much easier to get new people to check it out

[dodgerrule.8739]

They want to increase popularity, allot of game join steam after their release.

[Daishi.6027]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Daishi.6027 said:I find it funny.Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

V

@Daishi.6027 said:But that isn't an excuse for poorly designed systems, and people are going to notice that. All while competing in the same space with things like PSO2 which arguably do the whole casual 'hang out and life sim stuff' better by offering more tools and customizable personalized spaces. Or FFXIV (which unfortunately is a sub, but I think they doing to lv60 free now?) which arguably does story better. But that's really neither here nor there.

I don't think going to steam is a bad move in any respect. And ya, it might get them a good chunk of money. But my point in saying what I did is that it's literally delaying the inevitable if they don't fix the core foundations of the game, and it's not like those 2/3rds aren't heavily pushed as big selling points of the game. So, what happens when the well runs dry on Steam? Go to Epic?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the best way to compete is to have a superior product. Yet here we are 8 years later with the same problems in the same 2/3rds just with different faces of the same core issues. But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be. Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be far more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.

Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

Even then, when was the last time we had a significant update to the systems supporting social afk in town casual playerbase? Wardobe? lol. Arguably mounts maybe?

[Vayne.8563]

@Daishi.6027 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Daishi.6027 said:I find it funny.Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

V

@Daishi.6027 said:But that isn't an excuse for poorly designed systems, and people are going to notice that. All while competing in the same space with things like PSO2 which

arguably

do the whole casual 'hang out and life sim stuff' better by offering more tools and customizable personalized spaces. Or FFXIV (which unfortunately is a sub, but I think they doing to lv60 free now?) which

arguably

does story better. But that's really neither here nor there.

I don't think going to steam is a bad move in any respect. And ya, it might get them a good chunk of money. But my point in saying what I did is that it's literally delaying the inevitable if they don't fix the core foundations of the game, and it's not like those 2/3rds aren't heavily pushed as big selling points of the game. So, what happens when the well runs dry on Steam? Go to Epic?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the best way to compete is to have a superior product. Yet here we are 8 years later with the same problems in the same 2/3rds just with different faces of the same core issues. But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be. Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be

far

more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.

Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

Even then, when was the last time we had a significant update to the systems supporting social afk in town casual playerbase? Wardobe? lol. Arguably mounts maybe?

Let's see. Take a quote from a guy answering one specific point and add to it a complete point someone was making. Try to make these things seem equally weighted. Profit.

Let's take a look at the casual audience. In this game I unlock skins globally. I buy an outfit, not like BDO where it's locked to one character, but it's unlocked on all my characters. Every skin that comes out in a chance for more fashion wars, and there's plenty of fashion wars. Those new festival weapons look mighty nice. Mount racing is fun for a lot of people, and I'm not thinking it's just casual people. Taking your skimmer underwater should be fun for casual players who just want another way to run around Lion's Arch. Arguably this game is totally pro casual, not pro hard core. So the harder core community (hard raiders, hard core WvWers, hard core PvPers) all have reason for complaint. Everyone one of them.

But I'm casual and enjoy going into WvW sometimes. I enjoy PvP less, but it's okay sometimes. However the biggest part of the game is designed for me. Every dye I get is unlocked account wide. Every skin I get is unlocked account wide. Want to farm transmutation charges, keep a character slot for black lion key farms (casual enough for most people) and in between use it to complete the five cities.

There are plenty of mini games in this game for casual people to play. Plenty of gathering and mats are a way to get things done. Want BIS gear, craft it, as a casual.

And when my casual player makes an alt, there's no better game for alts in existence, because all my mounts and gliding are unlocked as soon as I get out of the tutorial. The truth is, there's an audience support by this game and it's the casual audience. Virtually every festival has stuff for you to slowly work on. Virtually every story has a reward that you can slowly chug away on and get some skin or lately even emote. And if you're just standing around in LA and just logging in, you get laurels to buy ascended rings and amulets, even accessories if you feel like doing world bosses and salvage your rares for ectos.

The guy that hang around in Lion's Arch aren't playing the game, but the game still has plenty for them to do. However, for the casual player, who can literally go anywhere in the world and do events, get experience and karma at level, play with their friends of any level, stand around and rez people at events and get full credit...this is the game for that crowd. And yeah, I believe that crowd is bigger than the top 5%, almost by definition.

[miraude.2107]

@RedBaron.6058 said:...usually means that it is unable of getting new players by itself and accepts sharing part of its meagre revenue with the gaming platform trying to remain alive. An old game getting into STEAM is usually the beginning of the end...

Thanks and best regards.

Looks at ESO, Fallout 76, Destiny 2, Warframe, Path of Exile, FF14 Huh. So....can I have your stuff?

[Daishi.6027]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Daishi.6027 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Daishi.6027 said:I find it funny.Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

V

@Daishi.6027 said:But that isn't an excuse for poorly designed systems, and people are going to notice that. All while competing in the same space with things like PSO2 which

arguably

do the whole casual 'hang out and life sim stuff' better by offering more tools and customizable personalized spaces. Or FFXIV (which unfortunately is a sub, but I think they doing to lv60 free now?) which

arguably

does story better. But that's really neither here nor there.

I don't think going to steam is a bad move in any respect. And ya, it might get them a good chunk of money. But my point in saying what I did is that it's literally delaying the inevitable if they don't fix the core foundations of the game, and it's not like those 2/3rds aren't heavily pushed as big selling points of the game. So, what happens when the well runs dry on Steam? Go to Epic?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the best way to compete is to have a superior product. Yet here we are 8 years later with the same problems in the same 2/3rds just with different faces of the same core issues. But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be. Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be

far

more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.

Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

Even then, when was the last time we had a significant update to the systems supporting social afk in town casual playerbase? Wardobe? lol. Arguably mounts maybe?

Let's see.

Take a quote from a guy

answering one specific point and add to it a complete point someone was making. Try to make these things seem equally weighted. Profit.

Your point was literally the exact same point just said a different way. So it warranted the same response.(bold: Also I'm quoting myself, not "from a guy" like as if I picked a rando's point to respond to you.)

Let's take a look at the casual audience. In this game I unlock skins globally. I buy an outfit, not like BDO where it's locked to one character, but it's unlocked on all my characters. Every skin that comes out in a chance for more fashion wars, and there's plenty of fashion wars. Those new festival weapons look mighty nice. Mount racing is fun for a lot of people, and I'm not thinking it's just casual people. Taking your skimmer underwater should be fun for casual players who just want another way to run around Lion's Arch. Arguably this game is totally pro casual, not pro hard core. So the harder core community (hard raiders, hard core WvWers, hard core PvPers) all have reason for complaint. Everyone one of them.

All of those are additions to already existing systems, proving my point. It's been a long time since had a substantial update or new addition to our casual systems since wardrobe prior, and mounts, and here you are saying "We unlock things across accounts!, and new mount feature"<- which is literally the wardrobe and mount system. Wouldn't it be nice going into a new platform if we had new systems that enhanced the experience in some way, if not for the adept players then something for the casuals, in an attempt to retain players?

Because that's my big point. For all your huffing about what we have, the game still bleeds money and fails to retain it's whales. Steam is a boost but if A-net is struggling with finances now, this only delays the inevitable. But, lets see if you address that at all:

But I'm casual and enjoy going into WvW sometimes. I enjoy PvP less, but it's okay sometimes. However the biggest part of the game is designed for me. Every dye I get is unlocked account wide. Every skin I get is unlocked account wide. Want to farm transmutation charges, keep a character slot for black lion key farms (casual enough for most people) and in between use it to complete the five cities.

More about the wardrobe, and you can farm loot boxes; but okay.

There are plenty of mini games in this game for casual people to play. Plenty of gathering and mats are a way to get things done. Want BIS gear, craft it, as a casual.

This is a fair point, to bad a lot of the mini games are barren. I'd argue going for BIS is more of a hardcore thing, exotics do the job for pretty much all content except for agony resist; but okay?

And when my casual player makes an alt, there's no better game for alts in existence, because all my mounts and gliding are unlocked as soon as I get out of the tutorial. The truth is, there's an audience support by this game and it's the casual audience. Virtually every festival has stuff for you to slowly work on. Virtually every story has a reward that you can slowly chug away on and get some skin or lately even emote. And if you're just standing around in LA and just logging in, you get laurels to buy ascended rings and amulets, even accessories if you feel like doing world bosses and salvage your rares for ectos.

The guy that hang around in Lion's Arch aren't playing the game, but the game still has plenty for them to do. However, for the casual player, who can literally go anywhere in the world and do events, get experience and karma at level, play with their friends of any level, stand around and rez people at events and get full credit...this is the game for that crowd. And yeah, I believe that crowd is bigger than the top 5%, almost by definition.

Okay cool, but That still doesn't resolve GW2's issue with retaining players (and particularly whales), and despite hyping that all up A-net STILL has been struggling for years now, even after going F2P on core. Where alternatively there have been several times through GW2's history where there would be a major exodus of active players; So to quote myself again:

@Daishi.6027 said:But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be.(This is me agreeing with the 2/3rds point I was responding to just in case you glossed over that ^)Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be far more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.And that can be either casual or hardcore systems. but either way:Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

and apologies for this slight strawman, but to reiterate this point, were: "Oh boy! We have account wide unlocks, and minigames, and we sometimes add new mount skills, and it's a great place to have alts, and you can get BIS gear without even trying!" enough, A-net wouldn't be trying to mine steam for whales.

[keenedge.9675]

@Daishi.6027 said:. . . Wouldn't it be nice going into a new platform if we had new systems that enhanced the experience in some way, if not for the adept players then something for the casuals, in an attempt to retain players?

Adding the game to Steam does NOTHING for existing players since they can't use an existing account with Steam.

Steam is just a fanfare move to draw in the last few who haven't bothered to try GW2 yet.