Guild of dragons, ending support

[Mystflower.7319]

I get it that some people can't afford a new pc, even I struggle with that. My current pc is from early 2016 and currently I'm trying to save up money to be able to buy a new one next year. (Like the put the ten dollar bill in a Jar example a few posts up by Steve the Cynic) Now of course mine doesn't run on windows XP, but say it was, I would understand it if I wasn't able to play the game anymore. Windows XP, Windows 7, are both ancient, no longer supported by windows updates, making them high risk for being hacked and so on. So instead of worrying about not being able to play the game you love anymore I'd more worry about the risk you take each time you go online with a pc that runs on XP. But that's me.
Plus I would want for GW2 to go forwards with its time, like every other game does. It's better for the future of the game (hopefully).

And I am sure, that if you look around there are also shops which sell second hand pc's that aren't the newest but at least upgraded to windows 10 for less money than having to buy a complete new pc. If you truly want something, you can find a way to get it. (legally, no stealing!)

[Sirius.4510]

More technical reasons: the upgrade to DirectX 11 means discontinuing support for platforms that do not support DirectX 11 - XP in particular, and might also apply to Mac (I'm not sure of the exact breaking point for that, there were many).

It's theoretically possible to support both DirectX 11 and 9 (as a fallback), but it would add significant expense, and it would also remove much of the benefit: you can't do new fancy graphics stuff if it only works efficiently on DX11, or the DX9 users will have an unacceptable experience, in which case why are you supporting them anyway? (It's also worth noting that if your computer can run GW2 worth anything, it can run Windows 7 or better already.)

 

The reason for discontinuing 32-bit support is most likely that it is limited to 4 GB of addressable memory, and GW2 is planning to move beyond that. Probably because the game will look more and more dated if they don't.

 

The Mac is a complicated kettle of fish. Apple is kind of coercing developers into using their own graphics APIs on their system, which only makes sense for developers if they have a large customer base on Mac. Unfortunately, in the case of games, this is rarely the case, which makes supporting Mac increasingly not cost effective. ArenaNet is far from the only company to have had problems with this. But it doesn't seem that Apple takes non-casual gaming seriously, so what can you do?

[Bristingr.5034]

7 hours ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

My take-away from this is...people still use XP? 😮

 

Can you blame them? It WAS (still is?) the best Operating System (with 98 as a 2nd place) out there.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Bristingr.5034

[The Greyhawk.9107]

The discontinuing of support for Macs is very old news and as others have pointed out...Entirely Apples Fault.  Anet had no real choice in the matter, unless they wanted to waste time, money, and effort on remaking the engine to fit Apples latest horse kitten.

Edited July 28, 2021 by The Greyhawk.9107

[Arheundel.6451]

9 hours ago, Sugerrion.9724 said:

Steve let's dial the clock back a while shall we?  Just because some of us can afford to buy new machines, and upgrade from one system to the next. Does not.  Apply to every last human on the planet we call Earth.   Telling someone to just let go might not be so very simple for some people to do. Especially if they have no other options.  Oh and I notice you didn't once mention anything about Macintosh either.   It won't always be so simple as to just "let go"  Consider how you'd feel if you couldn't possibly manage to keep up with every console, or every system that is made. Now add to that how you'd feel if you didn't use a windows machine whatsoever.   

 

 

You can get a win 7 key for less than 10$, if you have a computer already and a copy of gw2, you should be more than ready to upgrade 

[The Greyhawk.9107]

This is like being upset that you can't run WoW on Windows 98 anymore.....

[Goettel.4389]

Couldn't resist ; - )

 

 

As for XP support: not sure what to tell ya...

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Goettel.4389

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

10 hours ago, Sugerrion.9724 said:

Steve let's dial the clock back a while shall we?  Just because some of us can afford to buy new machines, and upgrade from one system to the next. Does not.  Apply to every last human on the planet we call Earth.   Telling someone to just let go might not be so very simple for some people to do. Especially if they have no other options.  Oh and I notice you didn't once mention anything about Macintosh either.   It won't always be so simple as to just "let go"  Consider how you'd feel if you couldn't possibly manage to keep up with every console, or every system that is made. Now add to that how you'd feel if you didn't use a windows machine whatsoever.   

 

 

Pretty sure there are $400 win 10 machines out there t hat will run GW2 just fine.  Cost of a new game console, basically.  If you can't afford to have upgraded your OS in the past 14 years, why are you sitting here playing a game?  Get your life in order.

[Arnox.5128]

Ok... I think OP has received enough of a verbal beating and I want to say a few things in his defense. Well, mostly in his defense as some of the things I'm going to bring up don't technically apply to him.

 

1. For old computers, it's no wonder some people want really bad to stick to XP. It really was one of the absolute best Windows OSes ever made. Absolutely ****ing legendary in how little resources it needed to run. (Just to give everyone an idea, you could theoretically run XP on a 233 MHz CPU with 32 MB of RAM. I mean... It wouldn't be a very enjoyable experience at all, but you could do it.) And XP did it all while providing all the features one would need out of an OS.

 

2. Some people here are crapping on Windows somewhat, saying Windows was never the top OS. Sorry, man. As a Linux fan, that's bull****. And ESPECIALLY in the XP days. Linux was riddled back then with compatibility issues. (It's SO MUCH BETTER now, but regardless, that's how it was at the time.) MacOS was too restrictive and wasn't (and still isn't, lol) good for gaming anyway. So yeah, back in the day, Windows really WAS the top OS.

 

3. If ANet was talking about dropping Windows 7/8.1 support, I would be right there with OP, decrying the dumping of support for it. I run one laptop with Windows 7 and a workstation with a modified Windows 8.1. (The mod removes all the touchscreen nonsense of 8.1 and makes it look actually pretty again.) Windows 10 can go suck a d*** and I push back against any attempt to force people onto it, and I say that with very good reasons and as a former Windows fan.

 

-

 

Now... With ALL that said, I'm sorry OP, but XP really is too old. But don't worry! Linux is your OS. It's super easy to install and to run nowadays. And unlike Windows ****ing 10, it runs great. It supports DX11 games really d*** well and is just generally a great OS now for pretty much any system, old or new. I would personally recommend Manjaro or PopOS. Or, if you're a somewhat experienced computer user, MX Linux.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Arnox.5128

[Ecinor.7658]

I get their side of it. Apple completely changed their underlying OS again forcing them to re-write the client to support ARM and Metal. The vast majority of Macs have built-in graphics (no geforce/radeon) and the game didn't run good when I had my mac a few years ago. I imagine with them wanting to upgrade the graphics things would only get worse. I can't imagine the number of mac users warrants the effort in doing all that work.

 

 

[Dib.4612]

I'm sorry to say but windows XP is super unsafe at this point and is ANCIENT. And any PC still running it can probably only run this game at 5fps. It's 2021, time to upgrade.

[Maikimaik.1974]

13 hours ago, Sugerrion.9724 said:

All I'm saying here is.  Not everyone has the same kind of choices, or can afford to upgrade.  Some people depend on what little they get, to survive.  They might have enough to say, pay for internet, but let's face it. Most computers today are modestly expensive, even if you build your own you're still looking at a rather good chunk of change.   Even if windows itself said hey we're upgrading to windows 11, which by the way they are saying such a thing,

 

Doesn't mean that other people out there, can afford the next thing that comes after xp, or after windows 7, or after a switch.  In the long run. The companies will make the money, but those who can't work, those who can't make any sort of living, those who say might have it harder than what we can imagine, they are the ones who get left behind.   And its important for this community to understand that

 

Announcements like this one, DO, end up hurting some of the customers that have spent years with this company.

You can buy a windows 10 license for less than 5 dollars. If your computer is able to run Gw2, it will be able to run windows 10, I'm sure. 

[Arewn.2368]

Hardware and software have life cycles. Windows XP itself stopped being supported by MS years ago. And 32 bit operating systems are incredibly antiquated. 

You can't just keep letting dead operating systems hold your product back in the name of support. You have to upgrade eventually, and this is long past due.

 

I can't keep playing modern games on my GameCube or original Xbox. That would clearly be ridiculous. So why would you expect to play on a winXP computer?

 

As far as MAC goes, you can blame that one on Apple for dropping support of openGL.

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

Personally I'm still heartbroken that they don't support Windows 3.1. What about the 0.000001% of people who, like me, can't afford to upgrade to some newfangled fancy-pants 64-bit operating system?

[Dante.1763]

1 minute ago, Elricht Kaltwind.8796 said:

Personally I'm still heartbroken that they don't support Windows 3.1. What about the 0.000001% of people who, like me, can't afford to upgrade to some newfangled fancy-pants 64-bit operating system?

Sensible Chuckle.

[Xanadrine.4352]

Not for nothing here but xp is literally a dino. Look I get it xp was prob the best version of windows ever, I used it when i started playing wow. But its dead jim, you have to let go. They ended support for that thing ages ago, its a security risk as well as a albatross. win 7 is the same, time to let go. I hated having to let go of 7 for 10, but now im used to it.

[ArchonWing.9480]

Btw, the only reason to run 32-bit is if you have less than 4 gb of ram. Considering even web browsers take up so much, it's not a good idea to have so little.

 

I would know because up until 2017 I had 2 gb of ram lol. Gotta hand it to them; this game didn't even crash (much) when I recorded xD except in SMC large fights. However, HoT was too much for it. It died on the Desert Borderlands.

 

I mean, it's the same thing with stuff for other household items you come in contact with. You're spending  years interacting with these things. What % of your life will be interacting with a computer, especially if you're playing this game? How much time do you waste, waiting for it to do something?

 

This isn't about upgrading to be trendy. It's not even about having the best or fancy stuff. But being too cheap has a cost too, and it's much more insidious. And given the nature of web security, it's downright dangerous and irresponsible.

 

You're going to have to pay the cost, either way. You can spend 35/month for 6 months to get a low-end but definitely functional computer with Windows 10 (Pro even!) . Or do you want to pay when your computer inevitably breaks down, leading to you being cut off from the internet while you scramble to pick up whatever? Did you backup everything too? Will you have the time to find a good deal or are you going to be forced to grab whatever thing you can. And if you don't have the know-how to tell what's good and what's bad, you're going to be ending up here again.... a lot.

Edited July 28, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[decease.3215]

Yea they should turn back to support window 95 and dos user!🤣