Running the game

Hardware specifications

PC

Component	Minimum System Requirements
Operating System	Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Better
Processor	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™64 X2 or better
Memory	2 GB RAM
Hard drive	25 GB available HDD space
Graphics card	NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
Internet connection	Broadband Internet Connection
Input	Keyboard and mouse

Other supported features

• 3D playability
• Multi-monitor support

Mac

Component	Minimum System Requirements
Operating System	Mac OS-X 10.7.X or later
Processor	Intel Core™ i5
Memory	4 GB Ram
Hard drive	25 GB available HDD space
Graphics card	NVIDIA GeForce 320M, ATI Radeon™ HD 6630M, Intel HD 3000 or better
Internet connection	Broadband Internet Connection
Input	Keyboard and mouse/equivalent

Minimum Mac specs

The following examples were published by ArenaNet:

• iMac 21.5", 27" (Mid-2010 or Mid-2011)
• MacBook Pro 15", 17" (Mid-2010)
• MacBook Pro 13", 15", 17" (Early and Late-2011, Mid-2012)
• Mac Mini (Mid-2011)

Game files

The following files are stored in your Guild Wars 2 directory on Windows:

File name	Description	Notes
Gw2.exe	Self patching game launcher	This file is machine independent so can be copied to any computer to run the game. It will download game files to the directory it is currently in.
Gw2.dat	Compressed game data file	Size varies depending on how it is patched as the space it manages can fragment. The current ( 28 December 2012 ) fresh image size is 15.0GB and it contains over 228000 files. This file is machine independent and can be copied between machines.
Local.dat	Local game data file
ArenaNet.log	Crash information file	If the game crashes this file is generated.
Crash.dmp	Crash information file	If the game crashes this file is generated.
Gw2.tmp	A temporary file	Generated during patching.
chrome.log

Other files

• Screenshots are stored in {my documents}/Guild Wars 2.
• The Trading Post uses the awesomonium process.exe. This process starts up after game launch and its proper operation requires the game to be running with admin rights; contact support to troubleshoot issues.

Peripherals

Keyboards

Logitech

• G19 has its own app that shows world completion, zone completion, wvw score, basic stats (power, precision, defense, and health), and the combat log.

Razer

Nostromo

• The Razer Nostromo is a gaming mini-keyboard that is fully programmable. The official Windows drivers can be downloaded here (v2.02) released on 2011/07/21. The official OSX drivers can be downloaded here (v1.0) released on 2011/09/16.
  
• Razer does not provide driver support for Linux; however, 3rd party drivers called jnostromo can be downloaded here (v1.5.2) released on 2012/09/18. The jnostromo web site includes a Guild Wars 2 page for users to share their Guild Wars 2 related profiles.

Installing the game

• Download the launcher from the official site.
• Place the launcher in the directory from where you want to store the game and run it.
• Start the launcher. It will perform any necessary downloads and patching before taking you to a log in screen.
• Log in with your Guild Wars account details.

Command line arguments

Primary article: Command line arguments

These switches can enable a diagnostic mode, specify an authentication server, or change client behavior.

Unsupported systems

Unsupported operating systems

• Wine: Players have successfully reporting using Wine to run the game on both Linux and Mac.

Notes

• The Mac Beta client was first released on September 18, 2012.
  • According to an official press release, ArenaNet worked with "TransGaming, whose Cider technology allows us to mirror the game experience as closely as possible between the PC and Mac." In other words, the game was developed for Windows and ported to Mac, allowing the game to be updated on both platform simultaneously.
  • However, Mac users should expect decreased performance due to the porting process.
• Regardless of where you purchased the game, you can select a world in the North American or European region and guest to any world within the same region, but not across regions.
  • You cannot run the game from certain countries that restrict gaming, such as Iran; you can also expect your account to be blocked if you repeatedly attempt to logon from such countries. Contact support if this happens.