ArenaNet

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ArenaNet (colloquially ANet or Anet) is the development studio that makes Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. They are located in Bellevue, Washington, USA, and their stated mission is to "create a state-of-the-art, interactive game network and design premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players." The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Korean company NCsoft, publishers of other MMORPGs such as Lineage 2, Blade & Soul and WildStar.

History[edit]

ArenaNet was founded in spring 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. All three founders came from Blizzard Entertainment and were previously involved in the development of multiplayer online games such as Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, World of Warcraft and the Battle.net gaming network. The newly-formed business was originally called "Triforge", but was changed to "ArenaNet" shortly after; it was acquired in 2002 by NCsoft.

ArenaNet is the developer of the Guild Wars trilogy: Guild Wars: Prophecies (2005), Guild Wars: Factions (2006), and Guild Wars: Nightfall (2006), as well as the Guild Wars: Eye of the North (2007) expansion pack. After the announcement and subsequent release of Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet ceased development of expansion packs or standalone sequels for Guild Wars, but has continued to support the game. Since 2013, ArenaNet transitioned to automated maintenance and support of Guild Wars.[1]

ArenaNet is currently focused on the development and support of Guild Wars 2, which was announced in 2007 and released in August 2012. Since the game's release, ArenaNet has continued to develop new content and features in the form of the Living World and Feature Packs and Releases, with content released for free to owners of the game. The studio announced Guild Wars 2's first paid expansion, Heart of Thorns, at PAX South in January 2015, and released the expansion on October 23, 2015. A second expansion titled Path of Fire was released on September 22, 2017, with a third, End of Dragons, was released on February 28, 2022.

ArenaNet guild[edit]

An ArenaNet employee's pet sporting the ArenaNet guild tag.

Some ArenaNet employees are members of a guild named "ArenaNet" with a unique graphical guild tag that is a stylized version of the studio logo. As with any guild, the guild name and tag are only visible while an employee is representing the ArenaNet guild. Many ArenaNet employees who are active players primarily play with their ArenaNet tag off and are members of other guilds.

The Guild Wars 2 Support Team, some of which are also known as "game masters" or "GMs," are a subset of ArenaNet employees who are responsible for providing in-game customer service and enforcing the Guild Wars 2 Code of Conduct.[2]

List of ArenaNet staff[edit]

Out of date This article or section contains information about Guild Wars 2 which is known (or is likely) to be out of date.
Please read this information with caution and update it with current information if you can.

Over the years, ArenaNet has grown to ~350 employees. Two of the three founders left the company in 2008, but Mike O'Brien headed it as the president for over 19 years until he left in September 2019. A list of the ArenaNet team can be found in the game credits, though there have been changes over time.

Analytics[edit]

Animators[edit]

Artists[edit]

Audio/Sound Team[edit]

Community/Marketing[edit]

Designers[edit]

Localization[edit]

Management[edit]

Production Team[edit]

Programmers[edit]

Security Team[edit]

Support[edit]

Quality Assurance[edit]

Narrative[edit]

Former staff[edit]

Related achievements[edit]

Notes[edit]

  • Although ArenaNet hosts the wiki, ArenaNet employees that contribute to this or the Guild Wars Wiki do so as ordinary users, sometimes providing detailed renders, answering player questions and listening to player feedback.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ ArenaNet ceases Guild Wars 1 live development, automates game | Massively
  2. ^ GM Talon, Guild Wars 2 forums
  3. ^ a b ArenaNet Studio Update - July 2021
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