Colin Johanson Leaving ArenaNet

SBFord

Colin Johanson Leaving ArenaNet

In an announcement sure to surprise most in the Guild Wars 2 community, ArenaNet's Colin Johanson has announced that he is leaving his position as Game Director and the company itself. Mike O'Brien posted the news on the Guild Wars 2 Reddit and will be on hand for an 'ask me anything' event that has just started.

Read the full story here

mastersam21

Wondering where Colin is going next? Amazon maybe?

maskedweasel

Really strange how many have left... but yeah, amazon... I'm really interested to see what they're cooking.

Grakulen

Amazon: Build an engine and they will come.

Engine's built. People are going!

mnemic666

Honestly, they avoided this with the core game launch but this feels similar to the post-launch departures of senior staff at BioWare/ZMO etc. after those games underperformed. Definitely lends credibility to HoT underperforming and a lot of staff looking to bail before anything potentially gets rough : /

EagleDelta2

maskedweasel said:

Really strange how many have left... but yeah, amazon... I'm really interested to see what they're cooking.

Colin wouldn't discuss it in detail, but he did say in the AMA that he is leaving to be closer to family and to allow his wife to pursue a dream/project that she has been waiting to pursue for a while.

Leon1e

Man Amazon poached like half of ANet. And tons of others. Idk what they are promising these people. I hope it doesn't backfire in their faces.

kitarad

Yes Amazon is building a dream team.

meonthissite

Sad really, hope for the best. The one person they should have gotten rid of the entire life of this game though is still there, John Smith.

Geddon95405

Mike is EXACTLY the kind of dev that is good for a company

jesteralways

mastersam21 said:

Wondering where Colin is going next? Amazon maybe?

Would be my guess too.

Pepeq

maskedweasel said:

Really strange how many have left... but yeah, amazon... I'm really interested to see what they're cooking.

It's really not that uncommon... when I was doing design work I signed on for a specified period of time or a specific job.  Once it was delivered, I could have stayed on to basically maintain the work over time, but the real fun in the work is the initial creation, not maintaining it.

GW2 was delivered, it's had it's first expansion.  All that is to do is more expansions.  In other words, the real fun was in the creation of GW2.  People like new things to work on, a new job often is the quickest ticket to that end.

jesteralways

Grakulen said:

Amazon: Build an engine and they will come.

Engine's built. People are going!

I don't like their cloud server ip block policy. EA Origin recently switched their download server to amazon cloud and ever since then i can't update or download any of the game i bought. I contacted amazon cloud support and they confirmed they have IP from bangladesh blocked . I have so many games bought in origin and i totally detest majority of the vpn service .

Thupli

Amazon poaching or Anet sinking? We will see.

Makes me wonder if it s NC Soft decision making that makes the devs not have freedom and not want to be tied by a company across the sea.

Hey, he is swinging a sword again?!!

SinfulChris

Here is hoping he can turn Guild Wars 2 into an enjoyable MMORPG, outside of a fashion simulator with lackluster endgame.

cronius77

people here commenting like hes so good? didnt this clown wreck so many systems and make RNG grinding worse? Shouldn't you be saying good riddance?

Dreamo84

As others have said I'm surprised he stayed as long as he did. People always see this as doom and gloom announcements but it happens with every single MMORPG. The big "visionaries" who lead these projects don't usually want to continue developing one game forever. They take their success and move on to another project.

Samhael

kitarad said:

Yes Amazon is building a dream team.

I hope they're looking outside of Arenanet. I really was disappointed with GW2.

Lokero

Samhael said:

kitarad said:

Yes Amazon is building a dream team.

I hope they're looking outside of Arenanet. I really was disappointed with GW2.

Now, now... the artists did some great work on those beautiful environments.

Ezhae

Samhael said:

kitarad said:

Yes Amazon is building a dream team.

I hope they're looking outside of Arenanet. I really was disappointed with GW2.

I found lots of GW2 ideas to be good at concept stage, but the problem with Anet is they start 10 different projects and never seem to bother to finish any of them. Instead, few months down the line they start new ones and just go quiet on the old ones. I'd rather have them do less stuff but actually do it right.

Lydon

I'm excited by this news. I really don't like the direction the game has been going with Colin at the helm. Mike's saying exactly what I was hoping to hear. Here's to hoping it pans out the way he's promised!

MikePaladin

To be honest HOT is a disaster I wanted to refund a few time because I consider this patch a scam...I barely played gw2 after hot .
If you look at patches .... Cash shop updates only freaking cash shop updates ...

azarhal

Samhael said:

kitarad said:

Yes Amazon is building a dream team.

I hope they're looking outside of Arenanet. I really was disappointed with GW2.

Amazon Studios are doing MOBAs and online shooters.

How I know, their job posting and engine website are rather clear on what they are for.

Dr_Binks

One just has to wonder what is going on behind the doors at Anet. Sure peeps make life changes all the time, and yes this move very well may be for his wife, but there are always more then just 1 reason to make such a move. But the thing that adds to this is the fact that some many have left Anet in the past few months...... Something to make you think that there more at work here.

Never the less I wish hime and his family the best!!!

TheDarkrayne

Has a second expansion been confirmed yet? Because if it hasn't then he just confirmed it.

advokat666

hahahahahaha "the WvW team" unbelievable this o´brian dude. If he used to be pinocchio his nose would grow miles. Here is another wvw related gem from this mastermind: