ArenaNet dying from inside??

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Posted by: Seyiwaji.4082

Seyiwaji.4082

Guild wars 2 may really have a bad management?

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

I was thinking about it and it seems it is true. I was wondering why less and less transparancy
The company seems to have a bad management and maybe dying from inside.
More and More people are dissatisfied.

This is reality. Now i may understand why the game is falling. Well not that the Rating Trends is that great.

(edited by Seyiwaji.4082)

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Posted by: kamedin.4698

kamedin.4698

Doesn’t surprise me, bad management is always going to bring a place down no matter where you work, and if we keep seeing the trend of management advertise paid content but doesn’t deliver all of it, I can see people not buying more xpacs which is really gonna down the company even farther (if possible).

Lyscir – Main Engi
[????] – HoD

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Posted by: Heraldusluminare.2946

Heraldusluminare.2946

I tend to be a little skeptical of Glassdoor, since the people who have the most to say are the ones who have the most negative views of a company.

That said, I’m actually pleasantly surprised that there are quite a number of positive reviews on the company.

Personally, I want ANET to succeed. I sort of grew up on this game, so while I know the people at ANET probably have no idea who I am, I kind of feel like they are family.

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Posted by: Seyiwaji.4082

Seyiwaji.4082

I looked at others company like (Blzzrd) (you know who i mean)
I can not deny that, it really seems there are less and less transparent.
It is sad that such a website reflect what we all think about the current Situation.

We like the game, but we have to admit, something is going wrong. I don’t even know if they can save it, like FFXIV did

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Posted by: Jimmito.1586

Jimmito.1586

Maybe thats why Colin Johanson left as game director??? Hmmm

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Posted by: Berelious.3290

Berelious.3290

After reading several articles regarding Glassdoor’s methods of income and the fact that it accepts any anonymous review with zero background checks or accountability, I can not consider it a credible source of information. Anyone doing a google search on their reliability will find the same. The only thing they seem to get right is the job salary range.

Corwin Grimjaw: Guardian (80)
Yak’s Bend Server
Crimethink [ct]

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

Even so, I find it telling that the title “Bad Management” seems to repeat more often than not. While we could brush that under the disgruntled ‘anonymous’ reviewer, it’s still a case where there’s smoke. . . .

That said, like Kamedin, I’m not surprised. Colin didn’t leave because he was oh so happy you know. No amount of spin will change the fact he “quit” less than a year after the game’s first expansion.

That says it all in my book.

Gone to Reddit.

(edited by Ardenwolfe.8590)

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Posted by: Dawdler.8521

Dawdler.8521

free snacks in the office

Sounds like heaven.

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Posted by: Heraldusluminare.2946

Heraldusluminare.2946

free snacks in the office

Sounds like heaven.

Attachments:

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Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

Some of those reviews, particularly criticizing management and leadership as the primary concerns are on the older side. Almost all of the praise seems to come from past work experience with the company (GW1 and development for GW2).

Since there is heavy praise for the past, and MO has been there from the start, I think it’s fair to say it’s not him.

Part of me suspects it could be NCSoft’s interactions and creeping presence, but another suggests that it could have been (though not entirely) Colin mucking things up, particularly with what’s said about the “directors” and project leads being totally incompetent. This would also explain the departure after the blunder of HoT.

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Posted by: Ragion.2831

Ragion.2831

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

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Posted by: Venatorn.7619

Venatorn.7619

Tbh most of the negative posts just sound like people who were fired, or got an idea turned down.

All proffesions 80

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Posted by: Vlad Morbius.1759

Vlad Morbius.1759

Here’s a suggestion to management, flood NCSoft with requests to support this game before it tumbles into obscurity! Get PvE content out now!!!!! before the largest percentile of your player base leaves. Another one, stop throwing development time into things like Raids, and pointless forms of content that have no bloody reason to be in GW2 in the first place.

Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??

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Posted by: Siobhan.5273

Siobhan.5273

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

No news since October 28th 2014. Question asked straight up! 473 times. 647 days and thread locked..

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Posted by: Akkeros.1675

Akkeros.1675

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

I spoke of this topic when management switched over and the white knights were busy defending Collin while attacking Mike.
When you own a business or begin a company it is not always your goal to work until you die. You get it going out of passion, make it the way you want it, back it with success…then let someone else run the show. Unfortunately, if someone runs all you created into the ground, you have to step back in to right the ship. Hopefully, and it seems there is a lot of effort being put forth, the ship is moving toward the open sea now, not the rocky shores.

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Posted by: Ragion.2831

Ragion.2831

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

In the post where he introduced himself as the new president, he specifically said he wasnt interested in taking over from Collin because it was a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately i can’t find the post. He also said his position was temporary. He might have changed his mind by now who knows.

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Posted by: CrusaderMichael.9245

CrusaderMichael.9245

GW2 is a 4 year old game.

ANET is handling this 4 year old game fine even if not to my liking entirely.

How much blood exactly do you wish to squeeze out of one stone?

HoT prolongs the life here.

A new expansion will come, I say within a year, 2 tops.

And after that… GW3.

And when GW3 comes out we’ll be right back to where we started… ticking away of the fun, till someone writes a new post and says “GW3 is hurting, is ANET dying from within? bad management?”.

And round and round it goes

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Posted by: Beldin.5498

Beldin.5498

Here’s a suggestion to management, flood NCSoft with requests to support this game before it tumbles into obscurity! Get PvE content out now!!!!! before the largest percentile of your player base leaves. Another one, stop throwing development time into things like Raids, and pointless forms of content that have no bloody reason to be in GW2 in the first place.

Raids are great .. all the game needs are even more raids aka “challenging group
content” and when finally all those casuals like me left the game they can prove me
and all those naysayers wrong that not only a minority raids.
Heck and if only 6 people of DnT are left and raid, then they have 100 % raiders.
Now wouldn’t that be a great success ??

Good think is, in the game i play now the developers really talk to us in the forums.
Its unbelieveable .. after a patch when people post a bug, they answer and say they
will look after that. Ohh .. and they also talk about stuff they plan for the future
and whatever else .. heck they even make jokes in the forums.

EVERY MMO is awesome until it is released then its unfinished. A month after release it just sucks.
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.

(edited by Beldin.5498)

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

How much blood exactly do you wish to squeeze out of one stone?

Well . . . how much money does the company want to squeeze out of us? Seems to me many MMOs, much older than this one, want as much as they can get before being forced to move on.

No MMO, as far as I’m aware, has shut down the servers by choice because they wanted to. They did it because of outside influences that all but demanded it.

It only goes ‘round and round’ when it’s more profitable to do so because interest has died.

Don’t get that twisted.

Because guess what? Guild Wars 1 is still, running, and ‘squeezing that stone.’

Gone to Reddit.

(edited by Ardenwolfe.8590)

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Posted by: Aidan Savage.2078

Aidan Savage.2078

, particularly with what’s said about the “directors” and project leads being totally incompetent.

That can easily be explained as players being so kitten over things they feel are going wrong leaving “employee” reviews which are nothing more than customer reviews aimed at doing the most damage possible.

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Posted by: Aidan Savage.2078

Aidan Savage.2078

Because guess what? Guild Wars 1 is still, running, and ‘squeezing that stone.’

I believe it was said that GW1 is basically in a “life support only” state though. They get nothing new, not even bug fixes at this point I believe, and only have customer support staff pretty much. So any money they make out of GW1 is by willful spending of players.

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

And yet, they’re still ‘squeezing that stone’ aren’t they? It’s rather hypocritical to ask why the customers are doing it toward the game, when the game is asking the same from the customers.

That’s the point.

Gone to Reddit.

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

Gee the semi-regular post about Glassdoor reviews where people use it as proof that ANet is failing. That’s been happening since the game launched.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

(edited by Behellagh.1468)

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Posted by: Riku.4821

Riku.4821

free snacks in the office

Sounds like heaven.

Go google, Google. They have a free doctor, chef, gym. Almost anything you could imagine.

In terms of the management, I cannot say as I do not know personally how their management is, but I can say something feels like they’re managing like pin the tail on the donkey.

Guild Leader of Lunar Tree[LT].
Officer of Power Overwhelming[ZERK].
First term Forum PvE Specialist.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

Glassdoor is a lie. Anet is a great place. Just look at how happy the employees are in this photo.

Top notch management!

Attachments:

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

LMAO . . . man, you’re on a roll.

Gone to Reddit.

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Glass Door almost always gives a worse impression of the workplace than those who work there see.

  • If you are feeling ‘meh’ or mildly enjoying the job, you aren’t likely to post.
  • If you love the job, you often don’t have time to post (often not any interest, either).
  • Only if you feel burned by a specific boss or situation are you very likely to post.

That doesn’t mean that the info there is useless, but it does mean we (as outsiders) won’t have a realistic understanding of what it’s really like from reading GlassDoor.

ANet hired a lot of new employees ramping up for GW2 and then after a successful launch — very, very few companies are able to evolve their culture as easily as they grow that quickly. Old employees find that they don’t know how things work any more and new employees can’t find mentors to help them adapt — that happens at great firms and lousy ones, too. And it results in a lot of distress — we’ll read about that on GlassDoor, but not about the people who finally found their niche or are part of creating any new culture.

tl;dr ANet might be a lousy place to work, but we won’t know if that’s true from reading “employee reviews” from the most disgruntled.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: Vlad Morbius.1759

Vlad Morbius.1759

Call them as i see them…that is until I’m infracted. I’d really be upset but regardless I’m horribly disappointed in where they are taking the game. Between my wife and i i am willing to bet we’ve spent a grand in this game but wow what a bloody disappointing path they’ve been on lately. Money stays in my pocket until Mickey decides to fill us in!

Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??

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Posted by: Vlad Morbius.1759

Vlad Morbius.1759

I’m signing out until I see some progress from the management group. Game is stale, no need to keep squawking about it my guild is dwindling into nadda, thanks guys great job this last year! Keep listening to the raid crowd, you’ll go far

Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??

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Posted by: STIHL.2489

STIHL.2489

Guild wars 2 may really have a bad management?

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

I was thinking about it and it seems it is true. I was wondering why less and less transparancy
The company seems to have a bad management and maybe dying from inside.
More and More people are dissatisfied.

This is reality. Now i may understand why the game is falling. Well not that the Rating Trends is that great.

Well this does validate what I thought, as far as ‘feedback’ and ‘complaining’ go.

There are two kinds of gamers, salty, and extra salty

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Posted by: FrizzFreston.5290

FrizzFreston.5290

Is anyone looking at the dates of the reviews or are we all blindly going to assume trends based on 2 datapoints?

“It isn’t working!” CL4P-TP
Ingame Name: Guardian Erik

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Posted by: Siobhan.5273

Siobhan.5273

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

I spoke of this topic when management switched over and the white knights were busy defending Collin while attacking Mike.
When you own a business or begin a company it is not always your goal to work until you die. You get it going out of passion, make it the way you want it, back it with success…then let someone else run the show. Unfortunately, if someone runs all you created into the ground, you have to step back in to right the ship. Hopefully, and it seems there is a lot of effort being put forth, the ship is moving toward the open sea now, not the rocky shores.

I’ve never defended Colin, because FWIW, I think the fact that his ego was stroked as hard as it was, was part of the issues we ended up facing. Everything became about the hype. However, I also think that Colin ended up being fodder for a failed product (HoT), even though Mike O’Brien knew exactly what was on that hype train, and was selling it just as hard as Colin was (I’ve posted about this time and time again) and he echoed Colin’s enthusiasm for the planned road the game was on… that he was fully aware of. That he has always been aware of.

In the post where he introduced himself as the new president, he specifically said he wasnt interested in taking over from Collin because it was a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately i can’t find the post. He also said his position was temporary. He might have changed his mind by now who knows.

Mike O’Brien has always been President. He is the “temporary” Game Director, as he announced in this AMA from 04 Mar 2016, until he hires someone else to do it. He seems to have been quite into his product from the start.

  • Edit- Found a few interesting links. PAX Interview w/ Colin and then here is an interesting link to something Colin wrote on Reddit in reference to Mike O’Brien:

ArenaColin wrote on 03 Sep 2013:

Since you asked: You interviewed Mike O’Brien last Thursday, not me or the team. =)

Mike is the studio head in charge of the operation of the entire company, his focus is on the strategy and goals for ArenaNet as a company, operating the insanity that is a 300 person ship, and the vision for Gw2 as a product. Questions about very specific features or their release windows are always better saved for the specific developers working in those areas of the game.

I’m sure it feels weird to see different answers, but you’re also asking different people. If you had asked me the same questions Matt did at PAX, you would have received the same answers he did.

So the vision was, and always has been Mike O’Brien’s. Very “specific” features and dates lay at the feet of the devs working on that area of specialty. How specific is the question here.

No news since October 28th 2014. Question asked straight up! 473 times. 647 days and thread locked..

(edited by Siobhan.5273)

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

Is anyone looking at the dates of the reviews or are we all blindly going to assume trends based on 2 datapoints?

This is an internet game forum. People don’t need data points to assume trends…

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Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

As a software build and release engineer that has worked in both small and gigantic enterprise environments, some of those technically aimed Glassdoor reviews hit very close to home with my own experience of leaving a very (needlessly) chaotic, always on the verge of a crisis, lack of good direction, scope, any release planning that was actually feasible, resources type environment/company to save my mental health and personal life. The kind of place that drives you into the ground causing burnout and wants you to still be a happy little yes-man drone/robot.

Honestly, I find this very telling. Many reviews echo my own experience with that type of work environment.

Hmm…guess these reviews struck a nerve lol.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

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Posted by: ElectricGoat.8253

ElectricGoat.8253

if Anet Sinks GW2 needs to bail and do it’s own thing. GWExit. We’ll have our own blackjack and humans!

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Posted by: DaikonSamurai.6714

DaikonSamurai.6714

Colin has been at Anet since nearly the beginning, and Mo one of the founders. So Colin has been working for Mo for at least a decade. You don’t work for a company for 10 years and become the primary public spokesperson and perhaps most memed smiling face of the company without enjoying it. I’m far more inclined to believe Colin’s explanation that he has an opportunity to work closer to home and wants to help his wife obtain some long delayed dream of hers.

Colin also continued working the few weeks after the announcement and AMA, so I can’t imagine Anet was displeased with his work as they kept him on board. And I’m disinclined to believe Colin had a beef with Mo and Anet since he was part of the AMA and could publicly display his disapproval if so desired.

So I doubt there’s much drama (if any) between Mo and Colin.

As for the Glass Door reviews, as others have posted, there’s reason to be skeptical. Regardless, there’ve been multiple polls, devs have asked for player input on things like the female design of the legendary armors, etc. So if Anet had something rotten internally at all, I think they’ve been well on their way to improving it for quite some time now.

If you think management is the problem, you’re talking about Mo. And he has led Anet successfully throughout GW1, successfully through the launch of GW2, and before Anet he was a leader at Blizzard for many of their top franchises Diablo, StarCraft, etc… And apparently he was largely responsible for creating Battle.net. Back when magazines were a thing he was apparently listed as one of the most influential people in the gaming industry.

So, if you think Mo is the problem… I can’t imagine anybody being more qualified than he is so having someone take his place would probably just make things worse…

And no, I’m not a fanboy of Mo. I knew nothing of him and just did a bunch of googling after the legendary weapons fiasco.

So no, I don’t think Anet is dying internally. But if they are/were, they are working hard to climb out of the hole they’re in. And if management is a problem, well, good luck finding someone better/more qualified than Mo…

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Posted by: DaikonSamurai.6714

DaikonSamurai.6714

if Anet Sinks GW2 needs to bail and do it’s own thing. GWExit. We’ll have our own blackjack and humans!

In fact, forget the park! :P

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Posted by: Lunacy Solacio.6514

Lunacy Solacio.6514

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

In the post where he introduced himself as the new president, he specifically said he wasnt interested in taking over from Collin because it was a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately i can’t find the post. He also said his position was temporary. He might have changed his mind by now who knows.

umm ‘new president’? Mike O’Brien has been in that role the entire time… Colin never was.
Here was the announcement that Colin was leaving

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/48zlyd/im_mike_obrien_here_with_gw2_dev_team_ama/

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Posted by: Andraus.3874

Andraus.3874

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

In the post where he introduced himself as the new president, he specifically said he wasnt interested in taking over from Collin because it was a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately i can’t find the post. He also said his position was temporary. He might have changed his mind by now who knows.

umm ‘new president’? Mike O’Brien has been in that role the entire time… Colin never was.
Here was the announcement that Colin was leaving

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/48zlyd/im_mike_obrien_here_with_gw2_dev_team_ama/

Game director

“The news is that I’m taking over as the game director of Guild Wars 2 for a while. Colin will be leaving us.”

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Posted by: Lunacy Solacio.6514

Lunacy Solacio.6514

Mike O didnt want to be the head so i would probably give him a break. From what i could tell from his posts he is always open to suggestions and advice so even if he is to blame for any troubles at the studio, i would put equal blame on the staff.

Running a company isnt about one person taking charge over everything. From the stuff ive seen so far, i dont think Mike O has much to do with any Anet struggles.

Mike O’Brien is one of the co-founders and President of Anet. He is exactly where he wanted and intended to be.

In the post where he introduced himself as the new president, he specifically said he wasnt interested in taking over from Collin because it was a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately i can’t find the post. He also said his position was temporary. He might have changed his mind by now who knows.

umm ‘new president’? Mike O’Brien has been in that role the entire time… Colin never was.
Here was the announcement that Colin was leaving

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/48zlyd/im_mike_obrien_here_with_gw2_dev_team_ama/

Game director

“The news is that I’m taking over as the game director of Guild Wars 2 for a while. Colin will be leaving us.”

Yes but even when it was pointed out by others, ‘president’ was repeated, along with implied belief that Mike didn’t want to be president but had changed his mind. As others said, he is right where he wants to be in primary role, however also had to step into the position Colin was as well. That led to my post with the source of the initial announcement. Between this, your post, and prior posts, it should be a bit clearer as to who was in what role and why.

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Posted by: Tolmos.8395

Tolmos.8395

Just out of curiosity, how does Glassdoor filter the reviews they get? I mean, we are playing an MMO with quite a few players, at least a small percentage of which are likely to be trolls. How does Glassdoor stop that group from writing fake employee reviews just to mess with the company?

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Posted by: STIHL.2489

STIHL.2489

Just out of curiosity, how does Glassdoor filter the reviews they get? I mean, we are playing an MMO with quite a few players, at least a small percentage of which are likely to be trolls. How does Glassdoor stop that group from writing fake employee reviews just to mess with the company?

I would imagine we as people should be able to tell a Burnt Fan-Boi Troll, from a legitimate review, which is what should be the basic qualification to work for a Gaming MMO.

There are two kinds of gamers, salty, and extra salty

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Posted by: Decrypter.1785

Decrypter.1785

I tend to find glassdoor on the way out hahahaha

[WM]give us in game ladder

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Posted by: DaikonSamurai.6714

DaikonSamurai.6714

I tend to find glassdoor on the way out hahahaha

wump, crash, shatter “Darn Windex!”

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

Just out of curiosity, how does Glassdoor filter the reviews they get? I mean, we are playing an MMO with quite a few players, at least a small percentage of which are likely to be trolls. How does Glassdoor stop that group from writing fake employee reviews just to mess with the company?

http://help.glassdoor.com/article/Community-Guidelines/en_US

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Gone to Reddit.

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ensign.2189

Ensign.2189

Without putting too fine a point on it, A.Net is not a well managed company. Their coordination and control structure is a mess and they waste an enormous amount of work. Private equity would be thinking leveraged buyout.

At the same time, building a game like Guild Wars is not like managing a P&L at a factory or retailer. A.Net really is building a work of art – and it shows in game. Sure, it could be better managed, and look more like, say, EA, but the game would likely follow suit. A.Net has a culture that runs on collaboration between a big jumbled mess of passionate creative types, and while I’m sure you could fire management and bring in professionals that would improve productivity and efficiency by leaps and bounds, I’m not confident at all that you could do that while maintaining the energy and soul that brought us SAB and all the other countless small touches that make the game what it is.

I think you need to look at it with a healthy dose of perspective. A.Net is not a publicly traded company tasked with maximizing return on equity to shareholders. It’s a private company owned by millionaire veterans of the game industry that want to run a company that they like working at – and if that resembles a kindergarten classroom of passionate artists and designers doing what they love, then so be it.

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Without putting too fine a point on it, A.Net is not a well managed company. Their coordination and control structure is a mess and they waste an enormous amount of work. Private equity would be thinking leveraged buyout.

At the same time, building a game like Guild Wars is not like managing a P&L at a factory or retailer. A.Net really is building a work of art – and it shows in game. Sure, it could be better managed, and look more like, say, EA, but the game would likely follow suit. A.Net has a culture that runs on collaboration between a big jumbled mess of passionate creative types, and while I’m sure you could fire management and bring in professionals that would improve productivity and efficiency by leaps and bounds, I’m not confident at all that you could do that while maintaining the energy and soul that brought us SAB and all the other countless small touches that make the game what it is.

I think you need to look at it with a healthy dose of perspective. A.Net is not a publicly traded company tasked with maximizing return on equity to shareholders. It’s a private company owned by millionaire veterans of the game industry that want to run a company that they like working at – and if that resembles a kindergarten classroom of passionate artists and designers doing what they love, then so be it.

This is a great post. It’s how I see it. I’ve played Anet games for a long time, and I’ve always seen them as the product of creative types more than management geniuses. It’s a different dynamic that produces a different product. The more corporate they get, the more the product suffers. But it doesn’t seem efficient to me, and not everyone will fit in.

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

Without putting too fine a point on it, A.Net is not a well managed company. Their coordination and control structure is a mess and they waste an enormous amount of work. Private equity would be thinking leveraged buyout.

At the same time, building a game like Guild Wars is not like managing a P&L at a factory or retailer. A.Net really is building a work of art – and it shows in game. Sure, it could be better managed, and look more like, say, EA, but the game would likely follow suit. A.Net has a culture that runs on collaboration between a big jumbled mess of passionate creative types, and while I’m sure you could fire management and bring in professionals that would improve productivity and efficiency by leaps and bounds, I’m not confident at all that you could do that while maintaining the energy and soul that brought us SAB and all the other countless small touches that make the game what it is.

I think you need to look at it with a healthy dose of perspective. A.Net is not a publicly traded company tasked with maximizing return on equity to shareholders. It’s a private company owned by millionaire veterans of the game industry that want to run a company that they like working at – and if that resembles a kindergarten classroom of passionate artists and designers doing what they love, then so be it.

I also think this is an excellent analysis, which fits quite well my own observations.

If anything, ANet’s attempt to provide what’s behind what gamers ask for (v. what their words say in some cases) tells me that the company is trying to make a game people will like, while sticking to a certain vision, likely because it’s the vision that those creative types, and MO, have. Despite my own dislike for some of the aspects of the game, and for some of those decisions Anet has produced value for money spent for the most part, and I appreciate that. It’s actually kind of rare. Ensign’s point about EA is well taken.

So, is ANet dying? I very much doubt it as long as that passion still exists.

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

I think you need to look at it with a healthy dose of perspective. A.Net is not a publicly traded company tasked with maximizing return on equity to shareholders. It’s a private company owned by millionaire veterans of the game industry that want to run a company that they like working at – and if that resembles a kindergarten classroom of passionate artists and designers doing what they love, then so be it.

Except ArenaNet is wholly owned by a holding company that is wholly owned by a publicly traded company. I’m sure they got a really good deal from the point of view of control and retained IP ownership when they sold themselves to NCSOFT in 2002 but they are assuredly NOT privately owned. And while they don’t answer directly to shareholders, they will be reminded that the game needs to either maintain or grow its player base as well as be profitable at least on paper, at some minimal level, to keep those at the mothership in Seoul happy.

Other than that point I agree with you. They are developing entertainment, not an office application. It’s not just programming, it’s story and scripting and 3D Models and animation and music and foley and voice overs. It’s developing tools that non-programmers can use to build events and create AI (http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1021848/Building-a-Better-Centaur-AI). And sometimes in this process what gets created turns out not to be fun to play and parts or all will be scraped to go in a different direction. That’s bound to tick some off, having weeks or even months of work set aside.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Heraldusluminare.2946

Heraldusluminare.2946

Ensign, you said it better than I could.