Guild Wars 2

(Apologies in advance if this topic has already run its course – forum search engine and all) Saw this today and thought it of note and possible interest to those who might not have seen it:

Former Guild Wars 2 Director of Design Chris Whiteside has left ArenaNet to pursue other opportunities.

While on a long roadtrip, Whiteside tweeted the news to fans: “Yesterday I was super sad. Lonely, missing the team/community, family, and today you have all made me feel loved. Thanks so much.”

Whiteside said that he will be moving on to be a consultant for “other online worlds for the time being.” He first joined the company in 2011.

Source:
http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/11/director-of-design-chris-whiteside-leaves-guild-wars-2/

When the tweet came out there was a thread (use google to search, I just found this via “gw2 forums Chris Whiteside leaves”) and it is at

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Chris-Whiteside-to-leave-Arenanet/first

There was a thread about this that was locked (and it’s understandable you didn’t find it, on account of the search function AND the fact that topics get buried so quickly in here) due to rampant speculation and pretty negative comments. I was disappointed to see it go over like that, given that he is someone who had more interaction with the forum than just about everyone (minus Ms. Gray) else combined.

A key person in design leaving mid-project is troubling. People come and go from game studios all the time, just not usually during such a critical phase. Sky ain’t falling or anything. Eye brow raising for sure though.

Donari.5237:

When the tweet came out there was a thread (use google to search, I just found this via “gw2 forums Chris Whiteside leaves”) and it is at

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Chris-Whiteside-to-leave-Arenanet/first

Ahh, thanks — didn’t think to use Google to search for it.

Iason Evan.3806:

A key person in design leaving mid-project is troubling. People come and go from game studios all the time, just not usually during such a critical phase. Sky ain’t falling or anything. Eye brow raising for sure though.

Critical phase? What critical phase? The game’s been out for over two years. Nothing “critical” was going on other than what some may feel to be a PR problem between players and developers. The expansion was likely simmering for the last year or more, simply waiting for the right time to announce it.

Behellagh.1468:

Iason Evan.3806:

A key person in design leaving mid-project is troubling. People come and go from game studios all the time, just not usually during such a critical phase. Sky ain’t falling or anything. Eye brow raising for sure though.

Critical phase? What critical phase? The game’s been out for over two years. Nothing “critical” was going on other than what some may feel to be a PR problem between players and developers. The expansion was likely simmering for the last year or more, simply waiting for the right time to announce it.

HoT design is in critical phase. Heck, as of a month ago they were still deciding what the other Legendary Stances were going to be for Revenant. When people leave a company during creative phases, something has usually happened. I am in no way saying that is what happened here, but when you design stuff you usually want to see it through to the end as with any job. When you start a project you want to finish it.

Iason Evan.3806:

Behellagh.1468:

Iason Evan.3806:

A key person in design leaving mid-project is troubling. People come and go from game studios all the time, just not usually during such a critical phase. Sky ain’t falling or anything. Eye brow raising for sure though.

Critical phase? What critical phase? The game’s been out for over two years. Nothing “critical” was going on other than what some may feel to be a PR problem between players and developers. The expansion was likely simmering for the last year or more, simply waiting for the right time to announce it.

HoT design is in critical phase. Heck, as of a month ago they were still deciding what the other Legendary Stances were going to be for Revenant. When people leave a company during creative phases, something has usually happened. I am in no way saying that is what happened here, but when you design stuff you usually want to see it through to the end as with any job. When you start a project you want to finish it.

I just thought of something funny. What if Behellagh is privy to information and nothing is really happening in anet HQ and he just spilt the beans. lol

I agree with you though. Its not good when you see a lead leave mid project.

An MMO is always “mid project,” though. It’s a constant iterative design process, never done. ANet would be in the middle of something no matter when he shifted his career onwards.

My point is to me “critical” implies in midst of a crisis, a turning point that could mean success or failure of the whole game. I don’t see that. I see business as usual.

It’s also not uncommon for a lead designer to move on once their baby is born and got over their “teething” years. They live for the creation process and not the “maintenance” phase of a game.

There are all sorts of reasons that leads leave during big projects, some of them troubling, some of them irrelevant, and some positive. Without knowing any of the details, it’s impossible to know what is the case here. Reasons that I’ve seen include: people burning out, death in the family, great competitive offer elsewhere, getting fired (or moved or ‘promoted’ in a way that amounts to the same thing), getting a new boss (who no longer leaves the old management ‘in charge’), and so on.

Chris Whiteside certainly had a big impact on the look and feel of the game we play today and GW2 will evolve very differently now that he’s moved on. But it’s also impossible to say whether that will be good, bad, or neutral for the game. Someone else might take his place and set a new direction that the community loves or that certain fractions of the community love. But there’s no way to know.

The short story is all this means is that the development team changed significantly. We will probably never know how that affects the game we end up playing over the next year.

Behellagh.1468:

My point is to me “critical” implies in midst of a crisis, a turning point that could mean success or failure of the whole game. I don’t see that. I see business as usual.

It’s also not uncommon for a lead designer to move on once their baby is born and got over their “teething” years. They live for the creation process and not the “maintenance” phase of a game.

To assuage your concerns, I didn’t use that version of critical. For example, I used critical in this sense of the word: “Pete is critical to the team. He brings a lot of talent to the team.”

If you’d like to substitute the word ‘crucial’ that’d be fine. The game is in a crucial stage of development. They are still creating it by designing things. HoT is still being birthed. I am saying exactly what you are. It’s odd for someone to be leaving while this is all still going on.

You said “critical phase” which implies to me what I suggested. Again crucial, via definition “involving an extremely important decision or result; decisive; critical”. I don’t see anything being extremely important decision wise going on.

The cake is in the oven and now all they have left to do is decide what type of frosting and decoration it’ll have. That has always been ANet’s modus operandi before telling us anything so why now assume it’s only half baked and the head chef needs to be hanging around to micromanage?

Iason Evan.3806:

If you’d like to substitute the word ‘crucial’ that’d be fine. The game is in a crucial stage of development. They are still creating it by designing things. HoT is still being birthed. I am saying exactly what you are. It’s odd for someone to be leaving while this is all still going on.

Indeed. It’s likely that they haven’t talked much about specializations because they don’t even know that much about specializations themselves. As GW2’s first expansion, HoT is critical in defining to players what they are to expect from future expansions.

Considering how Chris Whiteside has often worked closely to the community, trying to turn our feedback in reality, it’s obvious that his job would be crucial at a time like this. The fact he has left is not only a huge loss – notice how no one is doing the CDIs in his place – but also a very bad sign. I wonder if there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.

There were no CDIs for months before Chris left though. And even if he hadn’t left, I highly doubt we would have CDIs in the middle of preparing for an expansion.

Behellagh.1468:

You said “critical phase” which implies to me what I suggested. Again crucial, via definition “involving an extremely important decision or result; decisive; critical”. I don’t see anything being extremely important decision wise going on.

The cake is in the oven and now all they have left to do is decide what type of frosting and decoration it’ll have. That has always been ANet’s modus operandi before telling us anything so why now assume it’s only half baked and the head chef needs to be hanging around to micromanage?

i guess we disagree. it’s all good. i do however think that the design of the revenant is crucial to the game. it’s a whole profession. when he left and even now, they are still shaping that profession from a design standpoint, but i respect your opinion and that we disagree.

Behellagh.1468:

My point is to me “critical” implies in midst of a crisis, a turning point that could mean success or failure of the whole game. I don’t see that. I see business as usual.

Well, that’s kinda what HoT is. The make or break. The do or die. The little expansion that could or the little expansion that derailed and spilled toxic waste all over the game’s future.

/e opinion, of course.

Tachenon.5270:

Behellagh.1468:

My point is to me “critical” implies in midst of a crisis, a turning point that could mean success or failure of the whole game. I don’t see that. I see business as usual.

Well, that’s kinda what HoT is. The make or break. The do or die. The little expansion that could or the little expansion that derailed and spilled toxic waste all over the game’s future.

/e opinion, of course.

That assumption is based on the notion the game is dying. That $80-90 million a year for an MMO is a sign of failure and only an expansion can save it. Call me when there’s mass layoffs. Call me when nobody shows up to boss events. Call me when the uber guilds’ active members drop to a mere handful.

No, it’s based on the idea that an expansion is a huge investment of resources into a project and if it does fail, it’s a pretty big deal.

Sad, but hope it works out for him, as long as my expansion comes out i’m happy, and as long as Colin Sohandsome is doing work i’ll be happy.

Behellagh.1468:

snip

Wow. You like to start useless arguments.

Read some of the company’s reviews and you will understand why people keep leaving all the time.

Anyway, he did a fine job and I hope it will be more appreciated by the management of whatever company he will work for next.

Royal.2693:

Read some of the company’s reviews and you will understand why people keep leaving all the time.

Anyway, he did a fine job and I hope it will be more appreciated by the management of whatever company he will work for next.

Ah yes, you mean the review on the page where anyone can leave a review without any sort of proof that they have actually worked where they claim? It is also worth pointing out that it is a rather biased group that writes there, since people that are happy usually don’t bother with it.

You also make it sound like they have a massive leak of people, when in fact they have only really lost 4-5 “known” people since the game was released. Which is very few, especially in this line of business.

Royal.2693:

Read some of the company’s reviews and you will understand why people keep leaving all the time.

People aren’t leaving “all the time.” Any decent-sized company will suffer attrition due to people looking for other opportunities, various changes in their not-work situation, or other external factors. Even good companies don’t have 90% retention rates.

ANet has kept a lot of long-term employees and lost others; I don’t know that we can draw any conclusions from Whiteside’s departure.

Further, all sources for ‘reviews’ from employees get many more posts from disgruntled employees than from happy or merely satisfied ones. It’s hard to draw conclusions from such sites. In ANet’s case, some of the reviews look to be from people with a specific grievance against a specific boss; those posts don’t give much insight to what it’s like for others to work there.

tl;dr I don’t think there’s enough solid data to say whether ANet is a great or terrible place to work nor how it matches up with other firms in the same industry or in Seattle generally.