Guild Wars 2

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/428839/page/1

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chris_Whiteside

Sad news if true.

Wow, sad news. But as a consultant, he can still work with Anet to coordinate internal strategies. Let’s hope his freelance duties take him back to Seattle.

(insert Darth Vadar “Nooooooo” here)

Yup, it’s true-http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/11/director-of-design-chris-whiteside-leaves-guild-wars-2/

New direction incoming.

There go the CDIs….

Had an inkling after the CDIs and his own forays onto the forum dried up, especially as the CDIs were very much his initiative.

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

Randulf.7614:

Had an inkling after the CDIs and his own forays onto the forum dried up, especially as the CDIs were very much his initiative.

They were impactful and I hope someone else takes up the task.

Serophous.9085:

There go the CDIs….

Thats the first thing I thought of.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

I dont know if HE was the one that decided on Living Story, it was probably a collaborative effort and decision amongst some high ups.

But, agreeing with you, Living Story in my humble opinion took GW2 into a wrong direction and ultimately away from my desire to play and spend money on the game.

Colin and MO both made a commitment to be more open with communication with the community. I have faith that more CDIs or similar initiatives will come forth. Or else you’ll see a virtual torch and pitchfork march on Lion’s Arch.

Is this the living world guy? So glad he’s leaving then.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Colin and MO both made a commitment to be more open with communication with the community. I have faith that more CDIs or similar initiatives will come forth. Or else you’ll see a virtual torch and pitchfork march on Lion’s Arch.

And that’s why we have a 89 page Traits thread that got closed and a second Traits thread that is now up to 10+ pages with no real input from any dev. I’ll believe the “more communication with the community” when I see it.

Galphar.3901:

And that’s why we have a 89 page Traits thread that got closed and a second Traits thread that is now up to 10+ pages with no real input from any dev. I’ll believe the “more communication with the community” when I see it.

You are aware that the 89 page thread actually have a post that outright state that the traitsystem will be changed with HoT and that we will know more before release, right?

That is too bad.
I hope that he finds success with his future consulting.

Awww, Chris and his CDI’s were one of the things giving a face to ANet.

You’re a classy guy, Chris, I hope you have fun and find fulfillment wherever your career takes you.

Shiyo.3578:

Is this the living world guy? So glad he’s leaving then.

Living world was a good idea, it was just badly executed. They’ve also sort of started learning how to do it well. I don’t like the idea that Living World will be abandoned (as then we have to wait for years between content and story), or the idea that someone new (who hasn’t learned from its mistakes) will step in.

Does something have to have gone wrong for him to leave?

I mean, I’m looking at leaving my job at the moment and it’s not really anything to do with the job, certainly not the work I’m doing currently or have done in the last few months. I’d be a bit freaked out if once I hand in my notice our clients started speculating on which of my projects caused me to leave and whether I was angry about it or forced out.

Very sad news indeed.

As I remember his greatest achievement for this game was making colored commander tags from half year of CDI.

My dontcare’o’meter is above the limit

Sad to see him go, he’s a really nice guy.

Just curious, what is CDI?

EnlightenedNavigator.8296:

Just curious, what is CDI?

Collaborative Development Initiative.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi

EnlightenedNavigator.8296:

Just curious, what is CDI?

It was a discussion thread around a specific topic with extremely strict posting guidelines that was designed to encourage constructive proposals that would help develop new features for the game.

There’s an entire subforum dedicated to them if you wish to see more

Well that is going to be a game changer; literally, I would guess.

I bid you a very sad adieu Sir.

I guess we will never get the chance to have that cup of tea now?

Danikat.8537:

Does something have to have gone wrong for him to leave?

I mean, I’m looking at leaving my job at the moment and it’s not really anything to do with the job, certainly not the work I’m doing currently or have done in the last few months. I’d be a bit freaked out if once I hand in my notice our clients started speculating on which of my projects caused me to leave and whether I was angry about it or forced out.

Not necessarily. Based solely in my observation, he is a strong supporter of Living World and now that ArenaNet (or maybe NCSoft) decided that they will be releasing expansions, he probably didn’t want to support that decision.

For example, when two companies merge, there will be employees that do not support that decision and consequently leave their jobs. So in my opinion, based on his support in Living World, he might have decided that he wants to work for a company with the same vision as his.

A shame he is going away. He seemed nice as a person, though I have to admit, I really didn’t like the concept of the living world and the CDIs -at least from what I’ve seen- didn’t make any impact whatsoever on the direct the game is going.

Chris, thank you for everything you have done and you will be missed. I especially liked your devotion and ability to reach out to fans on the boards (even when it was tough). Thank you for shepherding many CDI’s.

Farewell.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Danikat.8537:

Does something have to have gone wrong for him to leave?

I mean, I’m looking at leaving my job at the moment and it’s not really anything to do with the job, certainly not the work I’m doing currently or have done in the last few months. I’d be a bit freaked out if once I hand in my notice our clients started speculating on which of my projects caused me to leave and whether I was angry about it or forced out.

Not necessarily. Based solely in my observation, he is a strong supporter of Living World and now that ArenaNet (or maybe NCSoft) decided that they will be releasing expansions, he probably didn’t want to support that decision.

For example, when two companies merge, there will be employees that do not support that decision and consequently leave their jobs. So in my opinion, based on his support in Living World, he might have decided that he wants to work for a company with the same vision as his.

If they were doing away with LW completely, I could see him taking that stance. However, recent interviews with Colin from PAX make it sound like they are planning on doing both. Using LS to lead up to / set the stage for the expansions. As a medium for ‘continued’ content between expansion chunks. So… who knows.

Noooooooo = (

I liked it how to do it! Sad news! = (

Nooo !!
Why did you discarb the book , LIght-kun ?!
You gave me something to look forward to …

Bummer, wish him the best for the future.
I’d guess all the work for the CDI’s will get swept under the rug like everything else now.

Well this is a shame

I don’t usually follow game developers careers but I’ll be keeping an eye out for anything he works on.

cesmode.4257:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

I dont know if HE was the one that decided on Living Story, it was probably a collaborative effort and decision amongst some high ups.

But, agreeing with you, Living Story in my humble opinion took GW2 into a wrong direction and ultimately away from my desire to play and spend money on the game.

The living world was fine imo, just the temporary aspect of it was a bad idea. It also wasted time and effort in development to make content that was basically scrapped gameplay wise after a period of time.

On this note, is Josh Foreman still with Anet? I hadn’t seen him around for a while and heard rumors of him not with Anet anymoar and it doesn’t say that on the wiki.

Doggie.3184:

On this note, is Josh Foreman still with Anet? I hadn’t seen him around for a while and heard rumors of him not with Anet anymoar and it doesn’t say that on the wiki.

I believe he was in a Point of Interest quite recently.

I never understood why people thought the LS was bad for the game.

There seemed to be various new JPs and dungeons opened as it went along, new areas and things to do, and no one was forced to give up anything they liked.

I do think all the time gate BS and overabundance of currencies was a terrible rat hole that too many MMOs go down, but the LS I thought was pretty nice way to offer new things.

Maybe I missed something that the LS hurt?

Sad to hear it, I liked his ideas here. Best wishes to him.

Chris Whiteside was the best of us and the worst of us. He’ll be remembered with this fine phrase, forevermore: “I farted!”

slamfunction.7462:

Chris Whiteside was the best of us and the worst of us. He’ll be remembered with this fine phrase, forevermore: “I farted!”

He will now…

Dear Chris,

You will be sorely missed. It was always a pleasure to talk to you. Best of luck on your new ventures.

~cedo =(

I will miss ya Mr. Whiteside! It was always good to converse with you even when we disagreed. You were a great ambassador for the game. ArenaNet and the fans are losing one of the beacons of the game. Best of luck to you in the future!

Sorry to see you go, Chris, but wish you the best in your future role as a consultant.

Truly sad news. Though the Living World is a great idea and one that’s been working really well. We’re all still here playing are we not???? Also, whom said they are “switching” to expansions only and discontinuing the Living World? All they’ve said is that it’s on hold as the priority is polishing and finishing the expansion. Anyone have links to something else on the subject?

Not good news in my opinion. It suggests there is a major change or direction shift going on. HoT may represent that change, but that means that a lot of stuff that was getting worked on is going down the toilet and a new set of “principles” are going to be set in place. At the very least, it means less of whatever update stuff we are getting. It may end up being a positive for the game, but that remains to be seen. Now that the hype is over, HoT is starting to look a little less shiney.

I hope they give up with the living story.. and make something fun to PLAY , cause there are a lot of series and movies we can watch if we wanted to read or see storys

maybe an end to the endless tokenization, all the currencies that need bank space and then often end up being seasonal or worse, potentially gone for good? EWven the LS currencies seemed to change with the wind.

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that the 89 page thread actually have a post that outright state that the traitsystem will be changed with HoT and that we will know more before release, right?

That’s not exactly what I’d call open communication. Hey, if that satisfies you, then I’m sure Anet is hoping for more players like you rather than me.

Doggie.3184:

cesmode.4257:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

I dont know if HE was the one that decided on Living Story, it was probably a collaborative effort and decision amongst some high ups.

But, agreeing with you, Living Story in my humble opinion took GW2 into a wrong direction and ultimately away from my desire to play and spend money on the game.

The living world was fine imo, just the temporary aspect of it was a bad idea. It also wasted time and effort in development to make content that was basically scrapped gameplay wise after a period of time.

On this note, is Josh Foreman still with Anet? I hadn’t seen him around for a while and heard rumors of him not with Anet anymoar and it doesn’t say that on the wiki.

Eh… I think the actual story and all, albeit in little puny breadcrumbs, was OK. Nothing amazing but certainly not kittenomeone who is not currently playing the game, I am sort of screwed if I ever want to come back and see all of the Living Story stuff. I would have had to log in once during the duration of each chapter. This is sort of against their whole mantra of “play, take a break, come back and pick up where you left off! You wont miss a thing!” Yeah, BS.

Honestly, I am contemplating coming back for HoT, but I know I would have missed many many chapters of LS simply because I didnt log in and that greatly kittenes me off. Its the principle of the matter with me.

As far as Mr. Whitesides apparent departure: Whether or not you are/were the foreman of the Living Story idea that I disliked so much, I wish you well. The hours you put into the CDI, whether or not one could see a lot of improvement in the game derived from CDI, you did pour your heart into Arenanet and I wish you well.

His voice in the CDI’s will be missed. Best of luck, Chris, and may you find something new and exciting to challenge you.