Guild Wars 2

After a 10-year career at ArenaNet, Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum has joined Amazon Game Studios to serve as creative director in the development of a new third-person “competitive, melee-oriented” PC game, Gamasutra has verified through a trusted source.

This is intriguing in light of the fact that Amazon’s game development arm lost two of its high-profile designers this summer, even as it began aggressively staffing up to develop its first PC game.

Confirmation of Flannum’s new role also comes via a recruitment post he published on LinkedIn, suggesting the company is continuing to pour resources into its Seattle-based game division.

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/254789/Guild_Wars_2_lead_designer_joins_Amazon_to_work_on_new_PC_game.php

Never heard of this site.

Dunno anything about him but hopefully he was responsible for the Coat&Skirt plague so we can get better armor variety. ;/

I don’t want to be that guy but…

Maybe it’s better this way? That whole “PvE that doesn’t suck” request was made on his watch, and Anet seems to be moving in that direction with HoT

Not wishing Mr. Flannum Ill, but maybe it just wasn’t a good fit and the new design teams can actually fix some of the (totally unintentional) mess he left behind.

Who is taking up the mantle of lead designer now? (Say Josh Foreman or Robert Gee please.)

As long as the newest Devs are assimilated into the Hive Mind, all will be well.

ANet’s recruiting slogan: Your art concepts and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile!

PopeUrban.2578:

I don’t want to be that guy but…

Maybe it’s better this way? That whole “PvE that doesn’t suck” request was made on his watch, and Anet seems to be moving in that direction with HoT

Not wishing Mr. Flannum Ill, but maybe it just wasn’t a good fit and the new design teams can actually fix some of the (totally unintentional) mess he left behind.

Who is taking up the mantle of lead designer now? (Say Josh Foreman or Robert Gee please.)

Mai Trin is very counterintuitive (logic says stay out of electricity shot by someone with a red name…) while Silverwaste mobs are cheap as all heck if the player group is too small.

Agemnon.4608:

PopeUrban.2578:

I don’t want to be that guy but…

Maybe it’s better this way? That whole “PvE that doesn’t suck” request was made on his watch, and Anet seems to be moving in that direction with HoT

Not wishing Mr. Flannum Ill, but maybe it just wasn’t a good fit and the new design teams can actually fix some of the (totally unintentional) mess he left behind.

Who is taking up the mantle of lead designer now? (Say Josh Foreman or Robert Gee please.)

Mai Trin is very counterintuitive (logic says stay out of electricity shot by someone with a red name…) while Silverwaste mobs are cheap as all heck if the player group is too small.

Disagree on both counts. Mai trin would be an actively worse fight if the thing you had to kite Mai in to was some harmless or benign effect. “Use lightning to short out technology” is pretty intuitive.

As for silverwastes, Those mobs were a breath of fresh air compared to the largely nonthreatening menagerie of “it does a unique thing, but that thing doesn’t matter because you just stand there and hit it in the face” that we had before they were a thing.

Flannum’s missteps as lead designer revolved largely around greenlighting content that had ignorable mechanics, like every world boss, most of the dungeons, mostly ignorable combo field interactions, etc. etc.

AFAIK he was also responsible for such major hits as paid trait respecs, the trait scavenger hunt system, and the general mess that put the game in the “we have non-damage stats that aren’t even a tenth as useful in combat as damage stats” state the game shipped in.

Like, the guy had good ideas, but everything GW2 greenlit on his watch was extremely short sighted, or in denial about how the live game actually worked. It may be that he’s just not outside the box enough to design within the style of less rigid play GW2 uses and a more mechanically complex system like GW1 is really where he shines.

Doggie.3184:

Dunno anything about him but hopefully he was responsible for the Coat&Skirt plague so we can get better armor variety. ;/

HAH! xD this is exactly what popped into my head, as well.

CandyHearts.6025:

Doggie.3184:

Dunno anything about him but hopefully he was responsible for the Coat&Skirt plague so we can get better armor variety. ;/

HAH! xD this is exactly what popped into my head, as well.

I like the longcoats myself. Cool looking BA robes (HoM set comes to mind) are part and parcel for the magus. It’s a fantasy aesthetic.

I understand that some people want more non-longcoat medium armor or more non-robes.

But I wish every other person that wants this would quit minimizing that some of us like the traditional look.

I’d like new looks to choose from in that regard.

I’d concede the floor to a ratio of more non-longcoat looks to longcoats, but you know, don’t forget about folks that think the traditional style is pretty awesome.

Anet’s been doing great about considering charr tails in their newer designs no less. I like new stuff too.

With regards to Eric Flannum, if it’s true, I wish him the best. 10 years is a long time. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to the Guild Wars franchise.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Never heard of this site.

Gamasutra is a game developer news/resource site. Use to be a magazine I once got, a very long time ago. The post-mortem articles were my favorite.

Behellagh.1468:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Never heard of this site.

Gamasutra is a game developer news/resource site. Use to be a magazine I once got, a very long time ago. The post-mortem articles were my favorite.

Site is legit. It’s how I got my last three jobs.

I don’t see this a him not liking ArenaNet’s direction as after 10 years doing something new and the likelihood that Amazon waved a big pile of money in his face.

CETheLucid.3964:

But I wish every other person that wants this would quit minimizing that some of us like the traditional look.

I think most of us just want more options, especially on males.

It’s not even close to the sexy/functional ratio of female heavy armor. On my male human ranger I have 3 armor sets that aren’t some kind of longcoat/buttcape, 2 of which are basically the same armor set with different levels of detail. (Scout/Duelist)

The upcoming, ‘upgradeable’, armor that Shaman datamined months and months ago looks incredible on the female human he rendered it on.

Form fitting leather armor that looks perfect on a Ranger or Thief. One can only hope the male version is basically the same.

http://imgur.com/qqevj6q
http://imgur.com/pYbRYMS

Substance E.4852:

CETheLucid.3964:

But I wish every other person that wants this would quit minimizing that some of us like the traditional look.

I think most of us just want more options, especially on males.

It’s not even close to the sexy/functional ratio of female heavy armor. On my male human ranger I have 3 armor sets that aren’t some kind of longcoat/buttcape, 2 of which are basically the same armor set with different levels of detail. (Scout/Duelist)

The upcoming, ‘upgradeable’, armor that Shaman datamined months and months ago looks incredible on the female human he rendered it on.

Form fitting leather armor that looks perfect on a Ranger or Thief. One can only hope the male version is basically the same.

http://imgur.com/qqevj6q
http://imgur.com/pYbRYMS

I don’t KNOW this, but I’m betting that’s a couple forms of the legendary precursor. Seems to fit with how they revamped the art for the precursor crafing. Baby steps of fancy until the last level adds all the overblown ugly particle effects.

Or it could be a silverwastes style thing and they use that upgrade style of crafting a lot more in HoT.

It’d better not be…

I’ve been looking forward to this set since he revealed it back in January and we are supposedly going to get 2 new sets (I would assume this means 2 sets of H/M/L) in HoT.

If it requires a massive scavenger hunt or multiple Raid runs to get then that’s just depressing.

Substance E.4852:

It’d better not be…

I’ve been looking forward to this set since he revealed it back in January and we are supposedly going to get 2 new sets (I would assume this means 2 sets of H/M/L) in HoT.

If it requires a massive scavenger hunt or multiple Raid runs to get then that’s just depressing.

I’ll take you raiding for it and not yell and be rude like some people if it comes down to it

PopeUrban, I’m starting to think I’ll be stalking you when I’m looking for guild claiming and raid groups … you keep offering.

Substance E.4852:

I think most of us just want more options, especially on males.

I can accept that. I’d welcome it. I just don’t like how jerkass and narrow minded about it some people get.

Folks can have different opinions and tastes.

Substance E.4852:

The upcoming, ‘upgradeable’, armor that Shaman datamined months and months ago looks incredible on the female human he rendered it on.

Form fitting leather armor that looks perfect on a Ranger or Thief. One can only hope the male version is basically the same.

http://imgur.com/qqevj6q
http://imgur.com/pYbRYMS

I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s been done.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ranger_Studded_Leather_armor

Donari.5237:

PopeUrban, I’m starting to think I’ll be stalking you when I’m looking for guild claiming and raid groups … you keep offering.

We’re recruiting to fill ranks for all the shiny new HoT stuff to find one or two raid/regular guild mission groups of people who aren’t jerks to each other and would rather figure out an internal meta than copy/paste one because it’s 2% more efficient!

EDIT: This is totally going off topic. PM me if you like! back to the topic!

PopeUrban.2578:

Substance E.4852:

It’d better not be…

I’ve been looking forward to this set since he revealed it back in January and we are supposedly going to get 2 new sets (I would assume this means 2 sets of H/M/L) in HoT.

If it requires a massive scavenger hunt or multiple Raid runs to get then that’s just depressing.

I’ll take you raiding for it and not yell and be rude like some people if it comes down to it

Oh I expect yelling. If someone’s not emulating “More Dot’s” guy then it’s just not a raid.

I don’t think Eric Flannum’s department was visual design… might be mistaken, but I haven’t heard of him having anything to do with that. But yeah he’s been around for a long time, since the GW1 days I think – it’s probably just that he wanted to do something new, which is totally understandable by this point.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Never heard of this site.

Gamasutra has been around for years and is more of an insider site than a consumer site. They are as reliable as it gets for industry news, IMO.

So, GW2 went free to play.

And NCSoft, despite owning 100% of ArenaNet, has been removing itself from GW2 and won’t publish it anymore.

And now the lead designer has left the game.

Yeah, I’m sure everything is alright. No sir, there’s clearly no sign of trouble here sir.

Test.8734:

So, GW2 went free to play.

And NCSoft, despite owning 100% of ArenaNet, has been removing itself from GW2 and won’t publish it anymore.

And now the lead designer has left the game.

Yeah, I’m sure everything is alright. No sir, there’s clearly no sign of trouble here sir.

You’re a glass half empty kind of guy aren’t you.

Can I have his stuff?

Test.8734:

So, GW2 went free to play.

And NCSoft, despite owning 100% of ArenaNet, has been removing itself from GW2 and won’t publish it anymore.

And now the lead designer has left the game.

Yeah, I’m sure everything is alright. No sir, there’s clearly no sign of trouble here sir.

top 10 worst posts ever.

The writer went to bungie because destiny needed a story, and they have money. People leave, things happen. Making the core game f2p is genius, especially since the game has been on sale for 10 dollars nonstop the past year. Anet didnt want NCSoft on their d——, its the best move for them