ArenaNet: Difference between revisions
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===''Guild Wars 2''=== |
===''Guild Wars 2''=== |
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Announced in March 2007, ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'' will be the sequel to the current ''Guild Wars'' series of games. The game is set around 250 years after the events in the original series and is expected to contain several new features, consisting of a more [[persistent world]] (as opposed to mostly [[Instance (computer science)|instanced]]), dynamic questing, a personal branching storyline, and an updated graphics engine. The game is expected to ship in 2012;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#three|title=Guild Wars 2 Official FAQ|work=ArenaNet|accessdate=2012-04-14}}</ref> Closed in-house [[beta-testing|beta testing]] started in December 2011 and press beta weekend events started being rolled out in March 2012. Beta weekend events open to those who pre-purchased the game, |
Announced in March 2007, ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'' will be the sequel to the current ''Guild Wars'' series of games. The game is set around 250 years after the events in the original series and is expected to contain several new features, consisting of a more [[persistent world]] (as opposed to mostly [[Instance (computer science)|instanced]]), dynamic questing, a personal branching storyline, and an updated graphics engine. The game is expected to ship in 2012;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#three|title=Guild Wars 2 Official FAQ|work=ArenaNet|accessdate=2012-04-14}}</ref> Closed in-house [[beta-testing|beta testing]] started in December 2011 and press beta weekend events started being rolled out in March 2012. Beta weekend events began in April 2012 and are open to those who pre-purchased the game, those who received an invite by signing up and those who obtained a beta key from a giveaway. |
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On the morning of 20 August 2009, ArenaNet released the first trailer for ''Guild Wars 2'' on their website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guildwars2.com/en/|title=Guild Wars 2 First Official Trailer|work=ArenaNet|accessdate=2009-08-20}}</ref> |
On the morning of 20 August 2009, ArenaNet released the first trailer for ''Guild Wars 2'' on their website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guildwars2.com/en/|title=Guild Wars 2 First Official Trailer|work=ArenaNet|accessdate=2009-08-20}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 08:41, 19 June 2012
| Company type | Subsidiary of NCsoft |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video games Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | Spring 2000[1] |
| Headquarters | Bellevue, Washington, U.S.[2] |
Key people | Mike O'Brien Patrick Wyatt Jeff Strain |
| Products | Guild Wars Prophecies Guild Wars Factions Guild Wars Nightfall Guild Wars: Eye of the North Guild Wars 2 |
| Owner | NCsoft |
Number of employees | 270[3] |
| Parent | NCsoft |
| Website | http://www.arena.net/ |
ArenaNet is a video game developer and part of NCsoft Corporation, founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington. They are the developers of the episodic Competitive online role-playing game series Guild Wars.
The founders of ArenaNet were former employees of Blizzard Entertainment who played important roles in developing the highly successful video games Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Diablo II, and the Battle.net gaming network. Their new studio was briefly called Triforge, Inc.[4] before changing its name to ArenaNet and being acquired by NCsoft.
On 10 September 2008, NCsoft announced that all their North American and European subsidiaries, including ArenaNet, were to be governed by a new division named NC West (a tentative name), headquartered in Seattle, Washington.[5] ArenaNet will no longer report directly to NCsoft Korea.[6] Three of ArenaNet's executives left ArenaNet to assume leadership positions in this new organization: Chris Chung became its CEO, Jeff Strain its president, and Patrick Wyatt its CTO. Guild Wars 2 will continue under the direction of Mike O'Brien, who remains at ArenaNet.[6] In August 2009, Jeff Strain quit and later announced he was forming a new game company.
Titles
Guild Wars Prophecies
Guild Wars is a game that merges the Action RPG and the role-playing video game game genres into one, with competition in both the player versus player (in random matches, teams, tournaments, or guild battles), and player versus environment (in missions, quests, or area exploration) forms. The developers call this blend a CORPG, short for competitive online role-playing game. Important goals of the game are both to minimize the amount of repetitive actions a player has to perform to become a respectable force in the gaming world (called grind), and also to minimize a player's dependency on game items to stay competitive. These are two goals that set the game apart from most MMORPG's, where one hardcore player will gain major advantages when competing against another more casual gamer simply from having played the game more and found better items. In Guild Wars, the advantages in battle will instead come from how well a player picks and uses the character's 8 skills (from a library of hundreds), an art that is hard to master. The game is different from most MMORPG's in that it did not have any additional recurring fees, but bases revenue on standalone game expansions, or "campaigns" (in addition to microtransactions). This structure was discontinued with Eye of the North, which was a traditional expansion pack that required one of the three standalone campaigns. Arenanet stated that this was because they felt that this format was restricting their ability to add new game mechanics and balance the overwhelming number of skills introduced with each title, and decided to begin work on Guild Wars 2 to address these issues (with Eye of the North bridging the gap between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2).
Guild Wars Factions
Guild Wars Factions is the first sequel to Guild Wars, and among other things adds a new world map with accompanying missions, two new professions (the Assassin and Ritualist), several new gaming modes, and "titles" which measures the advance of characters in several tasks. It is sometimes referred to as the second "chapter", with the first one being the released game itself, but then with the label Guild Wars: Prophecies to make a distinction between the chapters. Be aware that this is not an expansion pack, but a stand-alone product, meaning that it does not require Guild Wars: Prophecies to play, although it enhances the player's gaming experience to have both titles.
Guild Wars Nightfall
The third chapter in the Guild Wars saga, titled Guild Wars Nightfall was released on 27 October 2006. As with the previous chapters, this is a stand-alone product, but it can be merged with the previous campaigns to enhance the gaming experience. This third chapter introduces a new world map, two new professions (the Dervish and Paragon), a new PvP mode, but its most remarkable new feature is the introduction of "Heroes" who travel with the character between missions and campaigns and are fully customizable by the player.
Guild Wars: Eye of the North
Eye of the North is the first true expansion pack in the Guild Wars series. Released on 31 August 2007, it requires one of three earlier full campaigns, and introduces two new races—the Asura and the Norn—that will be playable in the upcoming Guild Wars 2. It is intended to bridge the gap to Guild Wars 2 by means of a Hall of Monuments, a mechanism that allows transferring achievements in the original series to the sequel.
Guild Wars 2
Announced in March 2007, Guild Wars 2 will be the sequel to the current Guild Wars series of games. The game is set around 250 years after the events in the original series and is expected to contain several new features, consisting of a more persistent world (as opposed to mostly instanced), dynamic questing, a personal branching storyline, and an updated graphics engine. The game is expected to ship in 2012;[7] Closed in-house beta testing started in December 2011 and press beta weekend events started being rolled out in March 2012. Beta weekend events began in April 2012 and are open to those who pre-purchased the game, those who received an invite by signing up and those who obtained a beta key from a giveaway.
On the morning of 20 August 2009, ArenaNet released the first trailer for Guild Wars 2 on their website.[8]
References
- ^ "About ArenaNet". Arena.Net. Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Contact ArenaNet". Arena.Net. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "This Week In MMO 52: Guild Wars 2 Hands On". NCsoft (pdf and excel files). 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2009.
- ^ "Triforge Games Will Be New Venture For Senior Blizzard Programmers". ArenaNet press release. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
- ^ "NCsoft Announces Formation of “NC West”". NCsoft. 10 September 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2008.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Post by Regina Buenaobra, ArenaNet's community representative". 11 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
- ^ "Guild Wars 2 Official FAQ". ArenaNet. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
- ^ "Guild Wars 2 First Official Trailer". ArenaNet. Retrieved 20 August 2009.