ArenaNet



ArenaNet - located in Bellevue, Washington, USA - is the development studio that makes Guild Wars. Their mission is to "create a state-of-the-art, interactive game network and design premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players."

ArenaNet is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Korean company NCsoft, publishers of other MMORPGs such as City of Heroes and Lineage 2.

Note: In colloquial chat, on forums and in this wiki, the name ArenaNet is often shortened to "ANet" or "A.Net".

History
ArenaNet was founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. All three of them came from Blizzard Entertainment and were previously involved in the development of multiplayer online games such as Warcraft, Diablo Starcraft, World of Warcraft and the Battle.Net gaming network.

Note: The new offspring business was originally called "Triforge" when it was established in 2000, but changed name to "ArenaNet" shortly after.

ArenaNet was acquired by NCsoft in 2002.

Staff
Over the years, ArenaNet has grown to 100+ employees. Besides the three founders there are several other staff members "visible" to the community, for example Gaile Gray (community relations manager) or Isaiah Cartwright (skill balancer). A full list of the ArenaNet team can be found on their website (see external links).