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ArenaNet
ArenaNet, LLC is an American video game developer and subsidiary of NCsoft, founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington. They are most notable as developers of the online role-playing game series ''Guild Wars''. History The founders of ArenaNet were former employees of Blizzard Entertainment who played important roles in developing the video games ''Warcraft'', '' Warcraft 2'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', ''Diablo II'', and the Battle.net gaming network. They left Blizzard in February 2000 to form their own company. Their new studio was briefly called Triforge, Inc. before changing its name to ArenaNet. The company was acquired by NCsoft in 2002. On September 10, 2008, NCsoft announced the formation of NCsoft West, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. ArenaNet founders Jeff Strain and Patrick Wyatt left ArenaNet to take roles at NCsoft West in 2008, and ultimately left NCsoft in 2009. In October 2019, the remaining foun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guild Wars (video Game)
''Guild Wars'' is a multiplayer online action role-playing game developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of South Korean game publisher NCSOFT, and released in 2005. As the original installment of the ''Guild Wars'' series, its campaign was retroactively titled ''Prophecies'' to differentiate it from the content of subsequent releases. The game contains a co-operative role-playing portion and a competitive Player versus Player (PvP) portion. In PvP, players may use either their co-operative characters or PvP-exclusive characters who are inherently maximum level and have account-based access to unlocked content. Gameplay Players use a 3D avatar to interact with the world around them. The game predominantly features a third-person perspective but also has the option of first-person. These characters are able to walk/run and interact with other characters through chat. They can also perform actions such as fighting and picking up objects, as well as interacting with special object ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guild Wars
''Guild Wars'' is an online role-playing game franchise developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT. The games were critically well received and won many editor's choice awards, as well as awards such as Best Value, Best Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), and Best Game. ''Guild Wars'' was noted for being the "first major MMO to adopt a business model not based on monthly subscription fees", its instanced approach to gameplay, and the quality of the graphics and play for computers with low specifications. In April 2009, NCSoft announced that 6 million units of games in the ''Guild Wars'' series had been sold. The sequel and fourth major entry into the series, ''Guild Wars 2'', was announced in March 2007 and released on August 28, 2012. It features updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, and continues the original ''Guild Wars'' tradition of no subscription fees. The ''Guild Wars'' series had sold 11.5 million copies by August 2015 Publications Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guild Wars 2
''Guild Wars 2'' is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the core game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting Elder Dragons, colossal Lovecraftian-esque entities that have seized control of Tyria in the time since the original '' Guild Wars'' (2005)'','' a plot line that was concluded in the latest expansion ''End of Dragons'' (2022). The game takes place in a persistent world with a story that progresses in instanced environments. ''Guild Wars 2'' is the fourth major entry in the ''Guild Wars'' series, and claims to be unique in the MMO genre by featuring a storyline that is responsive to player actions, something which is common in single player role-playing games but rarely seen in multiplayer ones. A dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eye Of The North
''Guild Wars: Eye of the North'' is an expansion pack to the multiplayer online role-playing game ''Guild Wars'' by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT. It was released worldwide on August 31, 2007. Unlike other games in the ''Guild Wars'' sequence, ''Eye of the North'' requires players to own one of the earlier three campaigns. It features no tutorial content and is intended for characters that have reached level 10 or higher. ''Eye of the North'' does not feature new professions, but has 18 new "multilevel" dungeons, 150 new skills (50 of them restricted to PvE), 40 new armor sets, and 10 new ''heroes.'' In addition, there are new items, weapons, and titles added as usual in every ''Guild Wars'' campaign. ''Eye of the North'' is in part intended to act as a bridge from ''Guild Wars'' to '' Guild Wars 2,'' and introduces the new races of the '' Norn'' (dwellers on the icy slopes of the Shiverpeak Mountains to the north) and ''Asura'' (inhabitants of the southern part of the Magu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rytlock's Critter Rampage
''Rytlock's Critter Rampage'' is a 2013 HTML5-based action-adventure game published by ArenaNet, developed and programmed by Delly Sartika. While not an official sequel to the Guild Wars series, it takes place in the same canon realm known to Guild Wars 2 players as the Super Adventure Box. It was released worldwide on April 19, 2013 for players to experience in web browsers everywhere. It was developed using the Construct 2 game engine. The gameplay of Rytlock's Critter Rampage focuses on exploration, the search for baubles that are used to purchase items such as potions, defeating foes, and rescuing defenseless creatures known as quaggans. The game's story takes place some time before the events of Super Adventure Box, and follows legionnaire Charr warrior Rytlock Brimstone as he goes on a rampage, destroying hostile creatures. Rytlock's Critter Rampage was an unexpected addition to the Super Adventure Box release, and is considered by many players a prime example of ArenaNe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guild Wars Factions
''Guild Wars Factions'' is a fantasy action role-playing game and the second stand-alone campaign in the ''Guild Wars'' series developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT corporation. It serves as both a standalone game and first expansion pack to the base game, which is referred to as ''Prophecies''. Simply referred to as ''Factions'', it introduces the continent of Cantha, inspired by East Asian cultures, where two warring factions, the Luxons and the Kurzicks, are locked in a global persistent war. Players are able to join in this conflict, assisting their chosen faction in claiming towns on the game map. Factions introduced a new PvE campaign, two new professions in addition to the original six, new skills and armor for existing professions, new gameplay modes for both PvE and PvP, and gameplay modifications in response to criticism of the earlier Prophecies campaign. Most of the PvP content from Prophecies is available to Factions-only accounts. Gameplay ''Factions'' uses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike O'Brien (game Developer)
Mike O'Brien is the former president and co-founder of ArenaNet and executive producer of its games ''Guild Wars'' and ''Guild Wars 2''. He led the design and content creation teams of the original ''Guild Wars''. Before co-founding ArenaNet, he worked as a company director and a lead programmer at Blizzard Entertainment where he developed the 3D rendering engine of ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' and led the development of ''Battle.net''. He also worked on ''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', ''Diablo (video game), Diablo'' and ''StarCraft'', where he, among other things, designed and created the MPQ (file format), MPQ archives used in all Blizzard games after Diablo. Mike O'Brien was featured as one of the most influential people in the video game industry on ''PC Gamer's'' September 1999 cover story ''"Game Gods"''. O'Brien also previously developed an Apple II emulator for Windows, AppleWin, and old DOS ASCII game, ''Pyro 2''. In early October 2019, through the official Guil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guild Wars Nightfall
''Guild Wars Nightfall'' is a fantasy action role-playing game and the third stand-alone campaign in the ''Guild Wars'' series developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT corporation. ''Nightfall'' was released worldwide on October 27, 2006 after, having been in development alongside ''Guild Wars Factions'' since November 2005. ''Nightfall'' takes place in the continent of Elona in the ''Guild Wars'' universe. It follows the player's character as they join the Order of the Sunspears and uncover the desire of Warmarshal Varesh to return a long forgotten god to the world through an event called Nightfall. The players, assisted by their hero allies, fight through civil war, ignorant Vabbi princes and Varesh's demon allies as they attempt to prevent the coming of Nightfall. Gameplay ''Nightfall'' is a continuation of the ''Guild Wars'' franchise and so follows the same gameplay principles. ''Guild Wars'' in previous releases attempted a marriage of Player versus Environment (or " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Wyatt
Patrick Wyatt is a game programmer and one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet. He was the leader of the Network and Technology teams and a programmer for ''Guild Wars''. Before the founding of ArenaNet, he was working in Blizzard Entertainment where he was the Vice President of Research and Development and a senior programmer. Wyatt was the leader of Battle.net gaming network's programming and a major contributor on the multiplayer parts of Blizzard's popular games including ''StarCraft'', ''Diablo (video game), Diablo'' and ''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness''. Having been in Blizzard for more than eight years, his work also includes earlier Blizzard games like ''Lost Vikings'' and ''Rock N' Roll Racing''. On February 24, 2010, he became the Chief Operations Officer for En Masse Entertainment, along with other industry veterans. The first official En Masse title, an MMORPG titled TERA (video game), TERA, launched in 2011 in South Korea and 2012 in North America and Europe. Patric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Strain
Jeff Strain is an American entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of three independent video game studios, most recently Possibility Space. In 2000, Strain cofounded ArenaNet, where he worked as an executive producer and programmer on the popular online roleplaying game ''Guild Wars''. ArenaNet was acquired by NCsoft in 2002, and Strain went on to become President of Product Development for the company's North American and European operations. Strain left NCsoft in 2009 and founded Undead Labs, creators of zombie survival series ''State of Decay.'' Microsoft acquired Undead Labs in 2018. As of August 2021, ''State of Decay 2'' had over 10 million players worldwide. In August of 2021, Strain published an open letter, calling for full unionization in the games industry. In 2021, Jeff founded Possibility Space, a distributed studio based in New Orleans, LA. According to a press release, Strain and his team are working on "a joyful game that's been isdream for many years." In an inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with games like ''Rock n' Roll Racing'' and ''The Lost Vikings''. In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and eventually Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard released '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans''. Since then, Blizzard Entertainment has created several ''Warcraft'' sequels, including highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game ''World of Warcraft'' in 2004, as well as three other multi-million s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington (state)
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington Territory, which was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, by the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital; the state's largest city is Seattle. Washington is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Washington is the 18th-largest state, with an area of , and the 13th-most populous state, with more than 7.7 million people. The majority of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of trans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
