Posts tagged mike-obrien 
ArenaNet president defends microtransactions and in-game RMT in Guild Wars 2
MMOs have to make money; that's a fact of life (and of business) ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien knows quite well. In an interview with VentureBeat, O'Brien explained how the studio is handling the monetization for Guild Wars 2 and blasts RMT companies for their practices. O'Brien addressed ...
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of ArenaNet's (totally awesome) offices
Guild Wars 2 fans are surely champing at the bit to get their hands on the game next week in the game's first public beta weekend, but you know what's cooler than taking part in GW2's beta weekends? Doing so at ArenaNet's offices in Seattle, which is exactly what the folks at Eurogamer got to ...
ArenaNet clarifies Guild Wars 2 CE pre-purchase options
There's been a bit of confusion concerning Guild Wars 2 collector's edition pre-purchases of late. ArenaNet's Mike O'Brien took to Reddit earlier tonight to address the issues, and he had plenty to say about retailer reservations as well as the fact that Amazon isn't listing the CE. The long ...
ArenaNet expands on microtransactions in Guild Wars 2
ArenaNet has put up a new blog post with information about Guild Wars 2's cash shop system as well as some of the philosophy behind the game's microtransaction design. Mike O'Brien, ArenaNet president and Guild Wars 2 executive producer, started off the post by saying that the microtransaction ...
Flameseeker Chronicles: What lies ahead
To say last week was exciting for Guild Wars 2 fans is a bit of an understatement. Mike O'Brien gave the community the news it's been dying to hear, Ree Soesbee told us all about the Jotun (no, seriously, I hate those guys and their stupid KDs), and... well, some other things happened too. ...
Guild Wars 2 confirmed for 2012, public beta coming [Updated]
ArenaNet founder and president Mike O'Brien rocked the Guild Wars 2 community very early this morning with a blog post celebrating 2012 as the year of the dragon and the official launch year for Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 recently finished up a very small closed beta test, and now ArenaNet is ...
Mike O'Brien discusses the business of ArenaNet
It's hard to become invested in MMOs and video games without learning something about the industry at play -- an industry of repeated layoffs and mergers, acquisitions and shuffling ownership, and a whole lot of passion and drama over seemingly inconsequential subject matter. The acquisition of ...
An ArenaNet retrospective: "We're not a video game company, we're a community building company"
"I don't think I've seen a studio more passionate about its work." Massively contributing editor Larry Everett made this comment regarding ArenaNet in our recent Staff Choice Awards, and his timing couldn't have been better. ArenaNet has begun 2011 in a big way with the ArenaNet retrospective. ...
The Perfect Ten: The movers and shakers of 2010
Even though MMOs are the products of great teams of talented workers -- from sound artists to writers -- it's inevitable that a few of the people behind the curtain step out into the limelight. It's a smart move, really; it provides a personal face for people to associate with the game, it keeps ...
Flameseeker Chronicles: PAX 2010 travel diary
It's Sunday night and PAX is over. My iPhone and laptop are screaming for mercy. It's been a wild ride, I have the Con Crud, my feet hurt so much I keep checking to make sure they're not stumps, and all I want is to turn the clock back to last Friday so I can do it again. I had appointments ...
