The award-winning MMORPG Guild Wars 1 is in a strange situation: It was released in 2005 and has actually been in maintenance mode since 2013, so for 11 years, it is no longer being developed. ArenaNet’s focus is on Guild Wars 2. But somehow, there is still something happening with Guild Wars 1, especially for its 19th birthday. While Ubisoft simply shuts down old games, ArenaNet continues to support them.
This is the situation with Guild Wars 1:
- Only one developer at ArenaNet, Stephen Clarke-Wilson, worked as a “part-time janitor” on Guild Wars 1. He himself refers to his role as “part-time Game Director, programmer, janitor, and so on.” In 2018, there were still 2 developers, Clarke-Wilson still had the help of Bill Freist.
- Clarke-Wilson has been with ArenaNet for 19 years and is actually the “Vice President Technology.” In this role, he worked on the development of online platform strategies.
- Since April 2024, however, his role has changed to “Game Director Guild Wars” (via linkedin), which seems absurd: Why does a basically dead MMORPG need a Game Director?
Guild Wars 2 is actively being developed, and discussions about a Guild Wars 3 are currently taking place:
Experienced developer is now Game Director
This is what the developer says: He talks about a post in the game’s wiki (via wiki.guildwars), saying that his working hours have been redistributed for a few weeks. Previously, he worked 10% of his time on Guild Wars 1. Now it is 80%.
He has largely handed over his previous tasks.
So what is he doing with Guild Wars 1? The veteran developer first lowers expectations, stating that Guild Wars 1 is still in maintenance mode. There are no plans for new content.
He still has a lot to do in the game’s backend, but he will fix some “long-standing issues.” He hopes to improve the player experience in Guild Wars 1.
Unusual gesture to put so much love into an old game
This is what lies behind it: Stephen Clark-Wilson began his career in 1978, 46 years ago, and has been with ArenaNet for 19 years. The man seems to have a status within the company that allows him to do what he wants, and he obviously wants to polish and improve Guild Wars, fix bugs, and put the game in a better state.
This is a nice, unusual gesture from a company and a developer to dedicate themselves to an old gem instead of always working on new projects.
ArenaNet is a counter-model to Ubisoft, which even intentionally deletes games from players’ libraries.
Perhaps it is worth a visit to the game: In Guild Wars 1, the birthday celebration has been running since April 22 and will last until May 6. They are celebrating the release of the game on April 28, 2005.
Recently, there has been a stir around the publisher of Guild Wars:
Guild Wars 3: Finally a new MMORPG has been announced, but the announcement was terrible
