This Friday will be my last day at Arena Net. After seven years of Charr, Icons, Poobags, Dragons, delivered lunches, Battlefield Desert Combat grudge matches, 4 shipped games and Kekai's sweet smile, I'll be moving on.
My new gig is going to be at Undead Labs as the art director. Given the fact that I love the zombie genre (and have since 1988, when Curtis Pitt rented Dawn of the Dead for his slumber party) and pitched my first zombie game in 1997, with a slew of other pitches over several years (Three alone at Arena), you'd think this would have been an easy decision. It wasn't.
I went back and forth for a long time. It's selfish, but I wish Arena had fallen apart. I wish the projects became shitty and the people soulless shells that just punched buttons on their keyboards. That way I could walk away from this place with a 'fuck you' and not look back. It didn't. Instead it stayed amazing, and even more wonderful people joined. So now leaving is hard, and it'll takes a few weeks at the new job to fully accept my own decision.
The people here are tremendous, and their talent is unmatched in the MMO world. Having played Guild Wars 2 I can honestly say that the whole fantasy MMO genre is about to have it's teeth knocked out. The only teeth that will be left are the ones that it'll be choking on. Then it will die, and all that will be left is GW2. It's epic. As epic as Greg's overpriced French Dipped sandwiches.
So that's that, it's been a helluva ride.
Doug
9 comments:
Doug, man I can imagine how you must feel... Arenanet has great guys and artists. I think you were a family there, all working towards the same objectives - that of producing great quality art. I think you have done a good step, being an art director will involve new challenges that will help you develop a better personality and most of all share and improve art skills.
I hope that you still keep updating this blog. You will be working on your favorite field - zombies...
I will have Xia's interview of you at Arenanet as a memory of you at work, the one he did some years ago. Such a good memory. Wish you all the best, look forward and see the new possibilites of growing - you are a great artist! Take care.
Luca
Leaving a job that you love where everyone's your friend is always tough. I had to make that decision myself a couple of yours back. I've never regretted it, but at the time it was a huge decision for me. Good luck making more zombies!
Congrats doug! Hard to imagine a cooler gig then zombie MMO....
Dang man, end of an era! Good luck at your new gig Doug. Godspeed!
I like your site, can i please put a link to it on my new blog: http://www.thelegalhounds.blogspot.com ?
thanks
wow man that's great..congrats on the art director gig.
Dear Doug,
Zig Zag Productions are producing a 1hr documentary for National Geographic entitled 'The Truth Behind Zombies.' Within the film we will be investigating the origins of the first mentions of zombies within the Voodoo religion, how this changed and morphed into the zombie character that we know today in film and media, and finally the hypothetical possibilities of a real zombie or rage virus outbreak. We will be interviewing a wide range of experts on both sides of the Atlantic, including Voodoo Priests, Government advisers on virus outbreak, and author Max Brooks (Zombie Survival Guide.). One part of the show will be an introduction of the various examples of Zombies in media so among poster, films, games etc we will use comics to demonstrate this. We want to use some of your artwork for the show and was if you could get in touch as soon as possible.
Kind Regards
Joe John
joseph.john@zigzag.uk.com
Glad to hear you are at Undead Labs. You are a terrific match. Good luck to you.
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