All things must end; and so it is with mixed emotions that I am announcing my departure from the project and the company.
I want to make it clear that this is for personal reasons and my parting from the company is under good terms. I absolutely wish the company and project well going forward and I know it is being left in competent hands.
Mussagana will be taking over much of my content responsibilities and I have left him my recommendations for the LFR/LFG, Arenas, itemization, tweaks for Cetriss, the next dungeon revamps and a number of other things. Tilty, who you may know from TSW, will assume the direction and higher level design decisions; we worked together on the Rise of the Godslayer expansion so I know he will continue the good work he was part of there. As he is fully integrated into the live team in North Carolina he will hopefully bring more leverage than I could in assigning shared resources to AoC and that will be very positive for the players.
It’s been a long and wild ride, almost 7 years in the making; here are a few of the ups and downs:
Highs
• Adding a long overdue achievement system and breathing new life into the old world of Hyboria.
• Creating and seeing the panoramas come to life and doing justice to the epic Hyborian landscape.
• Unleashing the ‘Riddle of the Ziggurat’ in the House of Crom, and seeing a lot of the player base come together to slowly put the pieces together.
• Seeing the first piece of work I worked on when I joined the company (the Mines of Chosain) go live.
• Joining the players on testlive to preview the World Boss and PvP Festival events.
• The Temple of Erlik’s original encounters.
• The concept for the star map mechanic in the Zodiac chamber.
• The occasions where I have really had the time to interact with the player base and fan sites, and take in their input.
This list could go on a lot lot longer, there are a lot of experiences to feel proud of.
Lows
• Not being able to see the Arena through to its completion.
• The missed opportunity with Shadows of Vanaheim, I still believe that the tales of Hyboria can be a great addition to the game if executed and released correctly.
• Many good friends who have gone their separate ways.
Other lows I will keep to myself.
As I look back I am sorry to leave Hyboria, there is much more I would have liked to have accomplished, more I would have done differently given the chance and still more that could have been improved had available resources been different. But I still hope I leave Hyboria a better place for my time spent in it.
Finally I would like to thank you the players for your continued support, loyalty and passion for the game through the highs and lows and for you kind words or valid critiques, which help us do our job, and I will miss the community.