ArenaNet, NCSOFT, Bill Roper & GuildWars

[chaka]

ArenaNet, NCSOFT, Bill Roper & GuildWars

I lifted the following blurb from the ArenaNet Faq page for Guildwars:

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ArenaNet is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation, and was founded in March 2000 by key members of the creative teams behind Blizzard’s game series Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, as well as the Battle.net gaming network. You can get a lot of good information about the company at our website: www.arena.net.
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My question is...
Bill Roper and a handful of other key players just left blizzard in the last year. Was there a previous exodus from blizzard around 2000? Is Bill Roper and the latest clan involved with ArenaNet/GuildWars? Can anyone give me the skinny on Ex-Diablo1/D2 programmers?

Thanks

 

[Diab]

Basically, Bill Roper, as well as Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer, and David Brevik, the cofounders of Blizzard North, left Blizzard North to make their own game company, Flagship Studios.

Afterwards, a few other members of Blizzard Entertainment have left the company and made ArenaNet.

 

[chaka]

Basically, Bill Roper, as well as Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer, and David Brevik, the cofounders of Blizzard North, left Blizzard North to make their own game company, Flagship Studios.

Afterwards, a few other members of Blizzard Entertainment have left the company and made ArenaNet.

Well, that doesn't make sense then. I says the other members formed ArenaNet around 2000? Was it a side project up until their official departure last year?

 

[Diab]

I don't know about that, but we first really started hearing about the two companies in 2003-2004, if I remember correctly.

My guess is that Blizzard members have left the company earlier on, -- lesser-known members -- and they have formed ArenaNet. And then, more Blizzard members have joined it.