Important Community Announcement

[Nusquam]

Hi guys,

Two of our long-term Anarchy Online developers, Genele and Macrosun, have decided to leave the company, as they will be relocating back to their homelands in Scandinavia, to pursue other opportunities. They have both been pillars of AO development during the past few years, with Genele pushing dozens of updates into the game, including the (New) New Player Experience, and Macrosun being the driving force behind the new engine reaching its current beta state.

It’s always tough to lose developers, especially those with the dedication and drive that these two have consistently shown throughout our time working together. Everyone on the team wish them all the best and thank them for their hard work over the years.

So the next question is, what does this mean for Anarchy Online, the new engine and future development?

The reason that we formed a Live team a couple of years ago is so that we have competence sharing across the games and so that when people inevitably move on, we don’t lose all of the knowledge. With that in mind we have now passed on many of the duties shared by Genele and Macrosun to our other live team coders and developers. We will also be hiring more developers for our live team, and they will also be working on Anarchy Online going forward.

I am very excited to announce that long-time Funcom and Anarchy Online veteran Henry "Michizure" Senger will be picking up the torch from Helene, and you can expect to see a lot more of Henry on the forums as he takes over many of the important design tasks, including the ever-looming 18.7 patch. We've shifted a large part of the coding responsibility to our other live team coders, and we also look forward to bringing in new people to the live team to work on content and features planned for Anarchy Online.

Of course losing competent and knowledgeable people does have some impact on our development schedule, so we've had to rearrange some things and tune our schedules to make sure we can deliver on our vision for the game. Originally we were planning to patch 18.7 to live this month. We have now delayed it until we have had the chance to give it a thorough going over with the new designers. It is a large and complex patch and we want to be a hundred percent certain that we understand all of the intricacies of the patch before we make it live.

Additionally, because Macrosun was the technical coordinator on the new engine, it causes some challenges on the code side. It will take our live coders some time to get themselves acquainted with the engine and all that it entails. The beta will remain up and running and we hope to get past beta status as soon as we can.

As I mentioned, we are also filling several new positions to replenish the strength of the Live team. Experience with Anarchy Online is obviously a major plus – please check http://www.funcom.com/jobs/durham in the near future and send us an application if you want the opportunity to work with your favorite game!

Thanks for listening,
Joel

[Aiken]

The times they are a'changing.

I hope the changes bring happiness to you both & thankyou for all the work that you have both put into the world of Anarchy Online.

[Mastablasta]

Thanks for all the fish!

Will see you guys for a beer sometime I have been planning to visit Stockholm for a while.

[Poko]

I knew michi was the new gd i love youuuu

[Tomium]

I can assure you that kissing up to Michi will get you nothing.... but hugs!

[Jihnna]

Lol @ Tomiums last comment.. how ridiculous... why would anyone bother to kiss up to an AO developer anyways ?

That being said, kinda sad about all the hard time alot of us(yes, me included) gave Genele. I hope she finds a job she really enjoys

[Demoder]

You've brought a lot of awesomeness to the game and community, and I'm sad to see you go. I hope the move back home goes smooth, and that your future is awesomer than awesome!

I hope the live team is up to the task of taking over the torch, although they have some pretty big metaphorical shoes to fill. May Ergo save us all, and not unleash The Beast on us too soon.

PS: Don't drink unboiled water the first week back home

[Sephiroth56]

I think Anarchy Online needs a bigger wish of luck than these two do.

Thanks for the dedication, Genele, Macrosun. Thanks for all the hard work you've put into the game. Thanks for caring so much for this game to carry it forward.

Thank you.

[Vhab]

Welcome back to Europe. I foresee kebab in your futures.

[Gorathon]

Of course losing competent and knowledgeable people does have some impact on our development schedule, so we've had to rearrange some things and tune our schedules to make sure we can deliver on our vision for the game. Originally we were planning to patch 18.7 to live this month. We have now delayed it until we have had the chance to give it a thorough going over with the new designers. It is a large and complex patch and we want to be a hundred percent certain that we understand all of the intricacies of the patch before we make it live.

Whew, dodged that bullet. You almost said that 18.7 wouldn't be pushed to live until you had addressed feedback from the players. Glad to hear that kind of thing won't muck up your release schedule.

[Macrosun]

Bye guys!

[Genele]

Goodbye everyone!

And best of luck to Michizure and the Live team.
Michizure is a great designer who has played AO for a long time.
I know you are in good hands.

[Mina]

O.o Holy moly Batman! G'luck, will miss ya!

[Voiran]

cya

[Transform]

All the best to Genele and Macrosun!

[Ekarona]

Best to you guys. I can't even imagine how much hard work this has been to you in recent times.

Now AO though...

[Autohead]

Oh f***...Macrosun is leaving? That's it...

Game over, man! GAME OVER!

[Agrestus]

Good luck you guys, and thanks for bringing so much to AO!

[sezmra]

Genele, Macrosun -- this cookie will miss you terribly. Thank you for all of the great work you've done for Anarchy Online. Good luck in your future endeavors!

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Good luck!