In 2010, when ArenaNet was ready to let fans get their hands on Guild Wars 2 for the first time, it was no small effort. While two dozen of us went off to Cologne to unveil the demo on the floor of gamescom, the rest of the studio stayed in Bellevue and prepared for the ultimate all-nighter: To simulate the experience of full servers, ArenaNet staff at home flipped their schedules to play the game alongside attendees in Germany.
During the week, I was working in the gamescom business center and driving demonstrations for press. I always had one ear on my presenter and the other on a Ventrilo channel with the command center back at home. Our conversations went something like this:
“We’re exiting character creation in two minutes.”
“Roger that. We have escorts in the tutorial.”
“The elemental is down. What events are running in Shaemoor?”
“Bandits are in the field with five waves to go.”
“Alright, I just got the signal that we’re skipping to the Shatterer. Spawn the dragon.”
“The dragon is up.”
“And we’re about to wrap up; tell the team to hit him hard.”
“Shatterer is down. See you in 15.”
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