ArenaNet Reviews

Pros

Art, programming teams are among the best in the business

Advice to Management

Focus more, and trust the folks doing the work. Not everything needs to be micro-managed, that's why you hire adults.

Pros

The employees are nice and fun to work with. The social atmosphere is relatively relaxed for games.

Advice to Management

Reevaluate the senior staff. Be more discerning in hiring or be more willing to fire dead weight.

Pros

Free snacks and soda and company giveaways; location is good; benefits are good compared to my girlfriends company but need better 401k match; food truck is nice to have

Advice to Management

Look at your pay practices not competitive people do leave for compensation. Bad management practices too so start looking at decisions being made carefully

Pros

They really care about their employees. They truly want you to love working there and be happy. All roles are very stable(AFAIK there's never been any layoffs in 10+ years). Culture is friendly and supportive.

Advice to Management

The best work we've put out has come from driven individuals trying to surpass expectations. Focus more on cultivating a work environment which encourages people to try new things, and make sure they have access to the resources to let them do that. Frequently stuff is too compartmentalized with top-down directives limiting what people can attempt.

Pros

- Work environment (cool studio, kitchen with free snacks and drinks)
- Work-life balance (even in crunch times)
- Benefits (great insurance, provides medical, dental, vision, life)
- Management trusts their employees to do a great job without micro-management (Trust but verify)
- The game is at the core of the company's decision-making structure; everyone is dedicated to making the greatest game possible, all the way to the top of the org
- Teams and individuals' opinions and input matter
- Everyone loves what they do, and it shows
- Flat organizational structure

Advice to Management

Keep focus on making the greatest games possible (like you already are) and ArenaNet will continue to put out some of the highest quality titles in the industry.

Pros

Relaxing place to work at. It isn't stressful really ever.

Pros

Super chill place to work at and I haven't met a person that wasn't friendly

Free snakes and drinks, lunch orders are cheap too (no tax or tip) lol

Free ArenaNet classes for everyone ranging from management, life drawing to learn new tools

Weekly team meetings and monthly ArenaNet meetings are always a Big Plus!

Pros

work and life balance
great opportunity for career building
working with talented people, friendly environment

Pros

Fantastic culture, opportunities to learn, teach and be involved with other teams. Gorgeous studio with free snacks available. Lunch can be delivered by ordering in the morning taking out the hassle of eating midday. Building has a gym and cafe in it. Decent healthcare benefits. Profit sharing benefit. Flat company hierarchy. Founder and VP are approachable, and invested, a lot of management mirror this leadership style. They strive for a good work/life balance and take care of you if you choose to go above and beyond when needed. Monthly free salad bars started recently. Transparency into things happening at the studio. HR/IT teams really go out of their way to ensure you are comfortable while you are working.

Advice to Management

Invest in SIGs, aid leaders in ensuring team members are working on teams/projects that make the individuals happy. Keep being transparent and showing us that you work as hard as us.

Pros

Work/Life balance is the big winner at ANet. I have plenty of time to spend with friends, family, hobbies, or other ventures without any need to use PTO to fit these into my life. My schedule is my own and I'm trusted to get my work done - no micro-managing of hours has ever taken place for myself nor anyone that I work closely with. All hands are required to work 'core hours' from 10a to 4p and can allocate the rest of their hours as they see fit (start early - leave early or start late - leave late). This is immensely helpful when dealing with Seattle's horrendous traffic.

Other pluses are pretty standard for the industry. Relaxed workplace and culture leads to allowing people be who they are. You can work in jeans, shorts, or a suit. It's up to you. Pants are required; blue hair is optional.

Kids are often seen in the company game room; along with the guys practicing for a Street Fighter tourney or a great round of MTG following each new release.

Benefits are top notch with two buy in levels available to match your needs (I've seen very few packages this good).

Teams within ArenaNet are generally very close-knit and are very quick to protect and guide other members of their team.

Advice to Management

Spin up a team to work on people development. This is a gaping hole within ArenaNet. There is untapped talent in the ranks and extreme talent leaving for larger studios. Keeping them should be a priority in order to support the companies' current goals. Losing talent when there are seats to fill is counter productive and costly.

Consider leadership roles for the company and keep them free of tasks. Leaders are needed to motivate and inspire and my teams could only think of 3 people doing this - and 2 of them aren't in leadership positions.

Remember; leaders aren't necessarily managers and managers aren't necessarily leaders. Keep the two separate if needed.