ArenaNet Reviews

Pros

Company provides great medical benefits and a great work life balance.

Cons

A challenging time for many as the company is growing and is finding a new solid direction.

Pros

Great benefits, great work-life balance, great supportive people across the board, both in terms of personality, and talent.

Cons

The compensation packages are not as competitive as they might be elsewhere. The studio has also struggled to release anything outside of Guild Wars 2 content (which they do a damn good job with) for a long time, so it can be very frustrating to be working on one of the studio's other initiatives.

Pros

Inclusive, liberal workplace. Everyone is accepted and friendly.

Cons

Promotion is based on who you're friends with or who you're married to/dating rather then management being able to identify skills within personnel.

Pros

Smart, creative, and driven individual contributors. Awesome company culture, emphasis on growth and diversity. History of great products that are customer driven.

Cons

Too much project thrashing. Key management do not seem to know what their goals are. Very little accountability, especially at the higher end of the totem poles.

Pros

- I love the culture at the studio. It's unfortunate it's been ruined by huge failures of leadership. - Free drinks and snacks. - Very casual workplace. Think people with blue hair, anime t-shirts, and lots of curse words in normal conversations. - Has a culture of not asking people to work long hours. - Fairly nice modern office.

Cons

- Low pay for the Seattle area. - Leadership which lies to your face. - Layoffs which I believe were caused by a lack of accountability of senior leadership. No senior leaders were laid off even though they made the decisions which necessitated the layoffs. Some voluntarily left just before the layoffs hit and of course they got a raise and promotion out of it at their next job. - Lots of failed projects and churn on teams involved in those projects. - Open office space so there are lots of constant disruptions. - If you drive you are required to pay for your own parking. I have no clue why the company won't cover it and it just seems very petty on their part.

Pros

Wonderful people & culture Life/work Balance Amazing talent Good compensation Fun events throught the year Great facility I had a lot of autonomy and ownership over my work. I also had great mentors which lead to a lot of growth. My team was wonderful and I will miss working with them.

Cons

While I'm aware of some complaints with upper management. In my personal experience, I don't have real cons to offer here. ArenaNet was the highlight of my career.