Mark O'Brien, "In the summer of 2000, Pat, Jeff, Brett, Brandon, Gaile, Josh and I worked out of the living room of my apartment. We dreamed of mixing role-playing and strategy, of delivering a constant stream of new content into an online world, and of doing it with a friendlier business model than we’d seen before. That first summer we didn’t have much but we had a great team, and built the beginnings of what became Guild Wars and ArenaNet.
We couldn’t have known then the extent of the journey we were embarking on or all the wonderful and talented people who would join us along the way. For the past two decades we’ve gotten to work with brilliant developers and advisors, we’ve enjoyed an amazing relationship with the Guild Wars community, and were able to pursue the games of our dreams.
I’ve appreciated every moment of it. But the time has come for me to take a step back. Next week I’ll join some of my friends in forming a new studio. We’ll go back to the beginning and make small games again."
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-message-from-mike-obrien/