User:Shana Gitnick



What I do
I am a content programmer, currently working with Mark Young and Joe Kimmes. Together we code the skills, missions, quests, npcs, items, and special events that make Guild Wars a vibrant world, instead of just a beautiful tech demo. Our pod motto is: "This is where the magic happens."

I started working at ArenaNet in October 2005, right after the release of Sorrow's Furnace. In addition to working on Guild Wars: Eye of the North, my team and I code special events and festivals, such as the Dragon Festival, the Canthan New Year, Mad King Thorn's Merry Halloween, and Wintersday. We also fix bugs related to content with all three campaigns.

A few of the things I've coded include Alliance Battles, Fort Aspenwood, the Shing Jea Boardwalk, Abaddon's Gate, the Hall of Monuments, and Polymock. 

Random Facts

 * I was first taught a bit of BASIC when I was 7, but I really didn't start coding in earnest until I was 10.


 * I first installed Linux when I was 14.


 * My favorite game (other than Guild Wars) is Quest for Glory IV.


 * My first (albeit non-paid) gaming programming gig was working on the Two Towers lpmud under the name of Lady Uinen. My contributions there include levels 5 & 7 of Minas Tirith, the revamped Rivendell (circa 2000), Laketown, the nine man's morris sub-game, and Muzah, the Jewelrymaker.


 * I graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1999. Our mascot was Testudo the Terrapin. I guess this is why I'm very fond of turtles. Especially turtles wearing siege weaponry. ^_^


 * I have been a member of the Society of the Creative Anachronism for the past twelve years. My specialties are twelfth century costuming and medieval music. I perform with various English Country dance bands on my rebec and fiddle.


 * My first job out of college was doing driver support for Inoculan onsite at Microsoft during Windows XP beta development.


 * I worked briefly for Boss Game Studios on a Sega Dreamcast title that was, sadly, axed.


 * I spent three years doing audio/video work for Via3, a virtual conferencing program. Job responsibilities included writing interfaces for web camera drivers using VFW, DirectX6 and DirectX8; working on acoustic gain control and echo cancellation algorithms.


 * The first thing I wrote for Guild Wars that went live was the squash serum and the "Ghost in a Box" given away by Mad King Thorn during the '05 Halloween event.


 * My worst mistake was the day the script broke for the Ghost in the Box, and hundreds of Ghosties were spawned in Kamadan American District 1. :(


 * I bear absolutely no resemblance to Sheena the Vile Henchman, Shanda Ginkit or Captain Shehnahr. None in the slightest. Absolutely and totally none what-so-ever! Well... maybe a little bit. :)

