Bill Roper leaves Cryptic

Cryptic Studios has announced the departure of chief creative officer Bill Roper after two years with the Champions Online and Star Trek Online developer.

Roper, formerly a director at Blizzard and CEO of Hellgate developer Flagship Studios, blamed his move on a 'restlessness' and a desire for new opportunities.

In a farewell message to the community he thanked players for the support - and criticism - that he'd been able to learn from, and said that he hoped to put that experience to good use in the future.

The full text of the message is as follows:

"For the past two years I've had the extreme privilege of working with an amazing array of talented developers and just plain great people here at Cryptic Studios. Over the past few months my entrepreneurial spirit has become restless, and I've made the difficult decision to move on and look for new opportunities.

"The effort and dedication that has gone into the launching of Champions Online and Star Trek Online, as well as the continued support of these games in the months that followed, shows the passion that everyone here has for the games and our community. And even as verbose as I usually am, I can't properly express how incredibly inspiring it has been to work with the people here at Cryptic and how much I've learned from my time here.

Most importantly, I learned a lot from you – our players. In the months and years ahead, I hope to be able to apply that knowledge and continue to create worlds and games that entertain. Thank you all for both the support and the kicks in the ass that have pushed me to constantly evaluate and grow.

"Finally, you'll see me around because I'm going to continue playing the games that Cryptic develops. I know first-hand the people here deeply care about what they do. It shows in their efforts as they strive to continually make the games better and better. It's been a true honor to have been a part of it all."