The Daily Grind: Which MMO developers do you appreciate?

MMO players are undeniably full of passion and energy, but that often comes with a dark side -- we can be quick to judge developers' directions and jump on every mistake, perceived or real. So instead of being down on developers this week, a few bloggers have taken it upon themselves to throw "Developer Appreciation Week" (DAW). In it, they put aside criticism and acknowledge the individual MMO devs and dev teams that have done a lot of good for the genre, and who might be unappreciated for all of the hard work that they do.

So which developers do you appreciate? Who are the ones that do an outstanding job reaching out to the community? What teams "get" how to make and run a MMO in a superb way? Which devs are engaging, intelligent, witty and insightful? And -- most tellingly -- have you ever named an in-game character and/or real life child after your favorite dev?