Can Blizzard surrvive without Chris Metzen?

[hrugner]

I think the company would do very well if some of the older faces retired. They have a large amount of people who have been there at the top for a long time.

[Deleted]

I think it's undeniable that the story, and atmosphere that Metzen brings to the table is pretty good, but what about after him? Can the franchises Blizzard has created survive with out his contributions?

No it's not. Metzen's stories are terrible 90s fantasy clichés. Many of his characters are Mary Sues and he pushes the Orcs way too much. If anything the story can only get better.

[LilSaihah]

I honestly just don't think that Metzen is very good.

He's decent at building a world but the stories are just bler.

[SodiumChloride]

I second the view that it would be an improvement - assuming they don't just replace him with some hobo off the streets.

The leader of one of the three dwarf clan is hardly "a little detail"

Outside of screaming "for the horde" each blizzcon he is overrated imo. Not bad at all, but warcraft took just a LOT to warhammer. And I blame him a bit for not having more breathtaking moment (when will wee see a major character brutal death ? Cairn is the only one iIcan remember and being killed by an obvious poison trick was meh)

Let's not forget, he got Sargeras' origin wrong during the introduction of BC ... an expansion heavily involving the legion.

His excuse? "It was so long ago." ... Seriously, how hard is it to double check stuff that you wrote? Heck, it was right there in the official Warcraft Encyclopedia (http://wowpedia.org/Warcraft_Encyclopedia) published around that time. Keeping the lore straight is your fucking job!

Other than that, Warcraft's lore is really very derivative. As mentioned, it borrows a heck of a lot from the Warhammer franchise. Things like the Twisting Nether (known as The Warp in Warhammer) and how it's the source of all magic as well as how the use of magic use weakens the fabric of reality inviting in demons, is straight out of Warhammer.

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I honestly just don't think that Metzen is very good.

He's decent at stealing a world but the stories are just bler.

FTFY. 10 chararara

[Ballantines]

After this Jar Jar Binks expansion I think you could hire any aspiring lore writer and put him in charge of lore and he'd do a better job.

Hell, put me in charge, I will give you war, and you will love me for it. You think the vale of eternal stupid subplots was tragic? I'll blow up that entire continent.

At least I remember that the entire message of this expansion was already said once before in an entire game devoted for it, and better. You might have heard of it, small project called Warcraft 3.

[arcaneshot]

Hell, put me in charge, I will give you war, and you will love me for it. You think the vale of eternal stupid subplots was tragic? I'll blow up that entire continent.

Then the guys in the art department would hang you and the guys in the quest department will complain about messing up their gameflow.

[Thimagryn]

Well, I'm pretty fucking sure as the Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, that would basically be your job. lol

He's paid to create, not paid to remember. Even George R R Martin needs to check up on references for his own material, and many fans and associates have pointed out mistakes he's made for characters that he created. It's easy for us fans to filter through all the canon because all we know is canon, we don't know the numerous iterations of story that lead up to the final result.

Fans have that problem today when discussing lore, especially when the RPG books were made non-canon. You'll have people referencing the RPG books, only to later realize that the canon lore is still unexplained and ambiguous. It's a lot of information to sift through when you're at the top of the creation process, and I can't blame Metzen for the constant shifting the Warcraft universe has to go through just to keep things interesting. It's not like Tolkien's universe where everything is set and known; Warcraft is constantly evolving to provide a better experience.

[Deleted]

I think in terms of lore developers, Blizzard just need to throw in some fresh blood on the table and have Metzen switch jobs with the accountant. Even a guy like that would do a better job at evenly balancing the story around all relevant Warcraft characters and races.
This is because of Metzen's obsession with Orcs and especially Green Jezus a.k.a. Go'el.

[Thelxi]

Survive? more like invigorate and potentially thrive.

[Romeothecat]

Yes, although there will probably be a void a when he is gone. He seems like Blizzard's Miyamoto.

[Deleted]

Who would voice everything if he left?

[Kromkar]

Who would voice everything if he left?

Then he should stay as a voice actor,but I bet there is alot of talented young voice actors out there needing a job..

[Queen of Hamsters]

MoP has had some of my favourite storytelling to date. Not sure if that is thanks to him or not, but it'd take a LOT for them to sink so low that even the people that don't care about story would find it cheesy and wanna quit. Other, new mmos are taking care of that piece of the cake just fine.

I would miss him. Put aside all the complaining by other people (this game ain't pay to play, it's pay to complain it would seem) and he's still been involved in the game that took me by storm and has managed to keep me interested for 5 years now. NO other game that I played 5 years ago is currently installed on my PC or on my PS3-shelf. They're in boxes and in storage.

[Krolikn]

No doubt things would actually improve.

[McNeil]

Metzen seems very overrated on this board, he isn't that great of a writer. Especially when he tries to shove down his in-game avatar Thrall in our throats.

Metzen stepping down is potentially even BETTER for Blizzard, ofcourse they can easily survive...

[Fluttershy]

Metzen used to be good.

But it's pretty clear after seeing SC2/D3 that you can hire random guys from fanfiction.net to do a far better job than him.

[Windfury]

I think it'd be an improvement. Give the lore a chance to move away from it's obsession with Orcs.

[SL1200]

If star wars can go on without George Lucas, and Star Trek can go on without Gene Roddenberry; Warcraft would be fine without Chris Metzen.

[Deleted]

Half the blizzard characters would be without voice actors!

o.O ofcourse that alone makes him quite valuable.
unless we dont mind thrall and varian (and lots of others) going mute all of the sudden.

ofcourse they could change voice actors if he cant do it anymore, but it would sound wrong.

[Deleted]

o.O ofcourse that alone makes him quite valuable.
unless we dont mind thrall and varian (and lots of others) going mute all of the sudden.

ofcourse they could change voice actors if he cant do it anymore, but it would sound wrong.

It would sound better. Metzen uses the same voice for every character he does. Filters/editing aside, his range is extremely limited. "Growly warrior" is about all he's able to do.