Chris Metzen Interview, New Battle.Net Avatars, Fan Art - Anduin: The Little Lion

Chris Metzen Interview
Scott Johnson had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Metzen and talk to him about how he is doing and the how the community treats artists they disagree with.

We've recapped some of the major points below, but listen to the entire thing for context!


  • Whenever Metzen would draw Thrall, he would draw him a little bit more upright than other Orcs
  • Early Blizzard played lots of Samurai Shodown 2 and Wan-fu was one of the characters. Wan-fu has a necklace of balls, which was the inspiration for Thrall's Balls.
  • Metzen had back surgery and couldn't move around as much for four months.
  • It's hard to watch people get attacked because their movie, comic, or game displeases some number of people out there.
  • Metzen isn't going to attack a director publicly on the internet if he didn't like a movie, he'll just not buy a ticket to his next movie.
  • During Diablo 3 when there was a lot of controversy over decisions, the community really raked Jay Wilson over the coals. He just happened to be the public face at the time.
  • Metzen was very lucky, as he was a public face for many years, occasionally did or said something stupid, and the fanbase would call him out. This included things like Red Shirt Guy. He made a mistake on stage under pressure and confused two characters.
  • Metzen always felt very embraced by the community, and was appreciative of that. The internet can turn on you quickly and it would be hard to re-establish trust.
  • What if you wanted to be an artist, filmmaker, or make games, but you grew up with an internet that literally stoned people that displeased them. What kind of incentive is that for a young person with imagination right now?
  • There is sometimes an appalling lack of empathy for the artists that are standing up there and trying to keep the discussion going. There is a lack of empathy for that person and their heart, imagination, soul, and their spin on things. Take a step back and take a breath, everything in life isn't going to please you.
  • If you didn't like something, such as the Last Jedi, take the opportunity to introduce someone to an expression of Star Wars that you love. Take the opportunity to engage positively. Pay forward elements of the franchise you loved.
  • Christie Golden being attacked was embarrassing to Metzen on behalf of the community. Christie is an important voice on the Story and Franchise Development group at Blizzard and helps the game developers expand the story of the game.
  • Metzen tried to hire Christie Golden for years, as she is an amazing voice and storyteller.
  • The attacks on her were not only misplaced, but unfair and unjust.
  • The last Warcraft thing that Metzen worked on was the BlizzCon 2017 Battle for Azeroth cinematic. They started on it over two and a half years ago.
  • Every expansion people complain and lose their minds, complaining that everything sucks and the game is ruined. Then a couple months later, we are into the expansion and the tone has shifted to "This is the most Warcraft it's been ever". Let the story play out.
  • Have some empathy for the artists that are giving you everything they've got. You may not agree with every decision they make, but they are people too.
  • Metzen isn't interested in going back to a regular job, such as a Creative Lead, anytime soon.
  • Metzen had the chance to do a voice for an upcoming animated show recently. It was a very limited part, but it was fun to get back in the studio. It was nice to be part of something creative that didn't rest on him.
  • If Metzen comes out of retirement to do something big, he wants to build a show that people love. An adventure that fires the imagination and heart, about people growing up together and finding themselves together in the midst of really high octane geeky stuff.
  • Some of the things that used to drive Metzen crazy while he was at Blizzard he now has a fondness for after looking back at them.
  • Metzen feels much better than he did two years ago in his last interview. Stepping away from Blizzard worked.
  • Remember that empathy is important, especially in today's climate. Things are tense and there is a lot of hate out there, so to find that same kind of binary aggressiveness in our hallowed nerdy halls is disconcerting. We are supposed to dream the big dreams of a fantasy of a better tomorrow and being better people.
  • We are all in it together, be good to each other.


Battle.Net - New Avatars Added
Battle.Net added some new avatar options for players with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for players that pre-ordered.






Fan Art - Anduin Wrynn: The Little Lion
Embran released a nice cut of multiple cinematics that focus on Anduin.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Chris Metzen Interview, New Battle.Net Avatars, Fan Art - Anduin: The Little Lion started by chaud View original post
Published on 2018-08-10 08:30 PM
124 Comments
Comments 123 Comments
  1. Nienor's Avatar
    "Metzen isn't going to attack a director publicly on the internet if he didn't like a movie, he'll just not buy a ticket to his next movie."

    More people should take this piece of advice. Instead of paying for a sub-par, mediocre product they should just spend their money and time in a better place.
    On the other hand it's only natural to get annoyed when you see some idiots messing up something wonderful and loved and want to be vocal about it.
    In the end I think the most powerful tool is the $$$$. Stop paying and they will hear you. Keep paying your $$$$ and they won't respect you and your opinion.
  1. volition's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by VanishO2 View Post
    The same thing apply to your reasoning: Not necessarily true.

    Unless the raid was balanced around those two doing that dps (and actually with people only playing those two classes because of that), then yes, you would need to re-balance it.

    But the truth is that this is hardly true and they just didn't pay attention (by mistake, "dev pride" or lazyness to name a few reasons) to those two outperforming and doing much more than they prepared the content for.

    We've seen that plenty of times over the story of WoW raid and world 1st races. Like "wow! check out the druid bleed damage! It's insane... STACK DRUIDS!". That raid was never balanced around that insane bleed damage (and of course not for druid stacking).

    Never forget that not only they nerf the top two bringing their performance in line with the other 10, but they also buff those two instead of nerfing 10 when the oposite happens (like it did happen at the begining of Legion).
    You're right. I didn't consider that. I'd like to think math is being done to estimate required damage for encounters with enrage timers. But you're right, for fights without enrage, it's probably not crucial to have the group hit a dps threshold.

    I don't disagree with your closing statement either, it was largely just a response to the idea that buffing the bottom performers to bring them up in line was the same as nerfing the top performers.
  1. Cel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nienor View Post
    "Metzen isn't going to attack a director publicly on the internet if he didn't like a movie, he'll just not buy a ticket to his next movie."

    More people should take this piece of advice. Instead of paying for a sub-par, mediocre product they should just spend their money and time in a better place.
    On the other hand it's only natural to get annoyed when you see some idiots messing up something wonderful and loved and want to be vocal about it.
    In the end I think the most powerful tool is the $$$$. Stop paying and they will hear you. Keep paying your $$$$ and they won't respect you and your opinion.
    But in certain markets, media especially, paying with your wallet doesn't really make that much noise and takes a long time to pull the attention to the industry as what is acceptable or not.

    Using Last Jedi as an example: 1.321 billion USD

    Do you think it would have made that much if people knew what they were going into? The Last Jedi was garbage, but it was already paid for. If you speak with your money on the next product (which very well may be great for all you know) not only was the message that The Last Jedi was terrible completely missed, as its years later, but the premise that it did well just because of sales is a false premise (not to mention that you are technically judging a new product you haven't experienced yet, purely based off of past experience).

    The Force Awakens did: 2.066 billion USD.

    This certainly shows that the new movies are not trending well. I personally believe The Force Awakens was pretty awful. According to 'speaking with your wallet', The Last Jedi shows this, but its clear that speaking with your wallet didn't work here as the Last Jedi received far more out-cry and dislike then The Force Awakens. With the shit show that The Last Jedi was, I'm assuming the next Starwars will be another step down (and my only curiosity is if Disney will ever learn their lesson).


    This doesn't all apply the same way to WoW though. as WoW is a subscription based form of entertainment, stopping your sub speaks much louder then paying for a crap movie and in turn deciding to not pay for one you haven't experienced yet.

    But WoW in this same regard does have the ability to 'float' so to speak on bad production (weather you see it that way or not) just due to the blind followers, the people that don't give a crap about the story but like the rest, or just use WoW as a means to community and the rest is icing...

    Speaking out is fine, should be encouraged, and everyone benefits from good communication (even if the message isn't about positives). We as people just need to not mix up childish behavior in that (or mistake reasonable criticisms as childish behavior).
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