If that was just the first 20 minutes, then there's hope indeed. :-) (We'll see, maybe I'll have the time to listen to it later. No hatred towards Metzen.)
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OK, I found a transcript for those like me who don't have an hour for the interview (didn't read the transcript yet, just skimmed a bit), courtesy of Fruk, US-Blackhand (thanks, mate):
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My summary is larger than I wanted it to be, I numbered things so it'd be easier to read through my wall of text.
1. Talked about his spinal surgery and the aftermath, his doctors told him he pretty much couldn't lift anything heavier than a mug for 4 months
2. The beads Thrall wears around his neck were inspired by the character Wan-fu from Samurai Shodown II, which Chris says is the best fighting game of all time
3. Talked about how nerdy interests are at an all time surpless, talked about how no one would have expected Ant-Man or B-tier superheroes would have successful movies and nerdy interests to be so ubiquitous in our culture
4. Chris mentions that there's so much content to consume, that of course not all of it will be A+ content, and he feels he's seeing a lot of creators "getting mauled" by people disappointed in what they put out
5. Scott asks Chris if he thinks the strong reactions on the internet might be due to a "false ownership" type of thing, the example used is Star Wars and the newest movies; "I don't like what you've done to MY Star Wars", #NotMyLuke, etc
6. Chris says that there is a sort of "geek psychology", where when we consume the things we are passionate about, we want to talk about it, dissect it, what went wrong, what went right
7. Chris talks about the newest Star Wars movie, said he loved it overall, didn't care too much for the casino part, but he did enjoy Luke and Yoda's interaction, whereas many people did not
8. Said it rattled him when he saw the hate and disrespect for Rian Johnson as an artist, and not wanting to see what Rian Johnson was bringing to the tableau of Star Wars, but rather fans wanting things to go their way. Says its okay to not like the movie, but you shouldn't throw darts at the director for it.
9. Admits among friends he'll "throw poo" at directors, but he'd never go on the internet just to tear someone down. Essentially says that if a creator goes in a direction that he doesn't like (lists Transformers as an example), he'll simply stop consuming the content.
10. Chris brings up that sometimes creating content isn't always in the hands of a single person, how studios and producers and other factors can get involved, despite the actual movie makers being great at their job (he uses the Warcraft movie as an example). In big productions, you don't always get what you set out for and compromises are made all the time.
11. He talks about how when Diablo 3 launched, there was a lot of criticism and how the Diablo community rolled Jay Wilson over the coals. Said it was bizarre to watch him get roasted because he's one of the nicest and most hardworking people he knows, that Jay sometimes had to champion changes that even he wasn't 100% behind but the Diablo team was and that people were savages to him and it was hard for him to watch.
12. Scott asks Chris if he ever came under fire. Chris replies that he was lucky, and that the few times he got heat were because of dumb things he said, and that he "earned" it, lists redshirt guy as an example, but never got set up in serious hate
13. Scott mentions redshirt guy slept on his couch one time
14. Chris says that fanbases going after creators feels like it's at a feverpitch. Says that even though this may sound overly dramatic, he fears that the overly aggressive fanbases may be turning people, who just want to tell a story or entertain, away from art.
15. Chris brings it back to geeks have this innate needs to dissect content and that's healthy, and that fanart and fanfic is glorious and relational, but sometimes the dissection gets taken to a level that's devoid of empathy for the creator and their heart and their spin on things
16. Chris says if you hated Last Jedi, instead of trashing it, you should turn a friend on to an expression of Star Wars that you love. You should always take the opportunity to engage positively.
17. Scott shifts the conversation to Christie Golden and the heat she's receiving. Brings up the point that the plot is decided months, sometimes years in advance. Chris said that the game team will come up with a plot element, and come to the story team to help them express this idea. Says that Christie is not singularly in charge of the lore/story.
18. Chris said that the hate she received was so misplaced and unjust.
19. Chris said he doesn't have any current insight to the story, said the last thing he worked on was the cinematic where Anduin does the shiny gold dome thing, which was 2 1/2 years ago. (This would've been around Legion's release, for context) Now he's just fan.
20. Says this kind of happens every expansion with alarmists and people freaking out. Says people should have some faith, patience, but most of all empathy for your fellow human beings.
21. Chris says that negativity on the internet has a snowball effect, and will create a circuit of negativity
22. Scott wonders if some of the negativity for War of Thorns might be because people have a hard time separating the anger at Sylvanas committing genocide from the people who made her do it
23. Metzen states that he's hoping Saurfang takes Sylvanas out, and stands up for the old school Horde. Says he's having fun experiencing content as a fan for the first time.
24. Scott asks Chris if he's doing anything creative like comics and whatnot, Chris states he currently has no impulse for doing any creative stuff. He's been painting a Warhammer army, but at the moment he's just enjoying retirement and parenting.
25. Chris says he got the opportunity to voice someone else's character in a cartoon/concept cartoon. He made it sound like it was a side character, but he really enjoyed it.
26. He says he really enjoys "soft-jamming" ideas with his daughter. He really enjoys watching Avatar: Last Airbender. Says if he ever came out of retirement, it'd be to make a cartoon. Something that's high-octane and will build people up.
27. Interview ends with him just kinda talking about how he's enjoying life
I hope I did a good job of writing what Chris was trying to convey. He is very passionate about people having empathy for each other. I think a big point he was trying to get across is that creators are just trying to tell a story, to entertain, and to just put stuff out there, and even if you don't like what you see, you should always try to build people up, not tear them down.
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...636885#post-10