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

[chaud]

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.

[The Stormbringer]

Good stuff, very good stuff. I think I agree with most of what he said.

I like the little nod to Bill and Ted at the end. "Be excellent to each other."

I really hope he winds up doing more voice-over work or announcements! I loved him at those.

[Rikkof]

u attacked teh wow players because they dared to speak against the changes and the extra monetization that EA (woops, i menat to say Blizzard) are tryign to push into the game.....you called teh players various names in your last post
Metzen, you are FILTH
wow IS GOING down down down nananananana



Infracted: Here is a great example of how not to act.

[Aradrius]

u attacked teh wow players because they dared to speak against the changes and the extra monetization that EA (woops, i menat to say Blizzard) are tryign to push into the game.....you called teh players various names in your last post
Metzen, you are FILTH
wow IS GOING down down down nananananana

Troll away, little light.

[majesta]

I like the little nod to Bill and Ted at the end. "Be excellent to each other."

I really enjoyed that bit a lot.

A lot can be said about the empathy part and other humans. Been a real lack of it in recent years.

Is it wrong to want him back on Warcraft?

[Kathranis]

u attacked teh wow players because they dared to speak against the changes and the extra monetization that EA (woops, i menat to say Blizzard) are tryign to push into the game.....you called teh players various names in your last post
Metzen, you are FILTH
wow IS GOING down down down nananananana

I thought this had to be written ironically until I read the user's post history.

How does the education system fail a person so hard? We need to do better.

[Deleted]

It's sad to see how toxic the community has become. Metzen can't even tell people to stop harassing developers and stop arrogantly assuming they know everything about an expansion that hasn't launched yet. You can judge a movie that you've watched, but to judge a book based on its first page is pretty ridiculous.

[Deleted]

Wow that video

[Kieldon]

He's right, you know. Not that it will change anything.

[Paraka]

He's right, you know. Not that it will change anything.

From what I witnessed in Trade Chat (I know the irony of this example), I think we are years from ever reaching a good example of progress to that realization.

[babyback]

It's sad to see how toxic the community has become. Metzen can't even tell people to stop harassing developers and stop arrogantly assuming they know everything about an expansion that hasn't launched yet. You can judge a movie that you've watched, but to judge a book based on its first page is pretty ridiculous.

It’s not the community it’s the general climate that is on the internet right now. It is extremely toxic and I’ve never felt it has been like this before and I’ve been on the internet for like 20 years or so. There is this thing going on that you get swarmed by people as soon as someone dislike what you say or do. It is pretty terrifying if you think about it.

[Bathory]

I'm glad he's doing much better, that last interview about his retirement had me pretty down. He sounded like he was in a bad spot. Always got love for Metzen.

[The Stormbringer]

I really enjoyed that bit a lot.

A lot can be said about the empathy part and other humans. Been a real lack of it in recent years.

Is it wrong to want him back on Warcraft?

It's not wrong, but I don't think he'd come back to his previous position. It'd be neat to have him on as like a part-time helper or something, though.

[Stacie]

Good stuff, very good stuff. I think I agree with most of what he said.

I like the little nod to Bill and Ted at the end. "Be excellent to each other."

I really hope he winds up doing more voice-over work or announcements! I loved him at those.

Glad i'm not the only one who picked up on that ^^. Hope Metzen does well in whatever he does next, i'm sure he will.

[lazaros742]

Errr sorry but I pretty much read that as, I dont want anyone to have to take responsibility for what we do. He talked about Jay Wilson being the face of D3, well guess what on launch it was horrible and missing a shit load of stuff... at that point the person who is the face, gets raked over the coals and rightfully so. The Christie Golden situation is complicated... they told us the war would be morally grey... but at this point they are lying and i cant possibly see a logical reason for both sides to work together to fight a greater evil. How in all hells can anyone trust the horde that has not once, but twice gone with a leader who is crazy and killing everyone. They cant or wont stand up to monsters so how can we trust them anymore? Its not just that though... they have thoroughly destroyed the lore of so many characters. Tyrande abandoning her people for Malfurion and just giving up when she was willing to lose him to protect the temple of elune literally the last expansion. She is a story writers, she has to understand the concept of consistency and yet... the lore is worse than its ever been and the logical writing is even worse. Like seriously, catapults that can launch over an entire landmass, horde not doing shit about Sylvanas using the blight, following another mass murdering psychopath... Dont get me wrong, I am willing to give praise when its deserved, but so far this entire start of the xpac, of which Golden has been involved with, has been absolutely horrible in regards to story and lore and doesnt set the tone for what they said it would. She deserves to get shit, but she doesnt deserve death threats.

[Onikaroshi]

I thought this had to be written ironically until I read the user's post history.

How does the education system fail a person so hard? We need to do better.

Over-reliance on Standardized testing and Common Core Math... that's how.

[SniperCT]

Errr sorry but I pretty much read that as, I dont want anyone to have to take responsibility for what we do. He talked about Jay Wilson being the face of D3, well guess what on launch it was horrible and missing a shit load of stuff... at that point the person who is the face, gets raked over the coals and rightfully so. The Christie Golden situation is complicated... they told us the war would be morally grey... but at this point they are lying and i cant possibly see a logical reason for both sides to work together to fight a greater evil. How in all hells can anyone trust the horde that has not once, but twice gone with a leader who is crazy and killing everyone. They cant or wont stand up to monsters so how can we trust them anymore? Its not just that though... they have thoroughly destroyed the lore of so many characters. Tyrande abandoning her people for Malfurion and just giving up when she was willing to lose him to protect the temple of elune literally the last expansion. She is a story writers, she has to understand the concept of consistency and yet... the lore is worse than its ever been and the logical writing is even worse. Like seriously, catapults that can launch over an entire landmass, horde not doing shit about Sylvanas using the blight, following another mass murdering psychopath... Dont get me wrong, I am willing to give praise when its deserved, but so far this entire start of the xpac, of which Golden has been involved with, has been absolutely horrible in regards to story and lore and doesnt set the tone for what they said it would. She deserves to get shit, but she doesnt deserve death threats.

There's a massive difference between offering feedback and attacking people. Or attacking a game in general. Devs tend to respond a lot better to reasoned and thought out critique than they do some of the awful things I've seen flung at various games and dev teams.

These people are human, and they deserve to be treated well, regardless of one's opinion of a video game. That's the point that Metzen is trying to make.

[Abysthor]

I hope some people take this to heart. I too have become embarrassed for the community. Every little thing that goes into this game gets over analyzed, people bandwagon together, and then comes the attacks and memes. Its like people just enjoy complaining together and complementing themselves over how much better they could do it. But really its all just arrogant, ignorant, and petty. Relax people. Learn to enjoy things. Or don't and just move on instead of trying to tear everything and everyone down.

[Onikaroshi]

Errr sorry but I pretty much read that as, I dont want anyone to have to take responsibility for what we do. He talked about Jay Wilson being the face of D3, well guess what on launch it was horrible and missing a shit load of stuff... at that point the person who is the face, gets raked over the coals and rightfully so. The Christie Golden situation is complicated... they told us the war would be morally grey... but at this point they are lying and i cant possibly see a logical reason for both sides to work together to fight a greater evil. How in all hells can anyone trust the horde that has not once, but twice gone with a leader who is crazy and killing everyone. They cant or wont stand up to monsters so how can we trust them anymore? Its not just that though... they have thoroughly destroyed the lore of so many characters. Tyrande abandoning her people for Malfurion and just giving up when she was willing to lose him to protect the temple of elune literally the last expansion. She is a story writers, she has to understand the concept of consistency and yet... the lore is worse than its ever been and the logical writing is even worse. Like seriously, catapults that can launch over an entire landmass, horde not doing shit about Sylvanas using the blight, following another mass murdering psychopath... Dont get me wrong, I am willing to give praise when its deserved, but so far this entire start of the xpac, of which Golden has been involved with, has been absolutely horrible in regards to story and lore and doesnt set the tone for what they said it would. She deserves to get shit, but she doesnt deserve death threats.

You do realize that War of Thorns was story boarded out and all that prior to Golden getting hired right? She wrote the lead up book yes, but she didn't have a hand in the Warbringers shorts or Old Soldier.

[Deleted]

It’s not the community it’s the general climate that is on the internet right now. It is extremely toxic and I’ve never felt it has been like this before and I’ve been on the internet for like 20 years or so. There is this thing going on that you get swarmed by people as soon as someone dislike what you say or do. It is pretty terrifying if you think about it.

I agree, the WoW community is worse then ever before but so are other places on the internet. You should watch the movie idiocracy sometime, it's a comedy from 2006 but it explains perfectly why the world is heading in this direction.