The future of World of Warcraft seems to be in good hands as “story legend” Chris Metzen seems to have his fingers deep in the next addon.
Over the past 20 years, many World of Warcraft developers have left the Blizzard team, and there’s almost always a debate as to whether any of the veterans are still around.
But there is one who has returned: Chris Metzen. Originally hired only as a “story advisor” when WoW was down with Shadowlands, he now seems to have a much bigger role – one that could shape the next addon.
Who is Chris Metzen? Chris Metzen is the original story chief behind the Warcraft franchise. He dreamed up the original story, created the backstory and is fundamentally responsible for making Warcraft what it is today. From “Vanilla” to “Warlords of Draenor” he was the driving force behind the story.
Apart from that, players of the English version probably know him as the voice in the game – he voices characters like the shaman Thrall or the fire elemental Ragnaros.
Where does the info come from? The information comes from the YouTuber Taliesin. Together with his partner Evitel, he has been reporting on World of Warcraft for a long time and keeps providing analyzes and opinions on current events. Over the years, the two have established some contacts with the Blizzard team and therefore learn a lot of internal things. Some of them never come to light, because of course you don’t want to endanger the employees, others turn out to be useful.
The explanation begins at minute 9:47:
As in the current case: According to Taliesin, several employees from the WoW team have told him independently that Chris Metzen’s role in the WoW team is significantly larger than assumed.
Chris Metzen is said to be spending a lot of time with Steve Danuser and Ion Hazzikostas to work on the future of WoW. Metzen is therefore a currently indispensable member of the WoW team and thus far more than just a “story consultant”.
This also coincides with a tweet from Mike Ybarra, who revealed that Chris Metzen will be speaking about the future of World of Warcraft at the upcoming BlizzCon.
It had already been announced in advance that Metzen would play a larger role in the Warcraft franchise. At the time, however, many dismissed it as “PR” and did not expect that anything would really grow out of it.
What does this mean for WoW? For all WoW fans who remember the “good old days”, this should be a positive thing. If Chris Metzen has a greater influence on the story again, then we should – at least presumably – be spared story debacles like Shadowlands. Already Dragonflight felt much more coherent than the previous addon and that could be a trend that is continued here.
We’re still a few months away from BlizzCon in November. But all “Metzen fans” should be looking forward to the fair – because it seems pretty certain that Chris Metzen will be presenting what he and the team have been working on over the past few months.
There will be a little more story in WoW soon:
After 20 years, here’s the night elf heritage armor – I’m sure it’s also available through story quests.