I have been playing video games for as long as I can recall having memories. There are literally dozens of video games that I feel have stayed with me as touchstones. I would have to say that my first was Atari’s Football arcade game. As a child, I distinctly recall being told by my mother to watch after my younger brother after she left us at an arcade to go shop at Richard’s, a popular department store at the time. I willfully ignored my sibling as I became entranced with the LITERAL X’s and O’s on the screen. Luckily, my brother was found after he wandered out of the arcade. I was 7.
(For those namby-pamby folks that read that last anecdote and want to rage against my mother, FUCK YOU! This was 1978, shit was different back then, and none of us died! My mother, now age 67, is a kick-ass mom. If you want beef, know that she will kick your FATHER’S ass! Go yell at a wall or something!)
Where was I? Oh, yeah.
A good smattering of those touchstones revolve around Blizzard Entertainment. I first played a Blizzard game – unknowingly – when I rented 1993’s Rock n’ Roll Racing for the Super Nintendo. It was a good game, but nothing otherworldly. The 1994 release Blackthorne was awesome but didn’t move the dial all that much.
1998’s StarCraft was the first Blizzard game that truly rocked me. That was the first time I was affected by Chris Metzen.
Mr. Metzen, who announced his retirement from active game development at Blizzard after a 20-year plus career, became a staple of my gaming life from that moment on. Many of my fondest gaming memories involve that man in one way or another.
I initially did not take Chris’s retirement well. Yes, he is entitled to call it quits whenever he wants, but I did not like my gaming prospects too much without him at Blizzard. He has been the defacto loremaster of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo series. I felt my enjoyment of World of Warcraft was directly affected by Chris’s departure. As a person who LOVES the Diablo series, I felt the world of Sanctuary would wither away without his stewardship. These are facile and juvenile thoughts, and I admit as much. But I feel them anyway.
Chris Metzen’s Impact
Chris Metzen joined Blizzard in the early 90s. The company was finishing up Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and he helped finish up the game on his arrival. His impact in that series, however, would not be felt until the game’s sequels, which I was unaware of at first. Warcraft 3, the first Warcraft game I would play, had his fingerprints all over it.
I was more interested in StarCraft at first. Chris Metzen was the one who helped flesh out Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor. Chris Metzen was the one who added the lore to an otherwise standard RTS, making me feel more for the stakes of the battles than I ever felt playing Command & Conquer. It was the lore that would always pull me in.
That lore was what absolutely mesmerized me when I played Diablo. Admittedly, I played the original PlayStation release, not the PC version. But the game hooked me with its dungeon crawl and loot mechanics…and its lore. When Diablo II released in 2000, I was fully entranced. Sanctuary was literally that for me and my family.
The thing about StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo is that its lore is immediately recognizable. I look at a StarCraft: The Brood Wars screenshot and recognize everything I see there. It’s not because of my familiarity with the game; it’s because I know the lore of everything I see. THAT attention to detail is credited to Mr. Metzen. Blizzard’s games for the last 20 years have borne his stamp. Every story, every turn in the narrative has some of his influence in it. When I played Warcraft III, the first game in the series I ever loaded up and ran, I saw all the hallmarks of his storytelling. From Arthas Menethil’s to Sylvanas Windrunner, the lore was rich, oftentimes tragic, but never dull.
That sentiment carried me into World of Warcraft, a game I did my best to avoid but eventually bought into in 2008. From the day I signed up, deep in the Burning Crusade’s storyline, to now, I have rarely been disappointed with the campaign or the lore.
(A recent exception is WoW’s Warlords of Draenor expansion. That game can go eat a lead-lined hamburger for all I care!)
Sad Goodbye for Chris Metzen
According to Chris Metzen, he is leaving Blizzard to focus on his family. That is as noble a reason as any other. I literally worked through my son’s formative years, and I have tried desperately to make up for the loss of his childhood with my daughter. Family should be first, and I am envious of anyone like Chris who can stop their career to focus on family first. I know he hasn’t been the only creative force at Blizzard, but he has been a large part of the Blizzard that I lived through. As you leave, Chris, here is what your work at Blizzard has meant to MY family:
- In 2002, I had three PCs set up at my house: one for me, one for my then-wife, one for my son, age 8 at the time. When my 12-year old nephew would stay over in those days, he would commandeer my then-wife’s PC and we would play Diablo II all night. My best friend’s son would eventually join us via Battle.net to play. We did this for YEARS!
- In 2010, years after my divorce, I was deep into WoW raiding the Icecrown Citadel with my guild. My daughter had an emergency that required me picking her up to stay with me. My son was already with me, and he took over my spot in the raid. (Mom was there to supervise, namby-pambies. Go open a lemonade stand or something!) In the process, I infected him with raid fever! He has not recovered since.
- In 2012, I had fallen behind in World of Warcraft with my main’s gear because of long nights at work. As a way to get my main up to speed, I BRIBED my son! I promised him that if he got my main up to snuff, I would buy him Diablo III at launch. He fulfilled his end; I fulfilled mine. One month after the game’s launch on PC, I bought my own copy of Diablo III. I followed up with purchases for the PS3 AND PS4. I still love playing the game today!
- In 2013, my daughter got her own World of Warcraft account. This was important because I was finally able to revert my main’s gender back to male. My daughter became so enthralled with the game that I sacrificed my main’s gender for her the year before. My guild still needles me about that.
- OVERWATCH OVERWATCH OVERWATCH OVERWATCH OVERWATCH OVERWATCH!!!!!! My son and I cannot get enough of the game, and the fact that we have to choose between it and WoW nowadays should be unfair!
Chris Metzen, I weep for your retirement, but I smile for your future. I hope that the next step in your life rewards you; you have more than earned it. But I am sad because so much of my gaming life has revolved on you. May you find as much happiness with your family now as your tenure at Blizzard has given me and my family for years. After more than 20 years of creating some of the most incredible worlds in gaming, you have earned the ability to enjoy your own world. Godspeed!
