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Chris Metzen, Senior VP of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment and the legendary co-creator of hit games including "Diablo," "Warcraft," and "StarCraft," is retiring at age 42.
Metzen's retirement was announced internally to Blizzard employees late Monday afternoon, Business Insider has learned.
In a post on Blizzard's forums later on Monday, Metzen confirmed the move, saying that he wants to spend more time with his wife, children, and their newborn baby.
"Being home with them all, having time and space to really live…to love my wife with all my strength…that’s my career now," writes Metzen.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/blizzard-senior-vp-chris-metzen-is-retiring-2016-9?r=US&IR=T
Wow, retiring at 42. And from Blizzard. :O
EDIT: Oh darn it, typo in the main title. Can a mod fix please? EDIT: Thanks for fix!
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He was great at world building, but damn his last decade or so wasn't that good. Oh well, we'll see how long he stays retired until he finds something else to do, I can't see him staying at home being dad for long :D
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I just saw this. TL didn't put that on the news ?
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Metzen suffered from what he feared the most, corruption. He got corrupted by money and fame (and coke/alcohol). As he was in the recent years, I'd say, good riddance.
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given the quality of writing in every blizzard game sans overwatch starting from 2008, this can only be seen as a good thing. i couldn't finish sc2 given how bad it was, and diablo 3 made me cringe whenever i heard an arch-demon of strategy openly telling me his plans or the "lord of lies" being blatantly honest about impersonating someone. they could have had the community write the games and they would have been a thousand times better. Metzen is a hack, and i know he didn't personally write everything but you can be sure as hell that he signed off on it all.
Also, there seems to be little cohesion between art/writing/audio/ui departments nowadays at blizzard, leading to the whole storytelling package to be worse. in D2 the audio and aesthetic helped to form a cohesive narrative, where as D3 was forgettable in every respect. SC2 was similar, although I liked some of the OST. not sure if Metzen was also the creative director, which would have been in charge of all these things cohesively meeting, but i feel like he would have had input
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From what I've read recently (I have no source), I get the feeling he was gradually pushed away from the teams and was perhaps given less important functions. He had no part in Legion and people are saying the game is great, though I can't imagine it's because of revolutionary creative writing on Blizzard's part. It's no secret that anything "creative" by Blizzard has been a bit off for the better part of a decade, at least until Overwatch (IMO). Hell I think he did a lot of work on the Warcraft movie and the plot of that thing was a mess.
Maybe he left of his own will, I have absolutely no idea, but if he did get pushed out, I can't help to feel bad for him. He's still kind of a legend, even though his career is not ending on a high note.
Endymion is saying that Metzen didn't personally write anything, but I was under the impression that he was responsible for much of the writing for the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo universes before it was shit.
+ Show Spoiler +
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Both Pardo and Metzen complained about the difficulties and frustrations of working in large teams. Personally, I prefer working on a team of 5 or less. I have no clue how a coder can work in a team larger than that. I can't imagine working on something very cool for 6 months and having it all thrown away.
Metzen and Pardo both probably have 2 year non-compete clauses. Maybe in 2 years he'll be back in the industry. Metzen is probably saying he is "retiring" to keep his wife happy.
Once Metzen and Pardo got a taste of the small team dynamic with Hearthstone... 
On September 16 2016 17:45 valaki wrote:
Metzen suffered from what he feared the most, corruption. He got corrupted by money and fame (and coke/alcohol). As he was in the recent years, I'd say, good riddance.
At his worst he looked sleep deprived and he had the cokehead look. could be puffy eyes are genetic in his family. without seeing his parents and siblings that "cokehead look" isn't really evidence. Now, if none of his relatives have that look and he is not adopted... well now we can start up the "Metzen was a cokehead" rumours.
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On September 16 2016 23:54 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Both Pardo and Metzen complained about the difficulties and frustrations of working in large teams. Personally, I prefer working on a team of 5 or less. I have no clue how a coder can work in a team larger than that. I can't imagine working on something very cool for 6 months and having it all thrown away.
I prefer working on a team of 1... I'll never understand how they effectively coordinate teams of >100. I don't know how Blizzard does it, but I've heard that Valve devs who work on the various projects of the company can just freely move from project to project based on what they feel they can contribute to. I have no idea how they came to a functional CSGO with that much chaos.
At his worst he looked sleep deprived and he had the cokehead look. could be puffy eyes are genetic in his family. without seeing his parents and siblings that "cokehead look" isn't really evidence. Now, if none of his relatives have that look and he is not adopted... well now we can start up the "Metzen was a cokehead" rumours.
He has the look of someone who could've been a biker, and you could easily imagine that he would work 60-70+ hours a week. Looking tired sometimes does mean you're tired... before speaking publicly in front of a couple hundred people I probably look like a meth addict with terminal cancer.
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Metzen is a well trained and practiced public speaker though. Blizzard doesn't just randomly pick guys out and say .. ."hey man.. u're giving a 10 minute speech next week". If they did Blizzard would be apologizing every week for some boneheaded comment.
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He'll be bored and back at work in a few years. Lots of productive people have problems retiring, especially that young.
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On September 13 2016 19:56 Zaphid wrote:
He was great at world building, but damn his last decade or so wasn't that good. Oh well, we'll see how long he stays retired until he finds something else to do, I can't see him staying at home being dad for long :D
He does have some skill, maybe it's because I read it when I was young but the Warcraft II manual stories are great.
Brood War was good too, so was the world building for Warcraft 3 and early WoW even if the story lines were derivative or uninspiring.
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Metzen is getting a statue made in his honour.
![[image loading]](http://cdn.blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/metzen-statue-675.jpg)
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djzapz i was under the impression the he wrote earlier in his career and then worked in more of a design director role later in his career where he would be managing/vetting teams of writers instead of doing writing himself. also, he probably laid the actual framework for stories
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Man, I keep reading 'Chris Metzen dies at age 42' when I see this in the sidebar.
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Sad to see one of the greatest leave. Hopefully he'll at least be at blizzcon as a final farewell...
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END OF ERA. He is my favourite game designer, the creater of universes. You're going to be missed really bad.
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EPT
Blizzcon will not be the same without him and i doubt WoW will be as great without his input! 
