Chris Metzen Takes on Major new Role in Warcraft Universe

Warcraft legend, Chris Metzen is set to return in a major new role as he heads up the Warcraft universe moving forward.

Executive Creative Director of the Warcraft universe; now, that's a title we'd love ourselves but it's the honor of Chris Metzen for now.

Chris Metzen – A Brief History

Metzen has been with Blizzard since 1993, taking a brief break from 2016 – 2022. Metzen joined Blizzard as an artist, and his first contribution to the Warcraft universe came at the very start with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. His first major role within in the actual game came with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness where he first put his handy work into the game.

Metzen did other work at Blizzard, including Diablo and Starcraft before returning in 2002 to Warcraft with Warcraft3: Reign of Chaos. For this title, Metzen became Creative Director and he'd later also work on World of Warcraft, though mostly with scripts, artwork and voice acting. Metzen made a cameo in the Warcraft movie while maintain to put to lend his vocal and writing talents to World of Warcraft. But in 2016 Metzen announced his retirement from Blizzard as he looked to step away from the company. Though he maintained his role as Thrall throughout this period.

Metzen returned in 2022, working as a creative advisor for the Warcraft franchise. It was stated that Metzen would be working on other IPs at Blizzard, however, today we know that's not the case.

Chris Metzen takes charge

Christ Metzen will now take up a big role overseeing the entire Warcraft universe. Here is what Blizzard had to say about the announcement on their Twitter page.

“Citizens of Azeroth, We are excited to share that Chris Metzen has taken on a full-time role as Executive Creative Director of the Warcraft universe. Right now, his main focus is supporting our World of Warcraft leadership in crafting the next generation of adventures. Chris was instrumental in developing the foundations of the Warcraft universe, and we are thrilled for him to rejoin our teams in shaping what’s to come. At BlizzCon, he and the team will be sharing what we’ve been working on. We hope to see you there!”

Well, if we weren't excited about BlizzCon already, we are now.

Our requests for Chris Metzen

So, now that Chris Metzen is in charge of Warcraft… what do we want to see him do?

WoW Classic+

At this point, it's the best option. WoW Retail and WoW Classic have quickly become two separate games in the same world… so why not embrace the chaos. Let's let a small team of people work on Classic+ and add to that game. Here are a few of our ideas.

• Start with OG Classic, but, include the changes to the 1-60 leveling experience that we got from TBC and Wrath. Increase the quests, and make those dry stretches a little wetter…
• Get Draenei and Blood Elf in Classic from the start. We can either gloss over the lore implications or we can add content to explain it.
• Launch with all endgame content open. Treat 1-60 as a 6-month window, let it play out, let people settle and then let us get ready for what comes next…
• No TBC or Wrath. We start fresh, new stories, actual new content. Obviously, if we want, let's get DK in from the start or whatever, but we do it differently. What if the portal never opens, the legion never floods into Azeroth, what other evil could cook up a plot to take Azeroth? Let's head to the Southseas, and find out what the pirates are up to, without the threat of the Legion maybe the Buccaneers attack Booty Bay and take it over. They could also do a similar attack on Ratchet as we fight on two fronts.
• Bonus to this, maybe none of the Classic raids are even live, but, those raids get a use out of future expansions. ZG becomes a raid later on, but the Buccaneers we mentioned earlier are working with the Troll to finish the ritual. Without us getting involved, the Scarlet Crusade are able to arm up and fight us in the Plaguelands
• Also, we need class changes and balance. No PTR, no planning of this stuff. Make all tanks viable, tweak DPS numbers, and give Alliance Shamans and Horde Paladins. Make it happen, or just hire me.

Warcraft 3: Reforged 2.0

I played it at launch and I played it again last week. It's just not good, and the fact OG Warcraft 3 is basically dead as a result is sad. So, fix it. Get a team together, work on it and pay back fans who waiting patiently and paid good money for it.

Warcraft 4

When Warcraft 3 is done, announce the sequel. The world needs more good RTS games, and Warcraft is the perfect game for it to happen. Blizzard has Starcraft and Warcraft and we need a new RTS. Either let it tell a new story or expand on a story we have already seen in WoW. We could do a unique story, of course, but it'd probably upset someone.

Warcraft TV Series

Look, I love the WoW movie. I own it on Blu-ray in 4k and I love it. But… the Warcraft universe is massive, and it needs a longer runtime than 1 hour 30 minutes. So, break it out into a show, give it to HBO, get it to at least a 15+ rating and let's give the Warcraft universe the TV show treatment it deserves.