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Christopher Vincent "Thundergod" Metzen was Blizzard Entertainment's vice president of creative direction.

Biography[]

Metzen grew up as "an RPG kid," and was particuarly invested in RPG sourcebooks.[1]

Metzen joined Blizzard in 1994, at the age of 19. He had originally envisioned himself bouncing around from positions in the film, comics, and game industries. He describes himself at the time as "a stupid-ass kid with some potential" who "loved drawing and making stuff up."[2]

Metzen was responsible for most of the storylines and lore (through instruction manuals, etc.) found in the Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft series as well as concept art and character design. His position in creative development gave him the reins over lore and storylines created for the games of the Blizzard franchise, the foundations of which were laid by previous designers. Metzen also supervised the lore created for the pen & paper rpg, mangas, and novels of Blizzard's universes. He voiced numerous characters in the Warcraft and StarCraft games.[3]

Metzen worked with Blizzard's cinematic team, and gave feedback on its storyboards.[4]

Although taking on a mainly supervising role, Metzen developed concept art of his own. He describes his style as "a comic-type approach to fantasy and sci-fi" and cites Walt Simonson, Jim Lee, Alex Ross, Larry Elmore, and Keith Parkinson among his inspirations in character design. He also admits his preference for designing heroes and villains over doing monster and mechanical design.[3]

He voiced the battlecruiser, ghost, and marine in StarCraft I and Brood War.[5]

Metzen was responsible for the creation of Blizzard's "strike teams," which offer feedback on projects within the company and ensure that the company's design culture remains intact.[2]

Metzen briefly worked on StarCraft: Frontiers.[1]

In 2015, Metzen had a hands-off role to story development.[6]

Metzen left Blizzard in late 2016, entering retirement.[7] During this period, he briefly worked with Frost Giant Studios on the development of Stormgate.[8]

On December 15, 2022 it was announced that Metzen had returned to the company to serve as a creative advisor for Warcraft.[9]

Works of Fiction[]

Metzen took on the role of author/co-author of works in the Warcraft universe and is the author of the StarCraft short story StarCraft: Revelations.

He authored a Jim Raynor story for StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 4 called Homecoming.[10]

Other Work[]

Metzen did work outside of Blizzard Entertainment as well, such as a comic book about a second American civil war in the near future.[11]

He worked on the Transformers: Autocracy series, a 12-issue 8-page miniseries by IDW publishing, available online only via browser, iPad and iPhone.[12]

Gallery[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Neilson, Mickey. Forging Worlds: Stories Behind the Art of Blizzard Entertainment (hardcover). Blizzard Entertainment, January, 2022.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2014-10-03, THE THREE LIVES OF BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT. Polygon, accessed on 2014-10-04.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Sons of the Storm Profile. Accessed 2008-05-04.
  4. 2015-05-27, BlizzCon 2014 – Overwatch Origins Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2015-05-31.
  5. Chris Metzen (2009). BlizzCon Panel. BlizzCon 2009. YouTube. Accessed 2010-06-07.
  6. 2015-11-06, STARCRAFT: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. Polygon, accessed on 2015-11-18.
  7. 2016-09-13, A MESSAGE FROM CHRIS METZEN. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2016-09-13.
  8. Stormgate, Kickstarter. Accessed on 2023-12-06
  9. 2022-12-16, A Message From Warcraft. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2023-04-18
  10. Metzen, Chris (w), Hector Sevilla (p, i). "Homecoming". In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 4 (paperback binding), pp. 6-27. Tokyopop, October 1, 2009. ISBN 978-1427-81698-6.
  11. Cecil Vortex. 2008-04-24. An Interview with Chris Metzen, Part Two. Cecil Vortex. Accessed 2008-05-18.
  12. Medievaldragon. 2012-01-31. Transformers: Autocracy # 1 – Blizzplanet Giveaway. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2012-02-04.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Chris Metzen

The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Chris Metzen.

Wikipedia content was licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License prior to June 15, 2009 is. Wikipedia content from June 15, 2009, and StarCraft Wiki content, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
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