Chris Metzen

Today’s Game Design class had a guest speaker, Chris Metzen. I had heard the name before but wasn’t really sure on any details, so I did some research. His wikipedia article is pretty conservative, basically stating that he is a long time Blizzard employee, so I wasn’t sure what, or who, to expect.

I soon found out however, that I was standing (or sitting rather) face to face with the father of the Warcraft universe and the reason that Warcraft 2 (and presumably installment #3 and WoW too) was made. And he’s pretty damn cool too. He spoke (in a very entertaining ranting manner) about how Blizzard just barely managed to avoid bankruptcy and rise to be (in my opinion) the top game studio in the world today. He also described the “every voice counts” creative process at Blizzard. What stood out though was that no matter what he said, incredible passion and devotion shone through his words.

Not going to write up any details, aside from one. He really, really.. really really really likes Modern Warfare 2. I haven’t played through the campaign yet as I tend to get bored of single player stuff (although Spec Ops mode has been keeping me entertained) but just listening to him describing it gave me goosebumps. He literally said that MW2 has changed his vision and has forced him to rethink everything.

On that note… I’m off to a session of Modern Warfare 2.

Ps. He also said that my middle name (Thor) is epic. So that’s my name from now on.

Pps. Note to Chris, if you ever happen to google your name or something: Thanks for taking the time for this great lecture / QA session!