So, there’s a rumor that’s picking up traction that Steve Danuser may have left WoW or been let go back in November. The rumor started (I think) bc a Spanish speaking content creator picked up on the fact that he’d been pretty quiet on Twitter (X) since November, and that his Linkedin looks to say his time with Blizz ended in November.
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People started bringing this up back in December, I think. Someone said he was taking a mental health break from social media but who knows.
I would imagine if you’re the Narrative Lead (/writer) and everyone repeatedly says how much they hate your writing and narrative abilities, you may choose to leave that environment.
I have no idea what he was specifically responsible for, but I largely don’t care about the story anymore because it’s a pile of crap. It’s been like that for awhile so…
I wish him luck in his future endeavors and I hope if he left, we get a team in here to start fixing the story.
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If he did leave because of anger directed toward him, that’s unfortunate.
I’m going to be nicer and say that I, personally, found a lot of his storylines quite low-quality but I appreciate that he had a lot of passion for the subject. I just kind of wished he’d had as much passion for things that weren’t his faves.
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Guess we’ll see what happens. Same as with everything else that’s going on.
It just seems strange because usually with someone leaving the company voluntarily, they make a “I’m leaving - gonna miss you all” announcement and then we hear about their next project somewhere posted online.
But we didn’t get that here. Considering how much dislike there has been for SL, if they were looking to symbolically replace Danuser with Metzen (although I feel like Metzen will be higher up in the ranks than Danuser, even if it’s the same type of role), or scapegoat Danuser for how poorly received SL was (without crediting how well received DF has been), nothing at all has been said. No positive spin, no promises for a better story moving forward, nothing.
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This is based on social media inactivity and his linkedin page, which ambiguously describes him as both currently working on World of Warcraft and also having ended his “Narrative Lead” role in November. He may just have changed titles.
Also looks like nothing has changed at Blizzard regarding how they treat their employees.
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Bellular is talking about Danuser leaving now…
I feel a bit for Danuser, tbh. I can’t say I’ve ever liked the man. In interviews he seemed really resistant to any criticism and convinced of his own righteousness, but then to be fair it’d be hard not to get a bit defensive in Shadowlands when the lore community, myself included, were broadly rather displeased lol. But I would imagine it’d suck to finally get a chance to prove your quality as a writer independently and then immediately get someone promoted over you, effectively taking your job in that space.
It’s been pretty clear from various leaks that Shadowlands was Afrasiabi’s idea, and when that lech was fired for being the biggest sleaze in gaming history, he left Danuser holding the baby. I still maintain that Danuser promptly dropped said baby into a fire, then tripped and fell on it, but theoretically Dragonflight was his chance to prove his quality, and it was at least one of the stories of all time. It was fine, not good, not bad, just fine.
Now, before he can really expand on the plot threads he’s dropped, Metzen has returned, probably to a superior role. Now he gets credit for any future successes, irrespective of what Danuser does. That’d suck, from his perspective, so I feel for him in that regard.
Corporations really are awful, aren’t they? They represent some of the worst of human nature, driven by pure greed. That 3 months without working thing should be utterly illegal.
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Welp, the thread about this on General Discussions just got 404’d…
What did you say on there?
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Nothing needs to be said if you ask me. Just like they didn’t serve Holinka on a platter when he stepped away from PvP, so too they didn’t need to publicly execute Danuser. Despite being a corporation and doing what corporations do, I doubt they’re making any staffing changes out of spite. I can’t really recall them ever giving a statement about someone’s firing - it just isn’t a good look. They may have for the lawsuit but nothing is coming to mind.
Danuser gave it his best shot and it didn’t work out. We’re a tough crowd, he had big shoes to fill, and WoW is a big game with money on the line. Shadowlands might have been a great expansion in another game, but it wasn’t Warcraft, and I think that’s the biggest complaint I had about it. I wish him well with whatever he’s off to do next.
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Weren’t they hiring someone above him? Maybe he put in for that role and left when he didn’t get it, no idea.
He wasn’t great at this stuff. The “no negativity in the dojo” stuff is so bad. Creative work is about critical review and discussion. Not “good vibes”.
However good or bad he was (it was bad), he didn’t make enough to be such a public, criticized figure.
The narrative will never be great because if you have the skills and experience to actually fix it at every level (including the aspects fans really don’t understand or even think about), you don’t need a job in gaming… and even if you love the IP and don’t care about the money, you won’t have the control or agency to execute your vision. This sort of role is lose-lose for 99% of the people who could actually steer this game’s story proper.
Afrasiabi’s impact on the story can’t be understated. It’s been well established that Afrasiabi wanted Sylvanas to burn down Teldrassil for the “hype factor,” basically said they could make the story work later, then promptly got fired for being a creep. I don’t know about how much Shadowlands was also Afrasiabi’s idea, but the general theme of Danuser being left with Afrasiabi’s bags of crap has been consistent and I don’t envy anyone who has to write their way out of those messes.
I think Danuser was villainized more than he deserved by fans and as someone stated earlier, we can be downright ruthless. Until Dragonflight, I don’t think we got to see what Danuser was capable of without the trappings of the past and though rudimentary as the story was, there were parts of DF that were genuinely heartfelt and I enjoyed. I overall liked the theme of the next generation stepping up and finding the leader inside themselves to do so, even if some narrative beats weren’t perfect. DF overall was a fresh reset and I look forward to WoW’s future with the next generation of characters in the lead. Honestly, I wish the guy best of luck in his endeavors.
As for Metzen, the collective short-term memory of gamers is rearing its head here. The same folks who celebrated his departure are heralding his return, which is more a commentary of them bandwagoning than having an individual opinion. What we shouldn’t forget about Metzen is he’s more of a George Lucas “big idea” guy than a writer and he needs a competent writing team that’s not dazzled by his stardom to execute his visions. I genuinely hope that team is in place and whoever worked with Danuser and kicked butt in DF is still in the company and will work with Metzen going forward. We also have to remember that Metzen is prone to playing character favorites and DF put in great pains to develop secondary and tertiary characters, and hopefully he won’t throw all of that away for his usual Lore babies.
Overall, I think Danuser’s tenure at Blizzard was fraught with the company’s internal issues and fans going through the anger and grief phase of a fandom divorce when we lost faith in them with Shadowlands and the lawsuit. Danuser took the brunt of a lot of that, whether it was deserved or not. Hopefully his next project won’t be fraught with as many land mines and he’ll have a chance to actually prove himself as a writer of his own accord instead of cleaning up others’ messes.
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the exoneration of the star wars prequels is the reason nerds deserve to be oppressed.
But you’re right about how people feel about Metzen lol. The grass is always greener, huh.
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I really didn’t care for Danuser, and didn’t care for his brashness, but I think this is really the truth.
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This. All of this.
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I think that something should be said in relation to this is that the older generation hated the prequels when they came out while the younger generation got to grow up with them as the older gen did with the originals.
This has been reflected in the star wars games as many of them hyperfocus on the Galactic Civil War while giving the clone wars barely any content, if not cut out entirely. As someone that would like more newer games which give the clone wars and the prequel era some love, it is extremely frustrating.
Overall, it is a relief that the prequels are getting the love they deserve. But yes, I feel that this is not brought enough when the prequels and their current status with the fans.
He has directly commented on leaving now
https://www.pcgamer.com/steve-danuser-world-of-warcraft-departure/
Ok, I read the article. It feels weird to decide to just quit a job you’ve liked for 8 years without having another job. That seems like a luxury few of us have in this day and age without a looooooot of money. Maybe they gave him a golden parachute and a restricted order so they could put Metzen in?