It is just so Danuser that he’d make a special comment to make sure everyone knew that he was the one that wrote the Nathanos-Sylvanas romance stuff.
He took pride in his work, the man did.
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I wasn’t a fan of what he did in WoW, but I don’t wish ill upon the man.
A PC Gamer article about him came out a few hours ago where he confirms that he left Blizzard quietly on his own volition back in November and that it had to do with not wanting to return to Irvine, he wanted to work remotely. Plus after years of a lot of abusive comments from WoW players, I can’t blame him for wanting to do something different.
Not everything he did was bad, such as Legion order hall compaigns, allied race unlock quest lines and a lot of Old God stuff that can still be plumbed for years to come.
I was this close to asking if anyone has actually done that but then I remembered this is the internet and they totally did.
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Wish him well
I read his short stories and I don’t think his writing as a whole is bad or anything. I just don’t thing it fits “Warcraft”. He tried to make WoW more like the media he enjoys like Game of Thrones or Dune, whatever. When Warcraft has always been saturday morning cartoon, bad guy of the weekend antics. Bombs, Blades, Brutes and Babes.
I don’t know if it’s confirmed or not but general forums on the same subject suggest he was the one who pushed the narrative of dissolving the faction conflict, making them more closely aligned, and getting the game team on board with features like cross faction guilds etc. And ‘if’ that’s true that sorta bothers me a bit.
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I’d believe Danuser supported Blizzard’s new pivot, but I don’t know if I believe he was a mastermind behind it. This is entirely vibes-based, so if you don’t believe me I won’t blame you, but he never seemed like a guy with as much clout or presence as Metzen or Kosak.
Most of the stories seem to be about how he got pushed out of big decisions by Afrasiabi and made-do with making his action figures kiss in the corner. I imagine he probably got some more influence after the scandal, but I’m not sure that alone would be enough to push Blizzard toward what Dragonflight became.
I feel more that Blizzard is in a peculiar situation where it keeps trying to demonstrate morality and sensitivity in its games as a means of keeping ahead of the scandals that come out every third month or so.
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No I feel you which is why I could see it possibly being true but also still fairly on the fence about. I guess which does sort of speak for how people felt about him since he didn’t seem to want to ‘buy in’ to what the spirit of Warcraft was all about.
Knowing that he was the one who confirmed the Nathanos/Sylvannas ship sort of echoes in the rest of his plot points through wow. Just this vibe of melodramtic, soapy-ness that echoed throughout Shadowlands and Dragonflight. Maybe him and Metzen should have worked together because I know with Metzen we’re going to go back to the shallow and bombastic era of WoW and maybe a little depth to balance out isn’t so bad.
It is what it is now though.
Metzen is the original purveyor of Orc x Human bromance. I wouldn’t be surprised if what we think we know about the writing room is mostly BS, but Metzen was definitely on board with the idea of at least putting the faction conflict in the background.
I kinda think the writers and devs were sincere with the BfA-era “faction matters!” attitude, and as late as the start of Shadowlands Ion was saying x-faction play was not in the cards.
I doubt Ion, Danuser, or any other dev really meant for the faction system to fall apart but the twin pressures of BfA’s faction war plot being really unpopular and Alliance player counts collapsing may have pressured them into it.
And I do think it was mostly a mechanical thing, the sort of decision made by someone like Ion/a non-writer, not a decision the writers would have controlled that much. If the Alliance PvE scene had been healthier it probably never would have happened.
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I tend to agree with this. It’s hard enough to write interesting and compelling material, but having to write-in material that explains core game mechanic changes (like faction systems) is a monumental undertaking that seems very likely to feel forced unless the writers are exceptional. It’s a tough spot to be put into, I don’t envy them one bit.
He’d have been on at least 250-280k, you’d think more but gaming and Blizzard, as industry and companies, are cheap.
That’s why I don’t think they’ll shell out what’s needed for a real visionary that can both fix the mess and drive it forward for the next decade or two of the IP.
It would be a lot more and/or more “intricate” rewards than a standard game industry salary at that tier.
If you want to know why, check out the WGA rates and how much storytelling that returns “AAA” ROI can make outside of gaming.
The lure you’d need to pull someone out of that would be significant.
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Right, and anyone of that caliber would need assurances that their own brand wouldnt be at risk by signing up for the gig. Blizzard hasn’t done nearly enough damage control after their latest bs to be appealing to writers at that level.
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yeah everyone complaining that the faction loosening ruined the game has forgotten that WoW has been a single faction game for quite a bit. at least without factions, we can have Horde and Alliance. with the faction barriers, the game is Just Horde. The only other mechanical solution/story solution that makes sense is to just delete the Alliance entirely, given the way that the playerbase handled the strict faction divide.
Like. the devs liked the faction divide. the Actual Content playerbase did not. They responded to it by all rolling Horde so they could actually play the game. There’s no argument for the faction divide that doesn’t put the feelings of pretend pixels ahead of the fact that we’re real humans paying 15$ a month to play a video game, and I just wanna do M+.
Speaking from my experiences on PVE servers, no one cares about the story off the RP servers, and you can argue 75% of Moon Guard doesn’t pay attention to lore, either. Might as well just let us play together.
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This new PvP brawl, battleground blitz, is really interesting. It’s a single queue for both factions, the team is made up for both factions, and you might be at either faction’s starting point.
Not only that, but the 2 quests for it each week, you only need to complete the BG, not win it. I think. There’s a quest to do 1 (maybe that’s to win?) and then a follow-up to do 3, which you can win or lose.
Toss in the “Something Different” brawl quest and you get some good honor/conquest fast.
Now, I just can’t wait for guilds to be cross realm. I can play my long-time mains with my OCE friends acquaintances colleagues.
Doesn’t matter what you’re playing or where they’re based, you can now play with your guild – FINALLY!
Oh, also, nobody is confused in those brawls. There’s no issue at all. So uh… more neutral races, right?!
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yeah i just look at the red namebar. that’s it. i’ve killed so many dracthyr and orcs and trolls and blood elves on my mage (that’s horde) in pve that i’m not really confused anymore. i have also leveled characters on both factions with pvp. red is dead.
it’s like arguing that transmog should be gone so you know their gearscore, when it’s easier to just look at their hp. i don’t think i’ve ever noticed enemy gear in pvp.
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I don’t even know if Blizzard specifically liked the faction divide so much as they only know one trick. Horde attacks, Alliance responds, both sides bad, unite to fight common enemy.
It was a prediction for years that you couldn’t really keep neglecting the Alliance so badly and still expect anyone to want to play them and, like so many other predictions, it came true.
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i mean yeah, this is exactly why i don’t miss faction conflict storylines. they were shallow and uninteresting, and the major ones cast the horde as both the hero and the villain of the story, so it’s not like the alliance were there to do anything but get killed in the process. i mean, most of my “faction conflict” writing barely touches on the Alliance at all-- it’s all just inter-horde nonsense.
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Neutrality is an illusion. It’s a mask we’ve all put on at one time or another when we don’t want others to know how we truly feel about things.
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This but unironically.
Cataclysm is still hysterical for the Argent Dawn being cool with Sylvanas raising people and enslaving them into undeath on their doorstep because they’re neutral.