Tag Archives: sci-fi

Chris Metzen Is Retiring

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As of last night, Chris Metzen has announced his retirement from Blizzard entertainment, and apparently from the gaming industry entirely.

The rain pours down in Stormheim in World of Warcraft: LegionWhile it was bound to happen one day, it’s still a big shock to any Blizzard fans. And I’m one of the biggest Blizzard fans around.

For the last twenty years, Metzen has been the driving creative force behind Blizzard’s games. Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch — they’re all his babies.

Think back to where it all began, to Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. This was originally intended to be a Warhammer game, but the licensing fell through, so Blizzard had to create its own IP for it. Over the next twenty years, Metzen was able to spin something initially derivative into a unique and incredibly vast and vibrant universe that has become one of the biggest names in gaming — one of the biggest names in popular culture period.

And that’s just one of the many beautiful worlds he’s created.

I can’t overstate the influence Metzen has had on my life. I was about five when I first played Orcs and Humans. I didn’t know how to spell my own name yet, but I knew how to train footmen. I knew we couldn’t let Stormwind fall to the Horde.

And then later came Tides of Darkness, and it rocked my world. And so did StarCraft. And Reign of Chaos. And so on and so forth until I spent so much time playing World of Warcraft that I got a job writing about MMOs for a living.

Hierarch Artanis and Executor Selendis rally the Golden Armada in StarCraft II: Legacy of the VoidMetzen has of course influenced my fiction writing tremendously as well. I’m eternally trying to capture some of the bombast and vibrancy of Blizzard’s worlds in my own writing — I leave it to my readers to judge how successful I’ve been.

I love the worlds, the peoples, the characters Metzen has created. There’s a spark of beauty and colour to them that is totally unique.

That’s not to say Metzen is perfect. He has many flaws as a writer, and at times I’ve strongly disliked the choices he’s made.

But I could never bring myself to hold it against Metzen himself, because even when he took the wrong path you could feel his tremendous passion shining through.

That is what makes Metzen so special as a writer and a world-builder. His passion. I have never seen anyone display a love and childlike joy so pure as Metzen did when discussing the worlds and the stories he had created. I have never doubted for a moment that he loves Warcraft, StarCraft, and the others at least as fiercely as I do, and probably even more so.

His joy was infectious, and it always shone through in everything he created. It’s that vigour and passion that makes Blizzard games so much brighter and more colourful and more alive than any others, and it’s that quality that’s kept me coming back to them time and again no matter how else they might stumble.

A shot of the African Numbani map in OverwatchThe news of his retirement makes me tremendously sad. Not because I’m worried that Blizzard’s games won’t be the same without him, although I definitely am, but because I know a world where Metzen isn’t creating and sharing his passion and shouting to crowds in his best Thrall voice and generally acting like the biggest, happiest kid is a world with just a little less joy in it.

I’d say more, but I’m too full of feels to even be coherent.

Lok’tar ogar and en taro Adun, Metzen. We love you, man.

Reviews: Dark Matter, “Wish I’d Spaced You when I Had the Chance” and “Sometimes in Life You Don’t Get to Choose”

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Well that’s bound to be my longest post title ever.

The logo for Dark MatterFor whatever reason two episodes of Dark Matter popped up in my iTunes queue today (well, not today, but it was today when I wrote this), so now you get two reviews for the price of one!

The price of one is nothing, so it’s not a great deal, but…

“Wish I’d Spaced You when I Had the Chance”:

We now bring you the third entry in Dark Matter’s “look how close the crew has gotten” trilogy. It’s also the second instance of Dark Matter following Murphy’s Law of Shore Leave. It’s good to stay true to traditions, I suppose.

The crew of the Raza has landed at an isolated colony to resupply, but of course things don’t go as they’d hoped. Two, Four, and Nyx are recognized at a bar, and the station is put into lockdown as the Galactic Authority swoops in to apprehend them.

To make matters worse, Five is abducted by some ne’er-do-wells, and only Three can save her.

It is to this latter plot that the lion’s share of the attention is given. Generally the idea is to once again show how close the Raza crew has become, in stark contrast to the suspicion and distrust of season one.

Anthony Lemke as Three in Dark MatterAs noted above, this is the third episode in a row to do that, and while that might seem excessive, I think it was necessary. There was a lot of distrust to work past, and generally it’s pretty gratifying to see the crew come together like this.

“Wish I’d Spaced You When I Had the Chance” isn’t quite as good as “Going Out Fighting” was, but it’s better than “Take the Shot.”

It’s still a bit difficult to look past how inconsistent Three’s writing has been. They did too good a job of making him an asshole out of the gate, and then were too sudden to try to humanize him. A slower, more natural progression could have worked better.

That said, they’ve done a much better job of balancing his character this season than in season one, so this episode is much easier to swallow now than it would have been in the past. In the end it works out, more or less.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

“Sometimes in Life You Don’t Get to Choose”:

Four has reached the limit of his patience. Desperate to regain his throne and save his people from a losing war, he makes the extreme choice to reactivate his old memories from before Five’s wipe.

Left to right: Alex Mallari Jr. (Four), Roger Cross (Six), Anthony Lemke (Three), and Melissa O'Neill (Two)The rest of the crew is uncertain how to feel about the new/old him — with Five and Nyx being especially affected — but they choose to place their faith in him.

Thus, it’s time for something we’ve been waiting for since season one: Four returning home to claim his place as the emperor of Zairon.

He immediately reconnects with a general he knows can be trusted. Confronted with Four’s ruthless determination and the power of the blink drive, he readily agrees, and they begin to work together to bring Four’s plan to fruition.

Right away, though, something isn’t right. The efforts of Four and his allies are constantly disrupted by the empress and her forces, and some begin to wonder if Four’s people are as trustworthy as he believes.

There’s a lot more that I could say about this episode, but I’m trying to stay true to my policy of avoiding major spoilers. This one of most eventful episodes in Dark Matter’s history, if not the most eventful. That’s both its greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.

This is one of those episodes that changes everything. No matter what follows, Dark Matter will never be the same.

Jodelle Ferland as Five in Dark MatterOn one level, that’s awesome. There are some great twists to be found, and much of what makes Dark Matter so great is on full display here: action, suspense, humour, and people underestimating Five and then really regretting it.

But on the other hand, they just crammed far too much into a single episode. The events of “Sometimes in Life You Don’t Get to Choose” could have easily been spread out over two or even three episodes. Compressing it all into one hour makes it feel rushed, prevents each plot and twist from getting the full attention it deserves.

Sometimes I really miss the days of sci-fi shows have 20+ episode seasons.

The implications of this episode are awesome, but the episode itself ends up being a bit inconsistent.

Overall rating: 7.5/10