Chris Metzen



Chris Metzen is the Vice President of Creative Development at Blizzard Entertainment.

Biography
Metzen began his career in Blizzard Entertainment as an artist, while the storyline was left to Allen Adham and Ron Millar. In Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness he took a bigger role as the designer of the story, but also made artwork and voice acting. In Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal Blizzard Entertainment outsourced Cyberlore Studios to do the game and Metzen was in charge of storyline consultation and editions.

His style characterized the earlier Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series and he eventually became art director. Eventually his position in creative development has given him the reins over lore and storylines created for the games of the Blizzard franchise, the foundations of which were laid by previous designers.

Voice acting
He is believed to be the voice of Nefarian, and has confirmed he voiced Ragnaros, and a number of unspecified bosses in World of Warcraft. Also he is the voice of Thrall in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft and the voice of Rexxar in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, he furthermore voiced King Varian Wrynn ,Deathbringer Saurfang / Dranosh Saurfang and Algalon the Observer.

In Starcraft, he voiced the Terran Marine, Terran Battlecruiser and the original Ghost.

Other Works

 * Alliance & Horde Compendium, co-author
 * Of Blood and Honor, a warcraft novel
 * Manual of Monsters, co-author
 * He was also part of "Creative and Rules Design Assistance and Additional Material" staff for the entire Warcraft and World of Warcraft RPG series. As well as Interior Artist for several of the books.
 * Metzen also supervises the lore created for the pen & paper rpg, mangas, and novels.

Personal touches

 * The Feast of Winter Veil features a quest to rescue Metzen the Reindeer from kidnappers. Doing so rewards players with the ability to transform their mount into a similar-looking reindeer.
 * Additionally, there is an officer of the Argent Dawn (and later Crusade), Avenger Metz, who bears a strong resemblance to Metzen's avatar on Sons of the Storm.
 * In StarCraft II, the pilot of Thor looks very much like Metzen and says "I, AM A THUNDERGOD!" after being clicked several times.