Chris Metzen on the Worldsoul Saga - WowCast

wowhead.com:

Chris Metzen discusses the Worldsoul Saga on the most recent episode of WoWCast!

Brief Summary:

• Metzen came back to a team «much more democratized» in Dragonflight than when he left, and had to find his place in the new dynamic compared to before, and listening to the instincts rather than having as large a voice
• They're already mapping out patch 13.1 and 13.2 and how they'll play out
• Also already talking about the concepts for expansions up to 17
• Goal for characters in the saga is to age the existing characters up, not age characters out of the story, and also to make sure the new ones introduced aren't just one-offs who we leave behind.
• Lot of talk about writing from a place of passion, and accepting that critique will happen, but also that someone will be personally affected by those themes they're putting into the story.
• Metzen doesn't see his job as creative lead as pouring his own personal experiences into the story, but enabling the team as a whole to breathe a whole array of experiences into cohesive stories
• When trying to writing the stakes, the biggest way to up the stakes is to either blow up a planet or kill off a character, and with doing the latter they want to make sure they frame it with gravity rather than shock value (Tirion was mentioned)
• Metzen loves all the flavors of new races added since he left, even the ones he didn't expect to like such as Vulpera (he has one he dresses like Robin Hood)
• He loves having as many options as possible to allow for maximum player agency
• Shaping the whole three expac arc is a first for them, the team has never done that before
• He wants people to remember that it's a part one of a larger narrative, and that things will rise differently in the narrative than