Game news In the greatest discretion, this WoW writer left Blizzard. Full of nostalgia, he shares his favorite MMO stories
It was by chance that players discovered the departure of an emblematic Blizzard employee. Recently, he spoke about the motivation for his departure.
With almost 20 years of existence, World of Warcraft has achieved the feat of continuing to bring together a very large number of players around the world.. Its rich universe is still appreciated by fans, and Blizzard seems ready to support them for many years. During BlizzCon which took place last November, the North American company announced not one, but three expansions which will follow on from World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Fans of this almost two-decade-old MMORPG were pleasantly surprised by these announcements, in addition to those related to WoW Classic.
Many employees work to imagine different plots, quests, and scenarios over the course of different expansions. Among them is, or rather was Steve Danusera long-time narrative designer who has written several books on the world of this MMORPG. Unfortunately, Internet users discovered the departure of this emblematic Blizzard employee by chance by going to his Linkedin page. He left his position in November, around the time of BlizzCon. It was only recently that he confirmed that he had left Blizzard, discussing the reasons for this decision.
The departure of Steve Danuser
Following the discovery of Steve Danuser’s departure, some Internet users imagined tensions between this narrative designer and Chris Metzen who returned to Blizzard as executive creative director for the World of Warcraft universe. In reality, the reasons for this departure are completely different. He simply admitted that he had been ready for a long time to discover something new and that he simply could not stay teleworking within Blizzard. In fact, the North American company applies a policy that asks all of its employees to return to work on the premises.
Wanting to continue working remotely played a role, as I’m a big believer in the effectiveness of online team collaboration. But eight years is a long time to work on a single game, and while helping to shape WoW’s story for the years to come has been challenging and rewarding, I’ve found myself increasingly lately felt the need to take my creativity in new directions.
If his name doesn’t ring a bell, he also worked on several works related to the World of Warcraft universe such as the comic strip “The Three Sisters”, but especially on Dark mirror highlighting the characters of Sylvanas and Nathanos Marris.
I’m very proud of my work on Dragonflight, from creating the original pitch for the expansion’s story, cultures, and lore to planning the narrative beats across patches alongside my fantastic creative partners
The formalization of his departure saddened World of Warcraft fans who appreciate his work. They will now think of him when hearing the whispers and prophecies of Il’gynoth and N’Zoth that he wrote himself or even most of the books present on the Dragon Islands.