As media we see it at every show and press function: the current game / expansion / update isn't even launched and we're already trying to talk about the next thing. The reasoning is sound: hype sells (game copies and ad impressions), and content keeps - not to mention that content sells the next thing.

But we often don't realize there's a human cost to our rapid consumption, even for folks who love to entertain us. Chris Metzen is a case in point. In an hour-long interview with podcaster and cartoonist Scott Johnson, the longtime Blizzard exec (most recently Head of Story and Franchise Development) discusses his announced retirement in September 2016. Chris relives some of the best and most intense moments in his 23 years at Blizzard and discusses what he does now.

We can't feel too bad for a guy who got to live out his dream job and then retire at 43, but the insight, anxiety, and burnout is real. Here's the some of the strongest quotes and talking points:

• The failure of Project Titan seemed to be a major turning point in Chris's decision to retire: "For a lot of us on the dev team, we just couldn't pull it together, we couldn't agree or move forward in bold fashion... I am a Blizzard guy through and through, I love that place, I love the people... and how terrifying a thought - I think I don't want to do this anymore." (10:30)
• Falling into the trap of others' approval and validation over and over again. "It doesn't matter if your game is a hit, you're never safe." (13:20)
• "What ultimately might have shot [Titan] down was that too many people were protecting their own instincts and visions for what should be, that I think it was just a group of people that stopped communicating and stopped devloping and chasing ideas for the sheer joy of doing it together, which had served us so well on anything else we'd ever built" (19:00)
• Love for friends and for Blizzard led him to work on the Overwatch idea with Jeff Kaplan. "In my mind I had romanticized it as one last charge at the wall." (16:15)
• Chris views the Overwatch story as a something of metaphor for Blizzard post-Titan: "That's the thematic of Overwatch: a group that was shattered is slowly pulling itself back together, a little older, a little wiser."
• The stress of Overwatch, Legion, and another baby on the way started to afftect Chris physically: "I didn't realize how empty my tanks had become... I started having panic attacks... I didn't know what they were." (23:40)
• Looking ahead to BlizzCon this year as a non-developer for the first time. "The panic came back... it was the weirdest turn." (33:35)
• Fear of medication and four days of pure panic - "Not anxiety. Panic". (39:00)
• Chris reflects that he couldn't have stopped on his own. "I think way down deep in my soul I knew I needed to be done... The panic was my body telling me: knock it off. You've got to stop." (49:00)
• Last days at Blizzard (54:00).
• Chris feels no pressure to create anything for consumption (59:00). "It's only life or experience that fills your tanks up again, it's not watching Star Wars again... those are fun endeavors. But I think it's normal life and relationships that fills your tanks up again... I've never felt more secure and comfortable in my own skin."
• "I may have work in the years to come... I will want the art to come back." (1:02)