after Warcraft Adventures was canceled, a group of ten Blizzard employees quit the company to form a new studio. Among them was James Phinney, a key figure on StarCraft. According to Blizzard's Micky Neilson, several factors—including the scandal at Blizzard parent Cendant—caused this event. However, he noted that "for some the cancellation of Warcraft Adventures was the final straw." Legacy Following the end of Warcraft Adventures development, Blizzard Entertainment publicly clarified that it would revisit the Warcraft universe in the future. In May 1999, the company announced an impending agreement with an unnamed publisher to release three Warcraft novels, alongside novelizations of StarCraft and Diablo. The deal was ultimately signed with Pocket Books. Early in the development process for the Warcraft book trilogy, Bill Roper hinted that Warcraft Adventures story could reappear in one of the novels. This resulted in Warcraft: Lord of the Clans in October 2001, written by Christie Golden and intended to set the stage for Warcraft III. The book is considered canonical. According to Golden, "Chris Metzen liked the story line and wanted to see it live in some format." Receiving the assignment after its first author had failed to finish it, Golden was given a six-week deadline for Lord of the Clans, based on a modified version of Metzen's original plot outline from the game. She proceeded to write several other novels for Blizzard because of her enjoyment of this project, among them World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, the company's first New York Times Best Seller. Blizzard hired her to a full-time position at the company in 2017. In August 1998, Roper confirmed that Blizzard planned to complete the animated cutscenes for Warcraft Adventures, as they could help Blizzard sell film and television studios on the idea of adapting the property. He remarked, "It's one thing to have a bunch of cool stills, and it's another thing to have a fifteen-minute short to show them." While this plan was shelved, the Warcraft Adventures story proceeded to inspire much of the later Warcraft franchise. When the game was first announced in early 1997, speculation arose that Blizzard planned to follow it with the real-time strategy game Warcraft III, which the company confirmed a few months later. Intended from the start to build upon the events of Warcraft Adventures, Warcraft III ultimately continued the story of Thrall, and takes place after his reunification