The sudden yet inevitable betrayal of gaming immersion
by Michael Gray 
Jan 7th 2011 at 7:00PM
There's this quest in Loch Modan. To make a long story short, the gnolls and murlocs seem to be making a peace treaty. In the very least, they're making some kind of deal to lay down some awfulness on the Alliance. They are the Axis of Awful, after all.
When things get to this point, there's nothing else for an adventurer to do but dress up like a shrub, take a bottle of scent pheromones, and sneak out to sabotage the meeting. But that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is what the Mosshide gnoll screams when you lay the whammy on him.
"AAAAAAGH!" the gnoll yells. "CURSE YOUR SUDDEN YET INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!"
Rumors have it that in beta, the murloc responded, "Mine is an evil mrglglglglglglglglglg. Now DIE!"
Of course, this is a reference to the old Firefly series, which has many devoted followers among all kinds of geeks and gamers. On one hand, I totally love the reference. My wife and I giggled and laughed and loved the shout-out to one of our favorite television series.
On the other side of the coin, I can see the argument that pop culture references like this can take a player "out of the game." It disrupts immersion and adds silliness to an escapist hobby that some people take very, very seriously.
What about you? Where do you fall in that argument?
Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
arcaneterror Jan 7th 2011 7:05PM
Personally, I'm a fan of Blizzard's pop culture references.
Alanid Jan 7th 2011 8:02PM
Here here, and Firefly references are especially welcome!
mookada Jan 7th 2011 10:24PM
Yeah, they needed to have some model dinosaurs in that scene to sell it.
TonyMcS Jan 7th 2011 10:36PM
Love all the references, especially FireFly.
Also laughed when I heard that ogre say "We must push little cart" on my low level troll, but it probably only made sense to the TF2 players.
Reklisc Jan 7th 2011 11:49PM
Isn't a lot of WotLK in a sense a shout-out to "Serenity"? "Serenity" is the only Firefly-related... ANYTHING I've watched, and seeing all those zombies still haunts me a bit (yeah, not much of a horror fan). But then I see the the coup of the Undercity and it kinda reminded me of the plot of Serenity (more from the Horde side, I think). Maybe that's just me, though...
In general, I really enjoy the general references, but only if they're done right (the MacGruber felt a bit shoehorned in, for example).
Narshe Jan 8th 2011 3:29AM
Why isnt this a breakfast topic? Seems kind of random to post it like this lol.
Qot Jan 8th 2011 9:36AM
I think TonyMcS caught an important part: the references must make sense (or must not be noticeable) to the uninformed player.
"We must push little cart" isn't noteworthy for an ogre, who have less than ideal grammar at some points. If you've also played TF2, it's also funny.
"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" is a funny sentence, regardless of whether or not you've seen Firefly.
"The Cake Is Not A Lie (achievement)" only really makes sense, though, if you've played Portal. Otherwise it's just a random silly thing that makes your guildmates ask whether it was a triumph and/or huge success.
Successful external references bring the outside world into the game world seamlessly; unsuccessful ones substitute the outside world for the game world to make a joke.
Friday_Knight Jan 9th 2011 11:55AM
The little pop culture references are one of the things that make WoW so awesome. Never get rid of them, and if you have a problem with them gtfo.
moonwalker Jan 7th 2011 7:07PM
Registered just to say that even if I don't usually like pop culture references, Firefly quotes are always awesome. Or Doctor Horrible ones.
Now go watch these shows if you don't know them yet!
Umbralwrath Jan 7th 2011 9:45PM
As far as I know, there are 5 other Firefly references in-game.
-Mudder's Milk
-Saffron Reynolds...the poison vendor (can't tell you how much I laughed at that when I first saw it in Wrath beta). There is also a "Yolanda" across the way from her.
-K. Lee SmallFry, an engineering trainer.
-Capison 38 engine quest
-Flavor text on the Captured Firely used to read "Still Flying"
Let me know if I missed one
Angrycelt Jan 7th 2011 11:07PM
Don't forget the "An Antique Gun" with the flavor text "The name 'Lasitor' is etched into the barrel"
My fail for not being able to link items.
Now where's a "Big Damn Heroes" quest? Hmm, or maybe "I Aim To Misbehave".
Dammit, now gotta go watch the show again. Back in 13 hours.
Umbralwrath Jan 7th 2011 11:14PM
Ohhh...I just remembered there are also Ogres named Fanty and Mingo
jishdefish Jan 7th 2011 11:27PM
http://www.wowhead.com/quest=25535 is also a quote from the Firefly movie Serenity. I got all giddy myself when I realized that.
Keegan Jan 8th 2011 2:11AM
What Doctor Horrible references are there?
peon47 Jan 8th 2011 4:39AM
@Keegan
Isn't there a doctor terrible in icecrown?
Keegan Jan 8th 2011 6:34PM
So there is! Surprised I never found him. Pity he doesn't say any quotes from the show on aggro.
Still, any nod to Dr.Horrible makes me happy.
Dortamur Jan 9th 2011 9:49PM
There's also a Dwarf in Wetlands who uses "gorram" a bit in her speech. ^_^
electrogruve Jan 10th 2011 3:16PM
My guild's name on Vek'nilash is Big Damn Heroes. Love me some Firefly.
cntrstrk14 Jan 7th 2011 7:16PM
WoW has a history of humor through pop culture references. The Linken quest line in Un'goro was just one example of this. World of Warcraft without the pop culture humor would have a much different feel than it does now. (I do believe immersion in other games is very important, and even in WoW the immersion is not too broken when you find one of these easter egg like jokes.)
I was going to actually take a stance here, but then I felt that my comment would be more worthwhile with the following link.
http://www.wowwiki.com/List_of_pop_culture_references_in_Warcraft
Jay Jan 8th 2011 2:03AM
Updated version of that link: http://www.wowpedia.org/List_of_pop_culture_references_in_Warcraft
Since wowwiki is dead :