The sudden yet inevitable betrayal of gaming immersion

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
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Maelikit Jan 7th 2011 7:36PM
Love it! It's part of the fun. Probably wouldn't play if the game took itself too seriously.
Rochmoninoff Jan 7th 2011 7:37PM
Immersed in what?
A game with magic and steamboats?
A planet swarming with different intelligent (and mutually hostile) lifeforms where none has achieved ascendancy?
A game where death is "only a setback"?
A wacky world full of fun and funny stuff with over the top artwork and crazy quests (damn, missed the trampoline with that one...) and epic boss fights, and grindy achievements and lucky breaks (yay! random mount drop) and twinked alts and and and...stuff?
I love those references and when I get them they always make me laugh.
Now give me Dance Studio like you promised on the my WotLK box so I can fix those dances I hate.
hellness Jan 7th 2011 7:37PM
I love Blizzards poprefs!
OrccyShaman Jan 7th 2011 7:41PM
The beer goggles during brewfest have a great Simpsons reference. The tooltip reads "the goggles, they do something". When I read this to my WoW hating wife she actually laughed out loud.
I love the ingame pop culture refernces.
Drakkenfyre Jan 7th 2011 8:02PM
Those goggles are a double-reference, actually.
They reference that, and they also reference Star Trek: TNG
When describing synthehol, a synthetic alcohol served in various parts of the galaxy that tastes like alcohol, but will not get your drunk, nor hung over, Data says it's like alcohol, but "it's intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed".
Which is on the tooltip for the goggles.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=46735
The name is also a reference to it.
Pam Jan 7th 2011 7:53PM
it's like Ol' Durty Pete...reminds me of a guy at our work, named Pete. Makes me wonder if the devs have read my chat o.O
rkaliski Jan 8th 2011 2:06AM
It harms the immersion when a little female NELF priest shouts out in the middle of Stormwind, "My GF just came into the room naked and BOY IS SHE HOT"?
VioletArrows Jan 7th 2011 7:55PM
I love a good pop culture reference, but to me, in Cataclysm... it's sort of getting out of hand. Like I'm getting beaten over the head with the sheer number of them.
Tim Jan 7th 2011 7:58PM
doesn't bother me in the slightest. It is kinda cool and fun actually. I enjoy the easter egg-ness of it all.
Zani Jan 7th 2011 8:00PM
I love them personally. They always make me smile. and Uldum is definitely my fav zone ever.
and as for pop culture references being little... I dunno I'd say they are pretty blatant to me. I mean look at Icecrown. ALL of the architecture there is pretty much exactly like the towers and such in the LOTR movies. The broken front? Try the Black Gate. lol
kunukia Jan 7th 2011 8:01PM
I love them.
Hinalover Jan 7th 2011 8:03PM
I'm for it. Just there are some that I wish they did not take out. Druid's Nom Nom Nom being one of them :(
Rommster Jan 7th 2011 8:06PM
Funny pop culture references, as mentioned, are just part of the fun that is WoW, and in no way drop me out of my gaming immersion.
What does is the necessary evil of having to rely on Vent, Mumble or other voice chat in raids, and really hearing the voices behind the avatars!
Malraven Jan 8th 2011 8:26AM
Agreed, so much. I steadfastly refuse to sign up for anything voice chat related. Do not want.
Does help that I'm in a very friendly casual guild on an RP server who don't use voice chat either. I'd imagine that without them I'd be pretty much screwed if I wanted to do any raiding.
Kenneth Jan 7th 2011 8:20PM
If people truly played WoW for the immersion, then they would hate ALL the pop culture references not just ones they do not understand. Which means they would hate all of Uldum.
Glad Blizz puts some of the more obscure references in.
Bloodthorn Jan 7th 2011 8:20PM
Immersion? I am just playing a video game with my pals, don't think I've managed to become immersed in this game at any point, since it's mostly just a means to an end, maybe hardcore raiding sucked that out of me...
Ted Trujillo Jan 7th 2011 8:30PM
thanks for the firefly reference, haven't watched it in a few. Its cold outside. Wow on the small screen Firefly on the large, great weekend.
Hollow Leviathan Jan 7th 2011 8:30PM
Sure, I enjoyed the reference to the Staff of Ra from Indiana Jones, but when they used it twice...I have to question whether Blizzard loves referencing things just a bit much. Also, they included a goblin Hitler character, effectively Godwin-ing their own game.
Drakkenfyre Jan 7th 2011 8:45PM
Is the character actually Hitler or the Nazi from Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade? Can't remember his name.
Drakkenfyre Jan 8th 2011 9:52AM
Last Crusade*, holy crap, I didn't catch that typo until now.