Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe 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 7 of 7)
Highfire Jan 8th 2011 10:20AM
I personally love the references, it gives a deep feeling of WoW depriving from Earth (which even lore is related) and is very nice to finally watch a movie or something and see "Wait..." like I have done one or two times before!
Also, I am no fan of Firefly however I'm interested in learning about it since I watch Stargate and 3 actors from Firefly are on it (whilst I can also name 2 actors from the new Battlestar Galactica series in Stargate). Sci-fi series are connected through actors
Arbolamante Jan 8th 2011 10:38AM
And they also of course reference other games. I had a chuckle when one of those fire mages in Hyjal said "I just want to set the world on fire." (Fallout 3 reference)
Grimmwrath Jan 8th 2011 11:13AM
Generally, I love the references you find sprinkled throughout the game. The one I find most annoying, however, is Haris Pilton. I mean, really, she's a spoiled socialite with a drug problem, and has no special connection to geeks or gamers. I really can't see where she fits in, unless her family paid Blizzard to put her in.
MW Jan 8th 2011 12:14PM
I absolutely love the pop-culture references in WoW. Blizzard is wonderful that it does not take itself too seriously. Heck, they even have pop-culture tongue-in-cheek references to themselves (see Ghostcrawler spawn in Abyssal Deeps and Metzen the Reindeer.)
I drive others in groups crazy because I read all the quest text and the chat text all the time, which means that I'm always slow to move from one area to another, though some of that is because I get lost. But I don't want to miss one single reference.
As a rabid Indiana Jones fan, I'm looking forward to the quests in Uldum, with all my characters.
I saw that reference to Fallout 3, and I got it from watching my son play it.
As for Haris Pilton, that still cracks me up (pun intended) because in game she is just like she is in real life. This is no compliment, the NPC is as vapid and snobbish as Paris Hilton.
MW Jan 8th 2011 12:18PM
And of course, there's "Dirty" Michael Crowe in Theramore. I am a Mike Rowe fan. Can't we get a quest from him to clean up the oozes in the marsh?
MisterRik Jan 8th 2011 12:36PM
When I first encountered that NPC I had never heard of the "Dirty Jobs" TV show (I don't watch TV). But I cracked up anyway because my pastor's name is Michael Crowe. And he has a hat like that. And he likes books. And there's the Christian connection to fish.
Donny Jan 8th 2011 1:21PM
Anybody who complains about sillyness in WoW is playing the wrong game. Warcraft has always been built on that serious-but-just-barely line. I remember laughing a lot at the quick voice clips in Warcraft 2 when I was very young, and yet again in Warcraft 3. Blizzard has always been that kind of developer and if they don't like it, they can play a different game. I am not trying to sound elitist at all or anything. I just mean that it has always been there so it is a part of the games.
Ralod Jan 8th 2011 1:35PM
I think that the funny references, well that makes it a blizzard game. If you don't like those well then you are playing the wrong game. Keep your RPing to the goldshire inn if you don't like the references. That the main people who complain about this are the same RPers whos community includes the tranny gnomes prostitutes... yeah you have no ground to complain.
sfbuck415 Jan 8th 2011 1:40PM
I like how you imply that people who are annoyed by constant pop references must be taking the game very, very seriously.
There's not enough apologists for Blizzard's lack of effort/imagination. Keep up the good work!
Amaxe Jan 8th 2011 2:58PM
I think they depend on the circumstances. A small joke is fine. Building a quest or a quest chain around it depends. Link in the old Un'Goro crater was fine. Building a set of quests around the mechanics of something old really pisses me off.
For example, I was doing the Hyjal quests, working on the dragon quests and suddenly found myself playing the old coin op "Joust" with the button to flap wings.
I abandoned quest, muttering about "FFS" and moved on to another quest hub. Life is too short wasting time on remakes of 1980s videogames just because some designer thought it would be funny to make a third dimensional version of it.
Kay Jan 8th 2011 3:14PM
I gave up on immersion in WoW quite some time ago. I'm a roleplayer OUTSIDE WoW going way back to tabletop pen and paper shenanigans, but WoW, while fun, has never scratched that itch for me. Although my characters often have backgrounds that exist only in my head for no other purpose than my own amusement, I would have needed a block and tackle to suspend my disbelief after my goblin was forced to be straight by her unskippable in-game origin story.
I still play my goblin and enjoy the character, but that sort of killed any sense of "this character has story that's mine to tell spoken or unspoken". Really this would have been solvable by making the goblin intro skippable, or a simple "choice" quest early in the goblin experience to give you options instead of shoehorning your character's psyche into one little mold.
evionstarkindler Jan 8th 2011 3:45PM
Pffft, I *love* the pop-culture references and humore that Blizzard puts into their game, I think it's part of what makes them stand out amongst all the other MMO's. Blizzard is a bunch of nerdy geeks sharing nerdy geeky jokes with the rest of us nerds and we're all having a good laugh!
Uldum's become my new favorite zone thanks to the crazy fun of the questline going through it with Harrison Jones and the Titans and everything.
InfiniteAbyss Jan 9th 2011 12:57AM
As you take the "Battlezone" quest from Commander Schnottz, one of the bodyguard NPCs yells:
"Hide your vives! Hide your children! Zhey're killink everyvone up in he'ah!"
A reference to "BED INTRUDER SONG!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw
tadedra Jan 9th 2011 1:54AM
Pop Reference should have a thresh hold. I loved Firefly but I still had to look up that one obscure scene. Obscure ones are fine. The ones that deep deep fans might notice and figure out. (I did love the Indiana Jones staff in Uldaman but that was before the obvious ones became overrun in an entire zone.) I perfer the ones 90% of the people have to look up because that just shows the diversity of everyone that plays the game and the diversity of the developers.
Also Pop References that don't drive a story are good too. I guarantee you I never watched after the first 5 epps of Lost but I still got the Bittertide Lake in Sholazar Basin, but there is no real impact to the game or lore or quest.
datgrl Jan 9th 2011 7:24AM
If I worried that I would be taken 'out of the game', I'd stay out of the entire Outlands
zone because of the constant 80's culture and Dark Crystal references. Instead, it's
one of my favorite places to go, just to hang out. Nagrand, especially. I plan on retiring there and becoming a Clefthoof rancher.
Yada Jan 10th 2011 2:37AM
There's nothing about outside references that detracts from the game as long as they still work whether you know the reference or not. To use your own example, I never saw Firefly but I still find the emotes hilarious. They just *are*, even all on their own.
This is the same reason, incidentally, why Disney movies originally made such a killing at the box office. Knowing the small fry would have to be chaperoned to the theatre by Mom and Dad, the folks at Disney went out of their way to write dialog that would appeal to the kidlet set on one level, but have another meaning for Mom and Dad, whether that was a pop reference or simply more adult humor.
divorce Jan 10th 2011 11:12AM
Yeah, if you've never seen indiana jones, I feel really bad for you leveling through uldum. Every quest you do is like "have you seen it yet? have you seen indiana jones? have you seen it because here's the reference!". A lot of the pop culture references are so begging. It's sad to know that old blanchy will be dead and stuck under an old joke to begin with for at least another 5 years.
wmdistraction Jan 10th 2011 1:04PM
I love the pop culture references. I'm already doing a million things that aren't WoW-related while I'm playing, so I'm no really "immersed" in the world to begin with. I've never really viewed MMOs as a serious role-playing venue. After all, you're put into the middle of a realm with a million other players all doing the same quests at the same time, with many opponents dying multiple times in just under an hour. To me, it seems silly to take role-playing seriously in an environment that is never actually influenced by your actions. If you do, that's your thing, but it's not appealing to me.
electrogruve Jan 10th 2011 3:19PM
My guild's name on Vek'nilash is Big Damn Heroes. Love me some Firefly.
Dezaris Jan 13th 2011 11:48PM
I feel like a prude saying it, but I just don't like them. I suppose you could find an appropriate amount for them, but everyone's opinion of how much to use would be different. Also, it's got to be difficult to include lore-related humour in a game that would genuinely entertain the player.