Posts with tag homage

It seems that Blizzard snuck this one in quietly with Patch 3.1 as not a lot of people noticed, but thanks to Saithir of angrydwarfs for pointing it out. Apparently, an NPC named Loremaster Skosiris appeared at the top of Scryer's Tier in Shattrath tending to a new library of books. The NPC tends to a host of bookshelves that act as master trainers for primary and secondary professions, saying "Here I have amassed what may well be the greatest depository of lore in all of Outland. Even the grand libraries of Silvermoon City pale in comparison." Skosiris also tells players, "please... look, read, browse to your heart's content. You'll find everything organized and clearly labeled."

Why is this so cool? Well, Skosiris is the name of the founder of everybody's favorite World of Warcraft database, Wowhead. What can be a more fitting tribute than an NPC that manages, well, data! So that's what the Scryers did with all those Arcane Tomes. Blizzard has given nods to the community in the past, most notably with the NPC Breanni, who operates the pet store in Dalaran, and even to now-retired Druid blogger Phaelia, who got an item appropriately named after her. These are the tiny little touches that remind all of us that Blizzard appreciates what the gaming community does. Even though Shattrath is now a ghost town, Loremaster Skosiris and his library is a pretty good reason to drop by. When you do swing by the Scryer's tier, don't forget to bring some tacos for this librarian.

You may remember Blizzard's April Fool's joke this year, a trailer promising the release of a console version of the Molten Core. It was a concept that did so well in the polls, we expected to see it turned into some kind of official mini-game.

An enterprising fan, however, beat them to the punch. The Molten Core ATARI-style game is now available, as posted in the forums. You can download it from Box.net or from Filefront. Design inspiration is credited to Blizzard, of course, but its graphics, programming, and game play are courtesy of Derek Gallant.

With this morning's server restarts, I took the opportunity to fire up this 1 or 2 player raid instance. And, while it probably won't be peeling me away from the zombie invasion, I didn't stop laughing the entire time. Derek's creation allows you to play each of WoW's staple classes, and everything is, indeed, fairly reminiscent of Molten Core. (If you know what you're looking at.)

Good luck!

On the left is a piece of art by the late Michael Turner, who passed away in June of this year. On the right is a submission in the Blizzard Fan Art Program, by Emiko Setsuna (or Dênakê). Tipster Ron pointed this out to us, figuring it was worth a mention. If you notice the two pictures look very similar, you're right. If you're not convinced, look very closely at the ladies' left hand, and how the fingers and thumb are placed.

I'm not ready to scream "plagiarism" here (or Laaaaaaaand!, if you're familiar with comics). The idea of "inspired art" and "homage" is very common, and there are only so many ways you can pose the humanoid body. The Blizzard Fan Art Program doesn't have a commentary feature, so it's possible Setsuna intended on crediting Michael Turner for the inspiration. If you consider the timing, especially, it's likely Setsuna was memorializing Turner, as he only passed away a few months ago.

Still, it does make me wish that the Fan Art section did have more information from the creator, so we could draw a conclusion more easily.