Posts with tag pop-culture

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Our friend Panser of TradeChat has been exploring the pop culture references within World of Warcraft for quite some time now. Today, the sixth video in her series has been released, which you can watch either on YouTube or embedded above. Some of these you'll no doubt already know, but stick it out. There's almost certainly something in there you'll be hearing for the first time.

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Mists of Pandaria is hardly the first WoW expansion to embrace plenty of cheeky pop culture references, but it's the most recent one to do so. Of course, that's because it's the most recent expansion. It's all freaky coincidental like that.

At any rate, grab yourself a steaming hot mug of irony and kick back to enjoy your guided tour through those references with Panser of TradeChat. Whether we're talking about frogs in bottles or arrows in the knee, Panser will make sure you're up to date on all the hip in jokes.

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Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Who doesn't love some pop culture? I mean, seriously -- that stuff is like the internet's bread and butter. We get to the choppa on the back of a lolcat, just in time to catch The Hunger Games out on DVD.

And just like a microcosm of real life, WoW is stocked full with plenty of pop culture references. In this video, Panser of TradeChat (and our weekly news roundup) takes you on a guided tour through the annals of pop culture in Azeroth. She lists dozens of references, many of which will probably surprise even the most veteran WoW players, especially if you don't play both factions.

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This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Just this past year, I've fallen in love with a television show called Dr. Who. For all of you who do not know what the show is about, it first aired in the 1960s, and it is about an alien who can change his face and goes traveling through time and space with a human girl in a spaceship that looks like a blue box that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. If that turns you off based the level of geekiness from that last sentence, don't worry -- it gets a lot worse.

But as I learned more about the history of the show, I always ended up asking myself, "Where is my Time Lord in WoW?" We are all aware of the fact that Blizzard is not afraid to put popular references in WoW, with Lady LaLa and Haris Pilton -- but why not put in a well-respected science fiction character? The thing that kills me is that there is an excellent place to put the Good Doctor into WoW that makes it seem natural: the Caverns of Time. It would seem like a great fit, a place where heroes can witness significant events and fight to correct them.

What about you guys -- who think should get a nod from Blizzard? Do you stop and ask why there are not five teenaged NPCs running around fighting monsters in five different-colored outfits? Or do you think that adding more and more of these fourth wall-breaking nods ruins the game, similar to what people say that Harrison Jones did to Uldum?

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Geekdom is much like any other group of people. There are movies, music, and literature which are considered classics and are generally accepted as having been seen, heard, or read by everyone at one point or another. Some of these are so accepted as classics that the idea someone is unfamiliar with them is simply "inconceivable" and we are left shocked when this occurs. Unfortunately, one of our own staff seems uninitiated in such classics.

While discussing some of the quests coming up in patch 3.3, we'd made a joke referencing the Knights who say "Ni!" from Monty Python's Holy Grail. Our own Matt Low mentioned that he didn't get whatever inside joke we were making. Much to our dismay, he had never seen the movie or any Monty Python for that matter. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords for daily quests wouldn't get a chuckle from him. Terry Palin in Elwynn Forest quoting the lumberjack song is also lost on him. He wouldn't even be that concerned about eating the Crunchy Frog available from Darkmoon Faire because he wouldn't know that it contained crunchy, raw, unboned, real, dead frog instead of an almond whirl.

With the vast number of pop culture references scattered in World of Warcraft, it's sad when any are lost on its players. What obscure references have you found in the game that you've enjoyed or other people have completely missed?

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Today, in addition to all of the questions I'm answering for you, I need all of you to answer a question for me. Hawaiian Pizza: Delicious, or Crazy Delicious? This is an important question, my friends. I need each and every one of you to contribute. It's for the good of mankind. Also, to prove my girlfriend wrong. It rules, does it not?

Evaline asked...

Are there any Ulduar achievements currently on the PTR? I'm guessing they aren't there yet, because we would have heard something about them if there were. Another question if I may, do the bosses on the PTR currently drop loot? Again probably not, for the same reason as above, but can't hurt to ask.

The Warcraft storyline has come a long way since Orcs and Humans. Bobbyjeh of Aman'Thul asked how Blizzard maintains their "seemingly endless lore and story arc. Nethaera responded that the company has a Historian on staff as well as an expanding department dedicated to lore. They cover all three of the major Blizzard universes. They help to keep continuity in the game and keeps things interesting for our resident Lore Nerd.

While I was doing the quest chain for my Swift Flight Form, I wondered to myself. What does someone who's been asleep for so long know about Outland? I've often wondered how it is that new Draenei characters all crashed "one month ago." As some pointed out, there has been some discontinuity in the Warcraft Universe. But Blizzard does a pretty good job of keeping their story straight. No stranger than C3PO saying, "Thank the maker," when technically, Darth Vader is the maker. We accept these plot holes and move on.

This post contains spoilers about Wrath of the Lich King. Before the cut, the spoilers will be mild. After the cut, the spoilers will be complete, and more powerful than you could possibly imagine. (Well, more than you could imagine if you don't check out behind the cut.)

One of Blizzard's hallmarks in the World of Warcraft has long been the subtle digs and nods to pop culture. These Easter Eggs can bring a lot of fun, though I know some folks feel the little references ruin their immersion. I kind of like them, and still giggle this day about the idea of purchasing Gigantique bags from Haris Pilton while avoiding her spectral friend. This new one, lurking mildly in Northrend, made me giggle a bit in delight, though. One might even say, I muttered a faint "Squee!"

Go behind the cut and see the latest easter egg in Wrath ... if you dare!

Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.

The WoW roleplayer is a strange creature -- in a game universe almost completely designed for the non-roleplayer (there are enough pop culture references to make anyone sensitive to anachronisms apoplectic), they soldier on insider RP servers, taking their time leveling up, and having perhaps much more fun than anyone who races towards the endgame might otherwise have.

So for this Gamers on the Street, I decided to head to Moon Guard, an RP server. I had hoped to chat about what players were expecting for season 4, and maybe find out what casual players thought of all the new things coming in Wrath of the Lich King, but when I sent out my query for interviewees, what I found were two roleplayers. people who were taking the game at their own pace and having fun doing it.

I also made sure, due to past reader comments, to speak to Alliance this time. After the jump, meet two roleplayers who are playing the game their own way.

We at WoW Insider felt that, in honor of Easter/Noblegarden, we'd go looking for some of the best Easter eggs in Burning Crusade. This is by no means an exhaustive gallery of all the little nods you can find in BC; it's really almost impossible to go anywhere without running into a programmer's sly joke. I had to limit my gallery to things that could be seen by toons who'd outleveled some of the really good quest-related ones ("How To Serve Goblins" was great) or who had ready access to the Blood Elf/Draenei starter areas.

Enjoy your trawl through a feast of cleverly-placed pop-culture references, and you can visit BlizzPlanet for an exhaustive list of Burning Crusade Easter eggs if these whet your appetite for more! Don't forget that with our new gallery functions, you can hit the "Hi Res" button at the top right of the page if you want to see a photo in more detail.

Here's a little something to brighten up your Monday. Sharp-eyed tipster Aikiwoce spotted this dead ringer for a certain object that rhymes with "freighted D'Artagnan noob" outside the Stormwind gates, presumably as part of the "Love Is in the Air" holiday that kicked off today. I love Blizzard and their cultural references. Has anyone else seen something interesting?


SInce we're on the subject of real world references in WoW, check out this gallery of curiously familiar names of NPC's in game.

Also, players dressed as their favorite WoW characters at last year's Blizzcon.

And how can we forget people dressed up as their favorite characters from their favorite book/movie/tv series/game at last year's DragonCon.

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Love is in the Air and on WoW Insider. Check out our continuing coverage of the event and our guide to earning the achievement. And you better hurry; the holiday only lasts five days!

Last night I dreamt of Mudsprocket. I was questing with one of my alts -- I assume my shadow priest, but I can't be certain because I was seeing the perspective from her eyes -- and I came across a new NPC standing next to the flight master. She was a female orc named Robin Torres, and I realized she was named after our Robin of WoW Insider fame.

The dream switches to me having a discussion at a party with a friend of mine. Over drinks I mention what I found in the game and she doesn't seem the least bit surprised. "Well, Azeroth Interrupted was incredibly popular" she tells me.

Now this isn't the first time I've dreamt about the game. I do so pretty much all the time. Since I play so much my unconscious mind feeds on what is on my mind at the time. What intrigued me looking back on it was my creation of my own NPC to place into the game. So I wondered what other NPCs players might like to see referenced in WoW. I know the game is riddled with references, from Caretaker Ophera Windfury to Eyonix himself. I'm interested to see what the readers would select for new NPCs to add to the game. Who would you like to meet lounging at the bar in a tavern in Howling Fjord or standing guard at the Sunwell?