Blizzard will pay tribute to Robin Williams by adding him to World of Warcraft. Their decision to turn the deceased comedian into a game character was driven by a hugely popular fan petition.
The tribute actually makes sense. As the Change.org petition points out, Robin Williams was a fan of World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3:
He said that he enjoys Warcraft III very much in an interview a few years ago, and was even apart of the mmorpg World of Warcraft. It was reported that Robin used to play on the Mannoroth server, and was something of a troll in trade on good days or when anonymity allowed. Mr.. Williams said in interviews that he took his World of Warcraft characters very serious - in fact he was well known for being an extreme PC builder who prefered to build his own overclocked and super-cooled systems.He often joked about his WoW addiction but also about the reactions he'd get from other gamers when he admits he plays the game. Because of his presence within our community, we the players of World of Warcraft are asking Blizzard to kindly create an NPC within the game that memorializes the actor/comedian.
The petition quickly gained over 10,000 signatures. More importantly, it got the attention of Blizzard. Chadd Nervig, technical game designer for World of Warcraft, acknowledged that the team's handling the request:
The official WoW Twitter account then followed up with a similar statement of their own:
It's still unclear what the World of Warcraft tribute to Robin Williams will look like. The petition suggested that Blizzard introduce a non-player character that performs some of Williams' jokes at the World's End Tavern in Shattrath. That sort of pop culture reference wouldn't be out of place in WoW. The same tavern is also frequented by a blonde socialite named "Haris Pilton."
Blizzard's made several tributes to the deceased throughout WoW's history. They've honored the dead with quests, characters and items. For example, Crusader Bridenbecker in Icecrown is based on a young player that died of cancer. Wowhead has a great round-up of the dozens of memorials in the game.
Williams died on August 11th of an apparent suicide. Our colleagues over in the film section have been paying tribute to his decades of acting over the past two days. You can read their thoughts on his best roles here.
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