- Its most touching Shout Out would have to be the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, located in the Barrens. The shrine is engraved with the initials "MK" and the Spirit Healer that stands over it is named "Koiter" referring to Michael Koiter, a Blizzard employee who died during the creation of the game.
- There are, in fact, several such memorials in-game. The closest thing to an Alliance equivalent of the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior is the In Loving Memory
memorial. Less seriously, in Outland, there's also a memorial to the cancelled Blizzard game, Starcraft: Ghost.
- The game contains a poem written in honor of Dak Krause, who died of leukemia. http://www.wowpedia.org/Caylee_Dak
- Another real life shout out is a quest in Mulgore which was made for a kid with cancer (who voiced the quest-giver). Said kid has since passed away.
- Similarly, the weapon Merciless Crossbow of the Phoenix has a tooltip that says "Finely crafted to Ephoenix's specification." Ephoenix was the name of Ezra Chatterton's hunter. Ezra had the opportunity to visit Blizzard as part of a Make-A-Wish wish and the crossbow is named after him.
- With the introduction of achievements, another slew of references made its way into game, including the possibility to earn the title "Jenkins". Leeroy even got his own card in the TCG.
- On a more positive note, the game is completely packed with references to other properties. A short list: During a quest where you ride a giant in Northrend, if his HP gets low it's warned that "Gymer Needs Storm Cloud Badly!". Many engineer NPCs are reference to Star Trek series characters such as "Jhordy Lapforge" and "Chief Engineer Trep". The manhole from Lost can be found in Sholazar Basin. An Engineering item is called MOLL-E. There's a whole section on another site, if you want to explore.
- In Mists of Pandaria, there's an even more direct Gauntlet reference, the quest 'Blue Dwarf Needs Food Badly'. This expansion has more refs per square meter than you could shake a gnomish engineering-created Automatic Shaking Stick at, before it blew your hand off.
- Ulduar has a boss named Kologarn who has some relatively blatant shout outs. He is a giant construct guarding a bridge (really, he is the bridge) and when first aggroed, yells None shall pass! Being a construct, part of the battle strategy involves destroying his arms. When an arm is destroyed he may yell Just a scratch or Only a flesh wound! among other things.
- Pets:
- All non-combat/flavour pets have 42 hitpoints. Apparently, collecting them is the meaning of life.
- Stinker apparently uses his aroma to repel predators and attract cats.
- Cataclysm contains the two main characters from the fanfic Interactive Fiction parody You Awaken in Razor Hill, Tednugent and his pet Scratchfever ('Tednug' and 'Scratchfever' in-game), patrolling the area around the town of Razor Hill. They even perform a little in-joke from the story, highlighting Ted's odd attraction to harpies.
- Another quest in Cataclysm involves you defending a botanist's house using solar power to grow plants to ward off zombies. And you get your own Singing Sunflower if you make it to the end.
- A quest called A Tiny, Clever Commander. Complete with the target enemy being "Commander" Nazrim.
- The NPC John J. Keeshan and the quests involving him made for the Cataclysm expansion in the Redridge Mountains are essentially ones to Rambo.
- The Twilight Highlands quest Four Heads are Better than None. Your targets? A pair of two-headed ogres named Za'brox and Beeble'phod. Mix the names up a little...
- And who can forget the "See the Invisible", "Touch the Untouchable", "Break the Unbreakable", "Fight the Power" quest line.
- Bloodgulch in Twilight Highlands is home to Griff.
- Booty Bay has a gnome engineer named Oglethorpe Obnoticus.
- In Silverpine Forest, the Orc forces are commanded by Admiral Hatchet.
- In Dalaran there's a shark in The Underbelly named Segacedi after the Sega CD add-on to the Sega Genesis. He has the title of "Sewer Shark", which is the name of one of the games released for it.
- Also in The Underbelly there are four small water-dwelling reptiles facing a rodent, surrounded by toxic magic waste.
- In Outland the Arakkoa capital is called "Skettis". The Arakkoa strongly resemble the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal. Some also make a sort of high, humming sound similar to the Verbal Tic of Dark Crystal's Chancellor.
- The first questgiver you encounter upon entering Westfall is a Stormwind chief investigator by the name of Horatio Laine. He wears a suit and has a habit of putting on his shades right as he is making a pun.
- In the Pandaren beginning area, there's a couple of ponds with bamboo platforms sticking out of them that turn you into small creatures if you fall in because of the spirits of the animals that died in them were infused with the water. Sounds familiar huh?
- The Valley of the Four Winds contains an enemy called a Kernel Sprite.
- The flavor text for the Stinker battle pet, a skunk, says he uses his aroma to repel predators and attract cats, but he's not very successful at it.
- The icon for the EZ-Gro Cabbage you grow to start the Tillers quests for farming is a perfect sphere, very reminiscent of the QUALITY cabbage◊ in Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na ~Crescent Love~.
- A daily Tillers quest, You Have to Burn the Rope.
- Pandaren cubs apparently cannot refuse a double hozen dare.
- The ENTIRETY of the Tillers faction, from farming your own crops, to making friends with certain NPCs and giving them gifts, is an obvious shout-out to the Harvest Moon series. Or even Rune Factory, since you can also kill monsters like in that game.
- In the Southern Barrens, there's a quest called Dwarf Fortress. It involves helping a goblin steal the plans for a dwarven fortress. Guarding the plans is Haggis Boatmurder. The plans themselves are described as "A depiction of the fortress using primitive icons to represent essential structures."
- It's hard to deny that one of the pandaren families being named Applebloom might not be unintentional.
- Although Pink Peony the pink-clad cake vendor is more overt.
- In Draenor, there's an enchanted fey dragon named Raindash.
- Although Pink Peony
- At New Cifera in the Valley of the Four Winds, amidst the Lumpy Toads, there are three named critters. They are called Rash, Zitz and Pimple.
- Inserted amongst all of the other newly-added tameable rare beasts, in the Swamp of Sorrows, there's a white and grey Wind Serpent named Yukiko.
- In the Dread Wastes, there's a quest called Psycho Mantid.
- Speaking of the Mantid, the achievement "Stay Klaxxi" requires you finish the daily quests with all ten Klaxxi-granted buffs. Those buffs are all named for heavy metal classics: Children of the Grave, Iron Man(tid), Speed King, Battle Hymn, Seek and Destroy, Master of Puppets, Angel of Death, Raining Blood, Silent Lucidity, and Painkiller.
- The Shado-Pan are very clearly inspired by the Night's Watch. They even say "We are the watchers on the wall" when clicked on, a line from the Watch's oath.
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- In Budd's quest chain in Vashj'ir, he finds a cursed treasure that turns him into a skeleton a la Curse of the Black Pearl.
- One of the quests out of Fort Wrynn in Talador is "Why is the Brew Gone"?
- One of Adarrah's quest dialogues is "I'm no stranger to love" and one of Mack's is "You wouldn't get this from any other guy!"
- A roaming NPC in Stormwind is named Elizabeth Birdsong, who mentions she's not from the area and discusses infinite possibilities.
- In Silverpine, players can fight witchaloks.
- One of the random phrases that the pandaren afflicted by the Sha of Despair can say is "How could this happen to me? I'm sick of this life.", a shout out to Simple Plan's infamous song "Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?)".
- The announcement trailer for Warlords of Draenor used a dwarf and orc to illustrate the new race models, decking them out in warrior and priest gear, like the two main characters (a dwarf and orc respectively) of the WoW machinima series "Alliance vs. Horde".
- In Stormwind's west bank, the bankers on the left half are named Kirsten, Scott, and Thomas (Kristin Scott-Thomas) and the right half are named Olivia, Newton, and John (Olivia Newton-John).
- The Sky Golem and Mechanized Lumber Extractor mounts seem to have a picture of Sarah Kerrigan on the control panel. This is a hold-over from every other shredder model with an exposed canopy since the beginning.
- The quest "Precious and Fragile Things Need Special Handling" takes its name from the opening lyrics of Depeche Mode's song "Precious".
- The achievement for obtaining 150 different companion pets is called "Littlest Pet Shop".
- Gorgrond in Warlords of Draenor has a three-headed plant hydra named Biolante.
- Gorgrond is also home to a rare botani (humanoid plant creature) named Bashiok. His dialogue consists entirely of the phrase "I am Bashiok", and when you loot him, you can get an item that spawns a dancing treant.
- The Viscous Fallout boss in Gnomeregan drops a dagger called the Toxic Revenger.
- A pandaren, Zach Chow, has a pet tiger named Azunyan.
- A random add in the Tanaan Jungle introduction's Blackrock Foundry, the Blackrock Slaghauler, is simply a shirtless orc hauling molten slag. When you fight him, he aggroes with "Hot stuff, coming through!"
- The Monk class is basically one giant Shout Out to Street Fighter, boasting a Hurricane Kick, a hand-thrown energy ball, a flaming breath attack, a somersault kick that trails a bright slash of orange energy, and a Psycho Crusher. Even their version of the signature move Storm, Earth & Fire from Warcraft III gets reworked to function more like Yun & Yang's Super Art from Street Fighter III and IV.
- On that note, there is an unusual NPC in Temple of the White Tiger, called Lun-Chi. She looks and acts exactly like her Street Fighter counterpart, but when you talk to her, she says quotes such as: "Test your might!" or "There is no knowledge that is not power."
- And if that wasn't enough, the Windwalker Monk specialization also has an extremely fast punch attack, while all specs used to have access to an instant-kill move when their opponent's life was low, which involved hitting a pressure point on the target. Sound familiar? If not, you're probably already dead.
- An NPC on the Wandering Isle named Jojo Ironbrow constantly asks you to provide him with hard objects he can test his strength on by smashing them with a single headbutt. In the final quest, you encounter an object that all but gives him a concussion when he attempts to break it with his head. Said object happens to be a solid jade stand.
- An achievement in the Argus the Unmaker encounter in Antorus, the Burning Throne is titled "Stardust Crusaders".
- Several mounts have them in the flavor text:
- The flying carpets have lines from "A Whole New World" on their icons.
- The Red Drake has the quote, "You should never listen to minstrels' fancies. A dragon would never hurt a soul, unless they tried to hurt him first."
- The Blue Drake: "Always speak politely to an enraged dragon."
- Black Drake: (paraphrased) "It never pays to leave a live dragon out of the equation."
- Bone-White Primal Raptor: "They are lethal at eight months, very lethal."
- Smoky Direwolf: "Believed to reside mostly in the north. Hates weddings."
- Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade: "Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
- Blue Drake: "Come not between the dragon and his wrath."
- Twilight Drake: "Never feed him after midnight."
- The Blackrock Foundry raid features a boss encounter of twin brothers named Hans'gar and Franzok.
- It's not just their names either. They quote Hans and Franz several times during the fight. When you first aggro them, they inform you that they are going to "pump you up".
- One of the elite mobs in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms is Cracklefang, a giant wolf that fights holding a sword in its mouth.
- There's another reference to that in the form of a garrison follower you can recruit named Soulare of Andorhal, a paladin who says things like "Praise the Light!" He even gives you a bonfire with a sword sticking out of it for your toy collection if you use a /tired emote on him.
- At Telredor in Zangarmarsh there's a gnome engineer named K. Lee Smallfry. You can give her an engine part you found.
- In the Forge of Souls instance in Icecrown, the first boss is Bronjahm, Godfather of Souls. He even has his own unique boss theme.
- Basically everything related to the Eldritch Abomination Old Gods is a Shout-Out to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The two gods you fight as bosses even have very similar names (C'thun = Cthulhu, Yogg-Saron = Yog-Sothoth).
- On Draenor is a large tiger named Sher'khaan. The quest to kill him is "Sher'KHAAAAAAANNNN"!
- In Stormshield, one of the vendors there asks, "Commander! Would you endorse my shop?"
- When you get to be able to build submarines, one of the possible names is Deep Sea Nine.
- One of the Battle Pets trainers uses a floating skull named Mort, a possible reference to Morte, who is also a floating skull.
- Getting Exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpents faction allows players with Jewelcrafting to create five different mounts. Each one is a brightly-colored artificial feline. One is black. The others are red, green, blue, and yellow. Sadly, they do not combine to form a larger mount.
- Heathcliff's Immortality: "Heathcliff, known as the Immortal Object, was said to be immune to any grave injury. Some questioned whether the blood knight's fortitude transcended the natural laws of the world."
- A Rogue legendary in Legion is some bracers called the Zoldyck Family Training Shackles.
- The head lumberjack in the Alliance garrison lumberyard is Justin Timberlord.
- The final phase of Mimiron's fight is the V-07-TR-0N.
- Lady Deathwhisper in Icecrown Citadel drops a bow called Zod's Repeating Bow. The flavor text reads, "Kneel before him."
- Another Icecrown drop is Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets, "For when herding just won't do."
- One Draenor quest sends you after a giant named An'dure the Awakened. The quest is "An'dure the Giant".
- While Reshad and Percy are rummaging through Syth's scrolls, they find one called "Fifty Layers of Shadow", which Reshad calls erotic sorcery-fiction.
- In Legion, part of the questline in Stormheim has you doing quests in Thorim's Peak for a group of dragons. All of the quests you do for them are named after DragonForce songs (For the curious, the ones in question are Wings of Liberty, Heart of a Dragon, Fury of the Storm, Where Dragons Rule, and Cry Thunder!)
- Another quest in the Stormheim area sees you having to rebuild a destroyed living statue in order to progress. The quest comes from the statue's head, and you need to find its right arm, right leg, left arm, and left leg. Whether or not the reference is intentional, it feels less like you're restoring a statue, and more like you're trying to summon Exodia the Forbidden One.
- Bilgerudder, a giant in Azsuna who uses NPCs as Pokémon, sometimes says "A-B-W. A-Always, B-Be, W-Winning. Always be winning, ALWAYS BE WINNING!
- The name of the Shadow Priest's artifact weapon, Xal'atath, sounds very much like Xel'lotath.
- Bonus points: Shadow Priests have an insanity theme, and Xel'lotath represents Sanity in Eternal Darkness.
- In Bloodthorn Cave on Draenor there's a pale orc named Gorum. He drops a ring called the Precious Bloodthorn Loop.
- In Dalaran is a flower saleswoman named Aerith Primrose. The new version of Dalaran in Legion has her accompanied by a bodyguard named Koraud. He's dressed similarly to Cloud, right down to the BFS.
- In Highmountain, the Stonedark drogbar have a snail race, from which you can win a snail named Zoom.
- Several jokes, flirts and dances each race has often include shout outs of some sort.
- Here is a comparative video showing the origins of most of the dances in game.
- An undead male joke asks for some odorant. Wet Dog, Smelly Garbage, or Low Tide will do.
- The dance for female goblins comes from the music video for the Beyoncé song "Single Ladies". One of their flirt lines also references the song.
Female goblin: If you liked it you should have put a larger, more elaborate ring on it.- Male night elf demon hunters have a joke saying that "Ten years will give you such a crick in the neck."
- Female blood elf demon hunters joke that they only wear black. And very very dark grey.
- The human male has a great idea for a movie split into three parts, "The Brotherhood of the Bracelet", "A Couple of Towers", and the grand finale, "Hey, the King's Back!"
- Male orcs would remind you that it's not easy being green.
- Male tauren will proudly proclaim "Here's the beef!", a reference to the Wendy's commercial which had the line, "Where's the beef?!"
- A flirty male pandaren says he'll "romance all three of your kingdoms."
- A female pandaren joke is a near word-for-word monologue from the first Kill Bill film.
- Here is a comparative video showing the origins of most of the dances in game
- There are three NPCs in the inn at Bradensbrook in Val'sharah - Jon Jafari, Arin Hanson, and Ross O'Donovan.
- Legion added the ability for Hunters to tame mechanical pets found in specific locations. Among them are two wolves named Rush and Treble.
- One of the Death Knight class hall missions is called "The Terror That Flaps in the Day".
- The description for the Eye of Inquisition pet is "Hello. Is it me you're looking for?"
- A lava-based Shaman legendary is Akainu's Absolute Justice.
- In Suramar's menagerie the player fights the devilsaur trainer Graedis Oenthar, who is eaten by said devilsaur as he calls her a "clever girl". The enemies outside have lines such as "Shoot her! SHOOT HER!" and "I'm getting fairly alarmed, here."
- The following quest is another shout out as you ride a devilsaur named Su'esh through downtown to kill cultists and eat their monstrous allies.
- In the Court of Stars dungeon, attempting to pull a miniboss after all three are dead will net you, "But nobody came".
- The Reliquary of Souls in the Black Temple is formed of three giant heads. During the last phase of the fight, the Essence of Anger's aggro line is "Beware: I live!"
- Harry Potter
- Nar'thalas is a mage academy, so of course makes a few nods to Hogwarts, such as a caretaker named Filrich with a cat named Mrs. Nors, and penalties such as death or even detention.
- In Suramar there is a hippogryph named Beakbuck.
- One of the books in Nar'thalas is called Incredible Monsters and Where to Locate Them.
- Ysera's death, and her final fate, is quite similar to Draco's at the end of Dragonheart.
- The quest for Hunters to recruit Rexxar in Highmountain has you attempting to survive a night in the woods while your vision is obscured by darkness and you must gather meat to fend off hunger, a la Don't Starve.
- One skinning questline in Stormheim involves an NPC named Seymour, and his mother Agnes.
- Overwatch references:
- In the Halls of Valor, two of the vrykul kings the group fights before the God-King Skovald encounter are named King Tor and King Bjorn. They were present in the original Utgarde Pinnacle instance during the King Ymiron encounter, which may have been the basis of their names being recycled in Overwatch.
- In Highmountain, there are drogbar mobs called Bitestone Roadhogs. They pull the player toward them with a hook on a chain.
- The toy given at Winter's Veil 2016 is Mei's endothermic blaster.
- One of the Brawler's Guild solo fights introduced in patch 7.1.5 is a team named Ogrewatch.
- One class hall mission is straight up titled "Overwatch".
- Holy paladins can find a skin for the Silver Hand from the "Edicts of the Lost Watcher" item. It turns their hammer into a Magitek version of Reinhardt's.
- There is a sequence of quests in the Felwood zone entitled, in order, Do the Imp-Possible, See the Invisible, Touch the Untouchable, Break the Unbreakable, and, of course, Fight the Power.
- The Stormwind Stockade features the twin brothers Randolph and Mortimer Moloch.
- The Burning Crusade version of the Headless Horseman dropped a Ring of Ghoulish Delight. Similarly, a PvP talent for death knights in Legion is named Cadaverous Pallor.
- One of the storylines in Val'sharah is titled "All Nightmare Long".
- The achievement for completing all storylines in Azsuna is called "Azsuna Matata".
- Two Artifact Traits for Brewmaster Monks are called Swift as a Coursing River and Dark Side of the Moon.
- When you dismount from the Grand Expedition Yak, Mystic Birdhat, one of the vendors, might comment, "Those yaungol have straight swords. Straight. Swords."
- One gray quality weapon in Legion is the Mining Sword. As the description notes, its poor quality is due to swords being very bad at mining.
- The quest "Mglrgrs of Our Grmlgrlr" has a very soapy feeling.
- One mission in Suramar is titled "Power! Get the Power!".
- In the Vindicaar, a Nightborne elf mentions giving his student a set of exercises measuring in hundreds.
- Tip: If you find yourself alone riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be alarmed - for you are in Azeroth!
- Death knights have a legendary ring named Seal of Necrofantasia.
- One relic dropped by Trilliax is named Foreign Contaminant.
- Cousin Slowhands says: Put more stuff in the thing more stuff goes in.
- An attack usable by canine Battle Pets is called Superbark.
- One of the Order Hall followers for warriors is a vrykul with the last name Stormcloak.
- In one Legion engineering quest, you're sent to retrieve fireworks from four kids. One of them is a human boy named Smacky with a wolf pup named Shooby.
- An Artifact Trait for Demonology Warlocks is called The Expendables.
- An achievement in Black Rook Hold is titled "Black Rook Moan".
- A Battle Pet from a vendor in Azsuna is a Ghost Shark.
- One Brawler's Guild boss is a male draenei named Ash'katzuum. He fights using Battle Pets and defeating him gives you "The Very Best Shirt".
- One of the Darkmoon Faire carnies is a red-headed woman named Jessica Rogers.
- In one quest in Winterspring, you hunt Altered Beasts for their brains. The flavor text for the brains reads "Arcane in the membrane... arcane in the brain!"
