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Topical Tropes
Shout Out: World of Warcraft
- 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.
- All non-combat/flavour pets have 42 hitpoints. Apparently, collecting them is the meaning of life.
- 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.
- There's 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.
- 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 Underbelly (sewer) of Dalaran, there are four small water-dwelling reptiles facing a rodent, surrounded by toxic magic waste.
- 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's a named critter named Rash.
- 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.
- In Budd's quest chain in Vashj'ir, he finds a cursed treasure that turns him into a skeleton a la the first Pirates of the Caribbean.
- 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".
- One of the male Forsaken jokes has him asking for odorant. Wet Dog, Smelly Garbage, or Low Tide will do.
- 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 mount seems 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.
- And if that wasn't enough, the Windwalker Monk specialization also has an extremely fast punch attack, while all specs have access to an instant kill move when their opponent's life is low, which involves 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.
