It’s no secret that the late comedian Robin Williams was a big gamer — he played everything from Portal to Call of Duty. So in an effort to memorialise Williams, gamers have banded together to make a petition to see if they can get Blizzard to add him to World of Warcraft in some way.
Why World of Warcraft? Williams used to play it! From Change.org petition:
Robin Williams was born July 21, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois and lived an extraordinary life until his untimely death on August 11, 2014. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, Williams went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards. Arguably one of, if not the most, funniest man to ever walk the earth, the loss of Mr. Williams is felt worldwide with a collect intake of disbelief and crushing sadness. Robin Williams was not only an excellent comedian but also a game enthusiast, 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. Many have expressed a wish to this character perform some of Williams best jokes within the Worlds End Tavern, so that he may continue making us smile long after his passing.
Right now, the petition has accrued over 10,000 signatures. At least one Blizzard employee, a technical game designer on World of Warcraft, has seen the petition:
@Dakirokos @mumper @CM_Lore @DaveKosak @davhave Yes. We’re taking care of it.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) August 12, 2014
What “taking care of it” means is vague, though the petition claims that they have received “assurance from Blizzard employees that our desire for a Robin Williams tribute and or NPC will be handled with great care.” We contacted Blizzard to ask about details about Robin William’s inclusion, and will update this post if we hear back.
It’s worth noting that World of Warcraft not only contains a ton of pop culture references, but also has included memorials for real-life people before.
You can check out the petition here.
(Via IGN)
Comments
13 responses to “Fans Want A WoW Tribute To Robin Williams, And Blizzard’s Listening”
Might just add in a NPC named after him. They did that to the main characters from The Lost Vikings after that franchise died.
Should be a genie!
ok that’s pretty damn awesome.
Looks like an 80% confirmation with this tweet – https://twitter.com/warcraft/status/499373912291938307
I’ll be interested to see what they come up with. Some sort of statue or NPC seems like the most likely outcome, but as dumb as it sounds I’d love to see them come up with something way more weird, stupid and fun. Imagine if for one day a year World of Warcraft ran a ‘for the fallen’ celebration event. Sort of a mix between a Brewfest parade and the Deathwing random attacks. Once an hour for a week a party comes rolling through a random zone. =P
Word is that it’ll be a Robin Williams NPC that recites some of his more famous jokes at the Worlds End Tavern.
Personally, I would have loved a Blue Genie companion available on the Blizzard Store with proceeds going to Suicide Prevention Charities, but hey, Robin immortalized telling jokes for the millions on Azaroth works just as well.
Im kinda hoping for boss like they did for when James Brown died:
Behold the epic boss fight theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA
thing is the petition was not needed at all, hell no one asked for paris hilton to be put in WoW yet they did and no petition was ever made for James Brown ( who made into and awesome boss fight complete with its own music)
Is it me or did the korean pokemon website release the news of the new megas on purpose in tribute of the death of robin williams, mega slowbro representing him as a great comedian & mega audino as the angel helping him in the afterlife
It’s just you.
Mrs. Doubtfire house maid!
With her wandering around on fire.
“My first day as an inkeeper and I’m getting hot flashes.”
Hell, he has done so many roles ,why not replace all the NPC’s with Robin Williams
Personally I think it’s tacky as sh*t and WAY too soon…