Should Blizz Stop with Pop Culture References in WOW?Follow

Anyone else think that pop culture references in wow are silly and break immersion? Small subtle references are fine, but things like Horatio Lane are not. I don't have much issue with harrison jones, as he's not there as a comedic figure, and his story is actually serious. But Horatio Lane? he's a ******* joke reference.

He even does the whole sunglasses meme crap. And I'm supposed to think of him as an actual existing character in warcraft lore. And he's nothing but a ****** meme reference for the sake of humour. the D.E.H.T.A. in northrend is another one I don't much like. Sure it makes sense for an organization of druids to have an issue with hemet nestingwary, but they shouldn't have made it such a blatant reference to P.E.T.A.

I'm curious as to why blizzard adds this stupid pop culture references. They do nothing but break immersion, damage the story, and are just plain, NOT, FUNNY. Humour seems to be the basis of adding them to the game, but they aren't even funny. And even if they were, it's not worth adding them.

I see on the official wow forums alot of posters seem to have no issue with it, again these same people think that wow is some sort of sitcom, and those posters make it clear that they don't care about the story at all, so I'm not surprised they like the pop culture references.


Out of all of them, Haris Pilton has to be the worst. She seriously damages immersion, a blatant reference to some annoying real life celebrity. Is she seriously supposed to exist in lore? Can we just say that none of these minor reference characters actually exist unless they are actually giving quests or w/e?


Anyway, wondering if you guys on this forum think the references are bad like I do. They're stupid, not funny, and ruin immersion to the point where if they keep adding them, noone will take this game's story seriously.

Why is it stupid though?

Edit: I'd like to note that I don't have issue with Harrison Jones or Keeshan because they seem more like they were inspired by other fictional characters from other stories, both of those stories, Indiana Jones and Rambo, being serious stories, rather than comedies, and the questlines in game that they are inspired from are serious.

Harrison Jones is much more obvious, but again he seems more inspired than anything, same goes with Keeshan, except its not going to be apparent to anyone who hasn't seen Rambo that he's a reference to Rambo. They can be accepted as real characters in the...lore....


However, characters ( and I use the term characters as loosely as possible) like Haris Pilton, Ricole Nichie, and Horatio Llane are not acceptable. Horatio Llane could've been another inspired character, however he was just a meme reference, nothing more.

I'm not QQing, just saying that I think the references can break immersion if not done right, and certain references are done in a way that break immersion, as they were added as blatant references that are for purely comedic purposes. But is anyone laughing at the references?

Edited, May 28th 2011 11:14am by DerpLord

Edited, May 28th 2011 11:15am by DerpLord

Pop culture references do not equal fun. They can add some minor jokes here and there without pop culture references....jokes that are relative to the warcraft story...people using pop culture references for humour have no imagination when it comes to humour.


Pop culture reference based comedy is bad. If blizz wants to add a few joke here and there, make them relative to the story, and not pop culture based.

Derp, you seem to have overestimated the importance of your opinion yet again. Pop culture references are not inherently good or bad, they are something that will evoke different responses from different players. You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not the judge or arbiter of all things Blizzard. You seem to forget that.

You don't like pop culture references. Got it.
You don't like people that like them. Got it.

Have a cookie and get over yourself.

You're taking a lot of this way too seriously (and almost personally). A few examples of these aren't just pop culture references as well. They're sort of visual similes (yeah, that's right, WoW is using poetic devices). Haris Pilton's name provides a shorthand comparison. This figure is, evidently, an insipid, wealthy, materialistic minor celebrity who's perhaps only famous for being famous. Before we see any speech text from her, Bam!, we've got half of who she is summed up. The same applies to D.E.H.T.A. They're more than animal lovers; they're extremists, willing to endanger people and act like loons to advertise their point. If they acted the exact same way and were clearly a reference to P.E.T.A. but just didn't have the name, would that be fine? Why? Why is simply making that connection so frustrating when there are direct reasons for them to have that name?

Haris Pilton is no less an "inspiration" than Harrison Jones, so I don't see why you'd find one acceptable and the other infuriating. Is an Indiana Jones knock-off really supposed to exist in lore? (Well, clearly yes because he's there in the game) Why is this obscure presence in the game acceptable but another not? You're picking for completely arbitrary - and stupid - reasons. You don't own the lore, this game doesn't belong to you. WoW is, very much, a kind of sitcom fantasy game.

Look at The Simpsons. That show has a lore that it has built up over the decades but it frequently breaks or bends that lore in the name of fun. The "Rule of Fun" is what's driving the creators of both The Simpsons and WoW. All other rules come secondary to that. Try to not take life so seriously. You'll never get out alive.


Edited, May 28th 2011 4:26pm by Smallsword

Should Blizz stop with pop culture references in WoW? No.

My personal favourite: the rat and four turtles in the sewer of Dalaran.

Most pop culture references are just a random NPC in the game that doesn't really do anything aside from Harrison Jones which is really the only one I can think of that has a decent part of the storyline for Uldum. DHETA is just a minor quest hub in BT that I don't believe really has much in the way of the story, though it makes sense that druids want to protect the wildlife, they are druids of course. I've never quested in Terrokar but Haris Pilton is just a bag type vendor isn't she? I don't know if she has any quests related to her.

I rated the OP down. He didn't put OOC at the first of his post and it caused him to break my immersion.

You want to get the undead? I'll tell you how to get the undead.

One of my favorites is Stephen Ryback, the cooking trainer in SW.
Most ppl don't get it, it's a play on Stephen Seagal's character Casey Ryback, who was 'just a cook.'

I don't get people who think they should set their own standards for the rest of us. It's just a little extra from the devs, like a cookie.

Just more proof of how educated you are.

You seem to be unable to distinguish between your opinion and facts. That's what makes your posts stupid.