A petition calling for an in-game tribute to Robin Williams in World of Warcraft was met with enthusiasm by Blizzard, which quickly announced on Twitter that it was "taking care of it." And it really wasn't kidding.
World of Warcraft fan site Wowhead recently discovered the presence of an NPC named "Robin The Entertainer" in the code for the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion. The model attached to the NPC, a blue-skinned Djinn, is from an earlier expansion, but the connection to Williams' role as the Genie in the 1992 film Aladdin is obvious.
There are two other NPCs bearing the same name but with different models, a human male wearing suspenders similar to the ones he wore in Mork and Mindy , and a grey-haired human female, apparently with a male voice, a likely reference to Mrs. Doubtfire . Wowhead theorized that the character may change forms as part of his in-game routine.
There's no real doubt that a tribute to Williams will appear in the game in one form or another—the official World of Warcraft account tweeted "We'll see you in-game" last week—but it's still great to see it happening so quickly. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is in beta testing now and goes live on November 13 .
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
