Last week the world was struck with tragedy when actor/comedian Robin Williams took his own life in his San Francisco home. A man who filled so many lives with joy and laughter, cities all over the country have been mourning in various ways. Whether it be the bench from Good Will Hunting in Boston Gardens, or Mrs.Doubtfire’s house in San Francisco, countless fans have turned out to mourn in their own way. Gamers began to mourn in their own way however, as Williams was an avid gamer, and petitions sprung up to immortalize Williams by adding a character to some of his favorite games such as World of Warcraft and Legend of Zelda.
Blizzard studios immediately acknowledged the passing of one of their greatest fans, and began work on creating an in-game NPC to remember one of the best comedians of all time. True to their word, three separate in-game NPC’s called “Robin the Entertainer” will appear throughout WoW: Warlords of Draenor. Discovered by WoWhead.com through a series of code, it appears these incarnations of the beloved comedian will appear in the forms of three of his most famous roles; a Djinn to represent Aladdin’s Genie, a human male speculated as Mork, and a human female presumably representing Mrs.Doubtfire.
Unfortunately these models are not yet viewable in-game so there is no further understanding of how these characters will interact with players or where they will be placed throughout the game. Speculations have risen that the Djinn version of “Robin the Entertainer” will take on the forms as the other two characters as a joke, much like the Genie would do in Aladdin. The prospect of continuing on the Robin Williams legacy and still being able to appreciate all of the laughs he provided over the years is one we can thank WoW player, Jacob Holgate for.
Last week, after hearing news of Williams passing, Holgate created an online petition on change.org for Blizzard to include this in-game NPC. Holgate had this to say, “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.”
Not long after the petition was formed, Chadd Nervig, Technical Game Designer on WoW tweeted, “Yes. We’re taking care of it.” Later the official World of Warcraft twitter account posted the following tweet, “@robinwilliams Thank you. You gave us so much joy in our lives, and we hope you enjoyed your time in our world. We’ll see you in-game.”
R.I.P Robin Williams, we WILL see you in-game.
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