Pop Culture References in the Wrath of the Lich King

[Messiah]

The World of Azeroth is a huge, complicated and sometimes almost completely alien place, as any player knows. However, it is also a somewhat familiar place if you know what to look for. Since the release of the original World of Warcraft game Blizzard has been slipping in references to our world. This year with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard continued this tradition with a veritable ton of real world references placed in the game. In this article Byron "Messiah" Mudry looks at several of them, however he also invites readers to visit our forums and point out even more that they find in the game.

Some of the references are very subtle, such as our next one. While adventuring in the Borean Tundra, you can happen across an item that starts a quest, called the Ultrasonic Screwdriver. For any sci-fi fan this will instantly be recognizable as a reference back to Dr. Who and his Sonic Screwdriver. Even the name of the quest reminds you of its origin "Master and Servant", referring to one of the arch villains found in the series "The Master".

You can find more information in the article: Pop Culture References in the Wrath of the Lich King

[Yakb0]

and ED 210, is a reference to ED-209 from Robocop.


That being said. My favorite reference in the game, is Hemet Nesingwary. From the subtle comentary on the "great white hunter" who has you kill hundreds of animals for no good reason, to the absurd multi level marketing scheme he has in Northrend (the line about the trapper turning in enough hides, to get a set of cheap steak knives was one of the funniest things I've seen)

edit: and if you're really bored, you can look at wowwikki has a massive list of pop culture references in WoW

[Badwulf]

Futurama:
The voice/dialogue of the valkyrie who resurrects Ingvar the Plunderer during the Utgarde Keep boss fight sounds an awful lot like Tress MacNeille's character Mom berating her son Ignar.

[ArcaneBomb55]

Another reference:

In the Death Knight starting zone you can find a book with a list of a bunch of Death Knights, your character's name at the end. The comment left for your character is this:

"Needs more cowbell."