Have you recognized Jhordy Lapforge?

Sometimes it seems as if I’m playing WoW wearing an eye bindle. How else comes that I miss out all the cool features that are there just in front of me if I only other to look?

Even though I’m a dedicated Star Trek fan, I never noticed until now that there are two engineers in Booty Bay and Tanaris manning the teleporters named Jhordy Lapforge and Scooty, a homage to two prominent ST characters.

And that’s only one example among many. The game is literarily swamped with references to all sorts of culture – from classic theatre to pop music and celebrities.

As usual it’s Wowwiki, the eternal spring of knowledge that has come to my help. The other day I accidentally found the list that tells you all those things you didn’t know or see until now. It opens the window to a huge part of the game that I’ve missed.

Some of the references are beyond my comprehension, for instance those that are pointing to other games, since WoW is the only one I’ve played. But there are so many different sorts of associations, that there will be something “for everyone” in there.

Scooby Doo marks

I’ll just give you a few more samples from my new insights:

I always thought there was something familiar about the Alterac Valley Mark of Honors, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Now I know. It’s identical to the collar of Scooby Doo! If you look closely you even see the initials SD.

I’ve done the Triage Quest for Artisan First Aid a couple of times at Theramore. And I’ve heard the sad farewell of the soldiers I’ve failed to heal: "Goodbye cruel world...I'm leavin' you today...goodbye, goodbye, goodbye..." I feel like a fool not recognizing this as the opening lines from one of the songs at Pink Floyd’s album The Wall. My only excuse is that I’m sort of death and blind for everything, concentrating on completing that annoying quest.

Many of the references are in form of NPCs. A few of them are so obvious that even I have have managed to recognize them, like Harrison Jones, Dirty Larry and Haris Pilton. But I never realized that Farmer Kent, standing on the docks of Southshore, is a reference to 'Clark Kent' and his childhood of growing up on a farm with his adopted Earth parents, Ma and Pa Kent.

Classic authors

Now every thing isn’t about pop music, movies and comics. There are plenty of references to classic authors such as Shakespeare. Often they’re just small details, which only the true fans will notice.

I don’t think many will understand that when the butcher Dirge Quickcleave in Tanaris says “"Get thee to a cheesery!" when sending you on a quest to gather cheese and other cooking ingredients, it’s a reference to "Get thee to a nunnery", a line from Hamlet to Ophelia.

Those few who do see it will on the other hand get a nice feeling of being enlightened, better educated than others, sharing a little secret with the developers.

How many of the references have you kept track of and how many did you miss? Go and check out for yourself at the Wowwiki list!