The fallout of the tragic death of comic actor Robin Williams is sending shockwaves through the entertainment industry as well as some other industries you might not expect. Word of the legendary comic's demise has affected things a great deal, most notably the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The late Williams was apparently a very big fan of the video game and the actor took his WoW characters very seriously.
Since Williams' death just a few days ago, a petition on change.org has surfaced in an attempt to memorialize the comic in World of Warcraft.
"He often joked about his WoW addiction but also about the reactions he'd get from other gamers when he admits he plays the game. Because of his presence within our community, we the players of World of Warcraft are asking Blizzard to kindly create an NPC (non-playable character) within the game that memorializes the actor/comedian," according to a source close to the game. The petition is designed to have the legendary Williams be an NPC that constantly cracks jokes "so that he may continue making us smile long after his passing."
The outpouring of support in the wake of Robin Williams' suicide has made fans everywhere try and make sense of his death in any way they know how. This tribute by World of Warcraft is a clever way to keep the memory of Williams alive for years to come. Not many people knew, but Williams was a devoted game enthusiast after telling a reporter years ago that he was a a big fan of the mmorpg World of Warcraft. It was reported that Williams took his World of Warcraft characters very seriously. According to the petition, Robin used to play on the Mannoroth server anonymously to avoid revealing his identity to other players.
"In fact, Williams was well known for being an extreme PC builder who preferred to build his own over clocked and super-cooled systems. He often joked about his WoW addiction but also about the reaction he'd get from other gamers when he admits he plays the game. 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," according to the change.org petition from Jacob Holgate.
Apparently the folks behind the game are listening. Here is what the official World of Warcraft Twitter tweeted out:
.@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.
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) August 13, 2014
We'll have more information on the details behind this as it gets released.
