14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard Entertainment apparently intends to pay tribute to legendary actor and comedian Robin Williams by immortalizing him in the company's massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.
The actor died this week and was said to be a video game fan, going as far as to name his daughter after Nintendo's popular character Princess Zelda.
He reportedly played both Warcraft 3 as well as World of Warcraft, and shortly after his death, a number of players from the WoW community petitioned Blizzard to add the comedian to the game as a non-playable character.
"The loss of Mr. Williams is felt worldwide with a collect intake of disbelief and crushing sadness. Robin Williams was not only an excellent comedian but also a game enthusiast," Jacob Holgate, the petition's creator, wrote.
"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 for this to character perform some of Williams' best jokes within the World's End Tavern, so that he may continue making us smile long after his passing," he continued.
News traveled fast and it didn't take long until Technical Game Designer Chadd Nervig said that they were already taking care of it, in reply to a fan wondering whether World of Warcraft's developer had seen the petition on Twitter.
A while later, the official Warcraft Twitter accounted posted this concise message: "@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."
While this isn't a proper official confirmation, Holgate reported that the petition had been successful and that he received "assurance from Blizzard employees that our desire for a Robin Williams tribute and or NPC would be handled with great care."
It's not that far-fetched to assume that Robin Williams will materialize in the game somehow, as World of Wacraft is already laden with numerous pop culture references and characters based on both real-life and fictional people, as well as a lot of zany humor.
If you're interested in a comprehensive list of the huge number of pop culture references hidden within the world of Azeroth, you can find one, neatly broken down, on the World of Warcraft wiki page.
World of Warcraft is getting a new expansion this year, titled Warlords of Draenor, and Blizzard will reveal its cinematic and release date tomorrow, so stay tuned.