As far as BC’s humor being too easy? Take Area 52 in Netherstorm. Ok. The name… got it… but how about the feact that all the Goblins are dressed in black suits and, when you leave the town, you walk through a flash of white light and get a 30 second debuff that says something about not being able to remember everything. MEN IN BLACK 4TW!

Blade’s Edge Mountains. Toshley’s Station… again with the name… got it… And for those of you who don’t, it’s a rip of Toshey Station from Star Wars. The place Luke was going to go to get some “Power Convertors” before he got ganked by Obi-Wan. Incidently, there is a quest line in there that does end in you getting a Power Convertor… one that destroy’s Technological Terror Constructs… and it’s better than going to the accademy… >.>

Not only that, but, if you actually sit in Toshley and look arround (and I frequently do, since I’m a Gnomish Engineer and can’t do anything while I’m a chicken…) you should notice the assault of Ravagers on the base… and the Gnome’s names? Almost all of them are a play off of some of your favorite… STARTSHIP TROOPERS! ^_^

Yeah… BC jokes can be a bit much, but they still make ya chuckle. ^^

Established franchises have their worlds/lore to draw upon - Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer, Conan…Warcraft has only the RTS computer games and a small amount of fiction. The former have a huge advantage (but I’ll grant you an additional burden as well) in the references they can make and the attachments/associations people will form. Blizzard chose a different route - one which is consistent with their evolution of humor evolution over the *craft games.

Blizzard does seem to keep the most overt pop culture out of the core lore aspects of the game. I do not believe that lore hounds are central to Blizzard’s strategy for success in WoW, but they seem to try to give them (if there are any left at this point) a fairly pure experience.

With WoW a financially successful gateway MMO, we should expect to see this sort of cultural cross-over continue in upcoming titles. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I wonder though how many of those will suffer from the South Park take on animation humor “Simpsons Already Did It” syndrome.

I think I’m pretty much along the same lines…. Haris Pilton is too much (I groaned in pain when I saw that in game), Snakes on a Plane is a good snicker. I think one of my fave ‘RL reference’ is in EQII. There’s a quest in Enchanted Lands (’Lousy Fairies’ I think?) that’s a total rip from an old cartoon movie, Wizards. That was a movie I loved and a skit that I can still recite word for word, and to see it turned into a quest (and a fitting oen at that) tickled my funny bone even though no-one else in-game I mentioned it to had any idea what I was talking (and laughing) about. They did eventually have to make me shush about the lousy, stinking, yellow fairies and what horrible, atrocity filled vermin they were, though.