Back in August, World of Warcraft game designer Ion Hazzikostas told the press that the team planned to create a character dedicated to the late Robin Williams. The actor was an avid gamer and spent many hours adventuring in Blizzard's popular MMORPG.
"We haven't decided, but it will most likely be a character inspired by him or some of his favorite roles of the past," Hazzikostas said at the time.
Four days ago, the character was spotted in the Warlords of Draenor beta. Williams' avatar is in the form of a genie located on an island off the Talador's coast. Merely rub the Ever-Burning Lamp, and the genie will appear exclaiming "INFINITE COSMIC POWER!" in all caps, which Williams exclaimed in 1994's Aladdin. He then shrinks while waving goodbye, saying "itty bitty living space."
But that's not all. There's a large broken egg with machinery inside laying nearby, paying homage to William's fantastically insane show, Mork & Mindy. Fan site WoWhead also reports that they have "datamined" another version of Williams dressed like Mork when he was wearing overalls. The site has also seen references to Toys and Mrs. Doubtfire.
WowHead site director Alexis Kusy told The Washington Post that fans of Robin Williams have gathered "in droves," paying tribute to the actor such as saluting and bowing to the genie. They're also leaving comments on WoWhead's character page for the "Robin" genie, directed at both Blizzard and the late actor.
"@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," the World of Warcraft Twitter account said last month.
Unfortunately, World of Warcraft-playing fans of Robin Williams won't get to visit this island until Warlords of Draenor hits store shelves on November 13, 2014... unless they're in the beta, of course.
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