It's no secret that the late comedian Robin Williams was a big gamer—he played everything from Portal to Call of Duty. So in an effort to memorialize Williams, gamers have banded together to make a petition to see if they can get Blizzard to add him to World of Warcraft in some way.
Why World of Warcraft? Williams used to play it! From Change.org petition:
Robin Williams was born July 21, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois and lived an extraordinary life until his untimely death on August 11, 2014. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, Williams went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards. Arguably one of, if not the most, funniest man to ever walk the earth, 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, he said that he enjoys Warcraft III very much in an interview a few years ago, and was even apart of the mmorpg World of Warcraft. It was reported that Robin used to play on the Mannoroth server, and was something of a troll in trade on good days or when anonymity allowed. Mr.. Williams said in interviews that he took his World of Warcraft characters very serious - in fact he was well known for being an extreme PC builder who prefered to build his own overclocked and super-cooled systems. 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 within the game that memorializes the actor/comedian. Many have expressed a wish to this character perform some of Williams best jokes within the Worlds End Tavern, so that he may continue making us smile long after his passing.
Right now, the petition has accrued over 10,000 signatures. At least one Blizzard employee, a technical game designer on World of Warcraft, has seen the petition:
What "taking care of it" means is vague, though the petition claims that they've received "assurance from Blizzard employees that our desire for a Robin Williams tribute and or NPC will be handled with great care." We contacted Blizzard to ask about details about Robin William's inclusion, and will update this post if we hear back.
It's worth noting that World of Warcraft not only contains a ton of pop culture references, but also has included memorials for real-life people before.
You can check out the petition here.
UPDATE:
(Via IGN)