World of Warcraft fans uncover Robin Williams tribute character in latest game files
After the passing of Oscar-winning Robin Williams, Blizzard, creator of World of Warcraft, confirmed it would include a tribute character in its next release to immortalise the actor who was one of the game's biggest fans - an early build of this tribute was on Wednesday found in the latest WOW update.
The genie character model has been used previously in the game
Hackers at Wowhead, a site that scours game coding for upcoming features, uncovered a non-playable character (NPC) called ‘Robin the Entertainer’ hidden in the recesses of the Warlords of Draenor game beta .
Players took to the web claiming the 'Robin the Entertainer' genie is a reference to the Aladdin character Williams is fondly remembered for playing.
Included with the ‘entertainer model’ were alternative looks called ‘Human Male’ and ‘Human Female’ which were rumoured to be nods to William’s characters Mork and Mrs Doubtfire.
In the petition requesting the character's inclusion in the game, fans also wanted the NPC to quote William's funniest movie lines.
Blizzard studios has yet to confirm the authenticity of the character model.
This comes after Japanese games company Nintendo announced that they were considering a Robin Williams character in the next Legend of Zelda installment, on Tuesday.