The guy at laughingsquid posted the picture above of the MC of the ROFLconvention. It's none other than level 70 Paladin, Leeroy Jenkins of guild PALS FOR LIFE. Possibly the most famous gamer on the planet, Leeroy Jenkins jumped to fame by sheer happenstance, playing a bad joke on his friends. He ruined their plans for a raid in World of Warcraft by charging into a dungeon without a plan, screaming out his nickname. Ever since, his popularity has skyrocketed. Thousands of t-shirts were sold, people have tried to impersonate him, and his name is known well beyond the bounds of WoW.

Here's the video that began his legacy:


The thing I believe truly is that no one expected how fellow WoW players would react to it. We trumpet him as our hero. On every one of Blizzard's fairly numerous servers there is a "Leeroy" toon: one for both Alliace and Horde factions.

I think this video drummed up more business than the South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft." I know my boyfriend started playing a dwarf huntard with a red beard because of Cartman's avatar choice.

The South Park episode below:





But really, WoW doesn't need any help with creating subscriptions according to the last round of numbers from the MMORG Chart. There are roughly 10,000,000 active WoW subscriptions today. That's more than every role playing game ever, combined. The evidence compiled by MMORG Chart:


Just in case you are wondering, that little green line that goes straight up? That's WoW.

Posted by Lux on 25 April 2008 at 12:18 PM | Permalink