In the past almost 20 years, a handful of players from World of Warcraft have made a name for themselves beyond the borders of Azeroth. MeinMMO presents some of the most famous heroes and villains from WoW who were not created by Blizzard.
World of Warcraft looks back on two turbulent decades, during which the MMORPG from Blizzard conquered the mainstream, secured a firm place in pop culture, and was elevated to the – chosen by the MeinMMO community – best online role-playing game of all time for PC and console.
Anyone who accompanied WoW during this time witnessed unforgettable moments, where iconic heroes and villains such as Thrall, Arthas or the Lich King, Illidan, Jaina, and Co. took center stage.
However, over the many years, some players have also made a name for themselves with their actions. In this special, MeinMMO introduces you to some of the most well-known personalities from the WoW community.
WoW has often been declared dead in the past:
Leeroy Jenkins
In May 2005, a certain Leeroy Jenkins charged into a room full of dragon eggs, causing the most famous wipe in World of Warcraft history, captured in a nearly three-minute long clip that has accumulated countless millions of viewers over the decades.
From the humorous video emerged one of the most famous memes from the gaming world, with references and allusions in other Blizzard games but also in external media like Mass Effect, How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl, or Psych. Even the U.S. military repeatedly used the clip as a talking point for studies.
The fact that Leeroy Jenkins can still excite today is demonstrated by our news from March 2024: 20 years later, Leeroy Jenkins goes viral again: Professor uses famous WoW meme in lecture.
Doubleagent
There is hardly another WoW player that MeinMMO has reported on as often. The neutral panda Doubleagent refused to choose one of the two factions during Mists of Pandaria. Instead, he simply stayed on the giant turtle and leveled peacefully by collecting herbs and ores.
What sounds like a short-term whim has developed into a project that has now been running for many years. Also at the start of Dragonflight, Doubleagent was there to reach the new, old maximum level of 70. Twelve days after the launch of the expansion, it was already done. At that time, the panda had a total playtime of 212 days and 22 hours.
Uncle Barlow
Who remembers Barlow’s wonderful WoW blog about all classes of World of Warcraft, but also about special topics like random dungeons, the LFR tool, or classic servers? Phrases like “Healing was actually done” or “Hey dude, your mom skills Improved Sap!” have been etched into the brains of a whole (German-speaking) WoW generation. All episodes can still be found today on YouTube.
The likable bald guy, who brilliantly parodies the clichés of Azeroth, is actually named Georg Zaal and has done much more in his career. He was an editor at GIGA and SuperGamesTV, the narrator of Allimania (via allimania.fandom.com), and of course a podcaster on the “Podcast without (real) name” (via acast.com).
