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IGN discovers the Aubrey Plaza WoW commercial that never aired
Does anyone remember those World of Warcraft "What's your game?" commercials? They've been around for years, featuring celebrities like Mr. T, William Shatner, Verne Troyer, Ozzy Osbourne, and even a French commercial with Jean-Claude Van Damme. There were two that were introduced last year -- the infamous Chuck Norris commercial, and one done by Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Recreation. I remember liking the Chuck Norris commercial well enough, but the Aubrey Plaza commercial fell a little flat for me. Don't get me wrong, I love Parks and Recreation, but the commercial for WoW didn't seem particularly funny. Well IGN just uncovered an entirely different Aubrey Plaza commercial, one that never aired. Frankly, I think this version is quite a bit funnier than the one originally used, and I'm not sure why they didn't go with it. Perhaps it was just a tad too racy for television? Regardless, you can view the unaired commercial above and decide for yourself. Personally, I like the second version of Aubrey's commercial a lot better -- but then, I'm a fan of silly orc puns. What do you think?
Night Elf mohawk returns, new commercial
According to the official World of Warcraft website, the Night Elf mohawk is returning in-game. Frost Jackalopes and the moon landing might be myths – but the Night Elf Mohawk is real, suckas! For a limited time, Mr. T's Night Elf Mohawk returns to Azeroth to hand out his signature grenades while a new nationally televised commercial takes over the airwaves. Watch the new spot at Blizzard's YouTube Channel or click to learn more about the mohawk grenade and how you can claim your own in-game. source The video above is a new nationally televised commercial. Players can get the Mohawk Grenades from characters positioned outside the starting zone. We're checking now to see if the grenades are active in the game yet (again). They were originally in Azeroth as part of WoW's five year anniversary celebration. %Gallery-78301%
RIM BlackBerry 'T' (Talladega?) slider launching next month?
Hang with us for a sec as we conjure up a speculative device from a sordid collection of rumors. By now we've all seen the leaked BlackBerry slider right? How about the "Mr. T" phone, heard of that? Maybe you've heard of it by its other codename of Talladega? The connection here is that all of these devices are thought to be one and the same although that's definitely not confirmed by any stretch. Things got a bit more interesting today after a loose-lipped CEO of a RIM parts supplier (Woojeon & Handan) mentioned a brand new BlackBerry "T" phone launching next month during an interview posted on joins.com (a popular Korean news site). According to our translation or the Korean jibba jabba: "The Canadian company RIM famous for BlackBerry smartphones is releasing a new model next month. Known as the "T," The new model is an ambitious product aimed at competing against iPhone's storm of success. Rim will present it ("T") as its flagship model to compete in global markets such as the U.S. and Europe." Funny, we thought that the original Storm was RIM's answer to the iPhone. Anywho, Reuters picked up on the Woojeon & Handan interview today but shied away from mentioning the name or the "next month" timing, saying only that W&H would supply parts for a new RIM product to be released later this year. With any luck, we'll get a full reveal of the mythical BB slider next week with the kickoff of the big CTIA show. [Thanks, Frank] Update: You know what's next month? WES, RIM's own trade show, which runs from the 27th to the 29th of April. Perfect timing for something like this, if we do say so ourselves.
Night elf mohawk: Gone!
Thank goodness! Anyone else relieved that this funky device is removed from the game? I have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of the big head look. I've been "pitied" many times by random players (and even those in my own guild). Dwarves and mohawks just don't seem to mix. In any case, Crygil has confirmed that the mohawk grenade will not be around any longer. Ever since the grenade became active on servers back in November, I couldn't walk around Dalaran without seeing large heads everywhere. Is this the last time we'll ever see Mr. T plant these grenades in game for players to use? Somehow, I have a hunch that this won't be the last time we'll see mohawks in game.
One Shots: I pity tha foo
With the recent 3.3 patch, the anniversary event having just ended, and crazy amounts of grouping now going on, many people are back in World of Warcraft. For some, this means an interesting brush with greatness as the Night Elf Mohawk Grenades take effect. For those who don't play World of Warcraft and haven't seen what effect they have, here's an idea courtesy of today's One Shots contributor, Dennis L. who writes: Well with the new WoW Promo Mr T. seems to be invading our world, and Even our women! Here's my female Orc Death Knight, now the proud wife of none other than Mr.T! I pity the fools! We wonder if those who were turned into Mr. T have to be knocked out before they get on flying mounts or not. If you're one of the folks back in World of Warcraft, we'd love to see your screenshots. Alternately, if you play something else, we'd love to hear from you too. Just email your screenshots to oneshots [at] massively [dot] com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post them out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-9798%
Second Mr. T mohawk commercial launches
Blizzard is milking Mr. T's mohawk for all its worth in yet another ridiculous commercial. At the risk of being a complete downer, I have to ask: Is anybody else bored with this campaign? I admit that I laughed and laughed at the original Mr. T WoW commercial (and probably contributed to this campaign's birth) but enough is enough. Are you advertising World of Warcraft or a line of Mr. T hair care products? Anyway, you can watch the commercial above and if you weren't yet aware of it, you can pick up mohawk grenades in the various starter zones throughout Azeroth. But please, for my sanity and your safety, don't throw them at me. There might be repercussions if you know what I'm sayin'.
The Daily Quest: How to fail the Trial
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Fel Fire is a new warlock blog that just started up recently, and they've already got a good overview of the Auction House up. Larisa at the Pink Pigtail Inn is definitely one of those who doesn't think that Mr. T represents her game. Pwnwear examines the issue of tank numbers and balance in game design. Too successful in Trial of the Grand Crusader? Let Caer Morrighan help you out with a few surefire ways to fail the instance. PC Games Hardware nabbed a shiny new Radeon HD 5970 video card, and they ran benchmarks with World of Warcraft, among other games. 76 FPS? Yes please. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Breakfast Topic: This is getting a little silly...
Night Elf Mohawks and Mohawk Grenades? I should know by now that Blizzard can throw a curve ball better than anyone, but the announcement of Mr. T hacking into the World of Warcraft and handing out completely whimsical, nonsensical items still caught me by surprise. Any Blizzard fan knows that humor plays a big part in their games, and WoW has been no exception -- Azeroth is rife with in-game jokes, pop culture references, puns, easter eggs, and silly items like, well, Mohawk Grenades. It sometimes gets silly to the point where it just doesn't make any sense. There isn't even any deep lore to it (which is probably what got our resident lore nerd Alex's knickers in a bunch)... there's just this strange-looking Night Elf handing out grenades in starting areas. Coupled with the television commercial where Mr. T brags about hacking into the World of Warcraft, it all seems very meta. I like the way the game doesn't take itself seriously, but this latest gimmick comes so far from left field I don't quite know what to think. What's your take on World of Warcraft's whimsy? A lot of items, particularly from loot cards, are silly, like the D.I.S.C.O. or Ogre Piñata. Others are pretty badass like the Spectral Tiger. Not everything is necessarily tied in to lore, and that's alright. But where do you think Blizzard should draw the line? When does a joke ruin the game world or immersive experience? Or is everything fair game?
The best of WoW.com: November 10-17, 2009
Gaze on it, and despair! The abomination above is a common sight in the World of Warcraft this week -- Blizzard has kicked off their marketing season with another commercial from Mr. T, as well as an in-game item to go along with it. It's the Mohawk Grenade, an item that, when thrown, makes WoW characters look like T himself. Awesome? Terrible? You decide. That story and many more from Joystiq's Warcraft-obsessed sister site WoW.com. We pity the fool who doesn't check out the roundup after the break.
Mr. T promotes the Mohawk Grenade
digg_url = 'http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/16/mr-t-promotes-the-mohawk-grenade/'; Not only is the Mohawk Grenade real and in-game, but Mr. T put it there. That's what we learn in this new commercial, a sequel of sorts to the old "Night Elf Mohawk" joke a long while back. Not only is T (not The T, just T) decked out in a Murloco's Taco's T-shirt, but he shows the in-game item in action. It's how he makes the World of Warcraft look good. I love it -- well done, Blizzard. Great kickoff to the holiday marketing season, and it's awesome that they've got the commercial (which we assume you'll soon see on television) promoting the actual in-game item in a quality way. Sure, The Old Republic and a few other MMOs might be knocking on WoW's door, but who wouldn't want to play a game where you can throw a grenade and make people look like Mr. T? Maybe this is where all those newbies will be coming from. %Gallery-78301% World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Night Elf Mohawk grenade now active in WoW
In what appears to be the start of the World of Warcraft 5th anniversary celebrations, Night Elf Mohawks have entered WoW! You can go visit Mr. Night Elf Mohawk outside any of the races starting zones. In particular we were able to see the Night Elf outside of the human starting area of Northshire, and near the Undead starting area of Tirisfal Glades -- on any live server, not on the PTR. This is also only on North American servers right now. Reports indicate that the Night Elf Mohawk will appears on EU and Korean servers starting November 24th. When you get there you'll want to talk to him, make him pity the fool. And in return you'll get a five Mohawk Grenades that let you make others wear a Night Elf Mohawk mask. You can get more grenades once your five are all used up. There is a 50 minute buff called "Mohawked" with the flavor text of "You pity the fool" that gets placed on you when you wear the mask. You can right click the debuff to remove it. Check out the gallery below for images from this little Monday afternoon surprise. And just for kicks, the original Mr. T WoW commercial after the break. When you watch the commercial again, note how Mr. T's in-game self looks exactly like his character does in the commercial, quite neat! Update: There is now an FAQ on the Night Elf Mohawk, which is reproduced after the break. %Gallery-78301%
PTR Patch 3.2.2: New pets and mounts revealed
Once again, our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has been a busy boy. With the surprise announcement that the PTRs were up for the testing of the WoW Anniversary Patch (aka patch 3.2.2), he's been digging deep into the patch files and guess what he found?Well the big news is aptly summed up in the image above. Yes, it's the Onyxia mount (though not actually the Broodmother herself). A picture really does say a thousand words, doesn't it? However that's not all he's found by datamining. There are yet more mounts, including a Spectral Tiger cub! I suspect this little cub may well be from a future TCG expansion. After all, where did this little guy's parent come from? Ditto the rather awesome Tuskarr kite.On top of that there are some regular mounts in the form of a Little White Stallion and yet another dino-centric mount, this time a Little Ivory Raptor. Boubouille also found the Onyxia Whelping, which is the pet everyone who logs in during November will recieve (think the Blizzard Bear). Ain't it a cutie?However the oddest thing he uncovered was a collection of Mohawk themed spells. These relate to the now memorable TV advert in which Mr. T creates his own class, the infamous Night Elf Mohawk. From the spell descriptions, I can't help thinking this is not some hint towards a new class in the next expansion but, rather, will be some kind of NPC or quest-related summonable pet. Either way, it sounds awesome.
Joystiq interview: ZootFly talks Mr. T
The most important news story of this or any other week is clearly the revelation that ZootFly is crafting a game in which Mr. T will team with Will Wright to fight Nazis. Since there's been no title announced, we're going with This Is The Citizen Kane of Video Games So Shut Up About "When Will Video Games Get Their Citizen Kane?" Please ... or Mr. T: The Game for short.We asked ZootFly CEO Bostjan Troha the most pressing questions we could think of about the game, and he was kind enough to answer. Enjoy.
Mr. T and Will Wright team up against Nazis in ZootFly game
Seriously, guys and gals: Brace your asses for this one. ZootFly (which made its name with a now-halted Ghostbusters project) is making a game based on tough-talking, chain-wearing icon Mr.T.But that's not even the good part. Here are some actual words from the actual press release we got, with liberal underlining and bolding: "The first game will see Mr. T take on Nazis and their gigantic machines in the varied universe of South American rain forests, lost ancient cities, industrial complexes and contemporary military installations. Along with Mr. T and other characters from the graphic novel, the game will feature none other than Will Wright. In this universe, Will Wright is not a top-notch game designer but a top-notch American geneticist who was kidnapped and coerced to work on a diabolic plan. Mr. T and Will Wright will join forces to annihilate the Nazis and their hardware."We think we speak for the entire internet when we say nothing, and urinate on ourselves.
French WoW ads starring Alexandre Astier
Here's the last (or at least we think it's the last, it's all that's mentioned on Blizzard's official page) round of television ads for World of Warcraft in 2008. The ads come from France this time, and they both feature Alexandre Astier, star and creator of an Arthurian comedy show called Kaamelott, as a Human Paladin. While the German ads seemed to focus on PvP, these are very PvE based -- in one, he and his group run from a rampaging Frost Wyrm, and in the second (after the break, and apparently it's a "web exclusive," maybe because you can't show a virtual pile of corpses on television), he shows off his rezzing powers, and, err -- their limits.WorldofWar has translations for both of the ads. Is it me, or aren't these as funny as the others? I think Ozzy comes out the best in all of them -- not only is his ad hilarious (better than the Mr. T ad, my previous favorite), but he gets to co-star with the Lich King, and you can't really compete with that. But kudos to Blizzard's teams for putting all of these together. Maybe next year we'll actually get a female WoW player, or, you know, a whole new campaign.
Jennicide: Male players "need to be more accepting of women ingame"
Allakazaham has posted an interview with "Jennicide," who, as we reported previously, is not only a poker player and Playboy poser, but plays World of Warcraft as well. Unfortunately, she doesn't sound all that into the game (she does claim to have raided during a poker match, which is pretty awesome if true), but she does make an excellent point about Blizzard's marketing: as cool as William Shatner and Mr. T are, their ads could use a little more feminine touch, and they could certainly acknowledge all the women playing this game a little better.She also says that "guys need to be more accepting of women in game," and unfortunately she doesn't offer any solutions on how to make that happen, but it's good to hear someone say it -- just ask any girl who's been afraid to come on Ventrilo for fear that creepy guys will come out of the woodwork.All in all, Jennicide sounds like she's got a good head on her shoulders (and she does actually win a few nerd points for playing The Realm). Maybe she's right -- more high profile female players might help turn the image of gender in game a little more close to equal.
TurpsterVision: Lord of the Dings
Every Tuesday think "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalise it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...) Hello and thanks for joining me again for another fun filled feature here on Massively! I love my job, it totally rocks, I get to have all sorts of fun and hopefully you guys enjoy it a little bit too. I normally am happy with you guys turning up and leaving the odd comment or two below though this week I have to ask you for a favor. On Saturday, just after the WoW Insider Show, I was chatting to everyone's favorite Shaman Crybaby Crusader who was just heading off to a D&D game. I then posed the question to him, "which was the most awesome and manly of DnD characters." Obviously I chose the correct answer and Mike chose the wrong one. Let me know which way you swing in your comments: Bard or Wizard? Who wins? You decide!(Oh and there is a video or something like that after the break!)
WoW Moviewatch: Belated pimp parody of WoW commercials
Parodies of the WoW commercials featuring William Shatner, Mr. T, Jean Claude van Damme, Verne Troyer, and Willy Toledo are so last month. Apparently Ari Rosenberg didn't get the memo. Viewers be warned that this does contain some offensive language.It's true that you can be anyone you want to be on the internet. In Ari's world, he's a night elf pimp. I wonder if his mom knows he's slapping around his sister on YouTube?(Edit: Ari decided to add "What's your game?" to the ending, so he re-uploaded the video.)Previously on Moviewatch...
Bringing the mohawk to Azeroth
Mr. T hacked the game and put in a Night Elf mohawk of his own, but will we be able to do the same with the next expansion? Could be-- Bornakk says that he hopes every class gets a mohawk to choose from when the new hairstyles come down in Wrath of the Lich King, but the actual model from the commercial was custom-made for Mr. T.A mohawk might not be your first choice, but it will be nice to have some new customization choices out there-- I was showing off all of my alts to a friend the other day, and it occurred to me that I must have created an alt for almost every look out there. Not every combination of looks, surely (there's got to be tons of those), but at least every look that appealed to me. Just like many players, I'm definitely ready for new looks, whether they look like Mr. T or not-- if we've got the mohawk coming, does that mean we'll get a mullet for Blood Elves?
WoW commercials: Jean-Claude Van Damme and Willy Toledo editions
I have no shame reblogging the new WoW commercials. Van Damme apparently plays a well... He needs to reroll, what a noob."My name is Jean-Claude Van Damme... and I am a mage. Hand-to-hand combat for me: it's over! Now I can cast powerful spells! Just try messing with me... I'll turn you into a sheep. A sheep! Because we all are a bit like sheep, you know... I am Jean-Claude Van Damme, I am a mage. And you? What's your game?"Mages are nothing but vending machines and sheepish freaks. I was expecting some high roundhouse kicks in there -- at least he picked a Troll. Donjohn, commented at WoW Insider, providing some additional notes that pertain to the inside-jokes for zi'French. Van Damme frequently uses English words in his oft-butchered French sentences The line on everyone being like sheep might tie into numerous interviews with JCVD's rhapsodic views about the world [Willy Toledo and further comments after the break]
