Guild Wars 2

Was looking and haven’t seen a thread like this yet. What references have you found to modern popular culture in GW2? Those moments when something happens that makes you think the developers were watching a movie or playing another game. Here are some of mine.

Ranger boss in Ascalonian Catacombs has 2 wolves called Shadow and Fang = Warcraft reference perhaps for Shadowfang keep?

Around levels 40-50 i remember one quest to search for wardens that had been kidnapped by spiders. You go down a long passage and at the end there is nothing but an empty cave. Then the queen spider springs from behind and the lead NPC says “clever girl” = Jurassic Park!

Story quest around level 60 has you rescuing priory researchers in Rankor Ruins – Star Wars maybe?

That’s all i can remember right now but if anyone wants to add more, as im sure there are tons more out there, then please feel free

Rodgort is Trogdor spelt backwards.

Lions Arch’s name is inspired by Singapore

A charr stronghold called Steeleye Span.

I do not want to spoil (cause it was rather surprising and made the whole party laugh), so I keep it unspecific: Terminator two ending reference.

Frog race are aparently had mayan ancestors :P

Orrian Heavy armor probably based in Willow? not Willow himself but the baddest bad guy.

There’s a little circle in southern Lion’s Arch that’s shaped just like the Arenanet logo, and it’s called Tenanera’s Pit.
Read that backwards.

skill audios:

- “Urge to kill rising!” – I suspect a Simpsons reference, Treehouse of Horror episode with the Shining.
- “For great justice!” – well, allready in GW1, but for completeness´ sake, I add it too.

“Char” means “death” in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. /shrugs

The thief skill "roll for initiative " is likely a reference to D20 RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons

Icevine Dale seems to pay homage to the game IceWind Dale

They’re all over if you’re looking for them. I see and get a handful of them every time I play.

Probably my favorite is a chicke—where, I can’t remember. Ebonhawke? That if you attack it, it doesn’t die, and just spawns a lot of chickens at you. Fantastic Zelda reference.

Corian.4068:

They’re all over if you’re looking for them. I see and get a handful of them every time I play.

Probably my favorite is a chicke—where, I can’t remember. Ebonhawke? That if you attack it, it doesn’t die, and just spawns a lot of chickens at you. Fantastic Zelda reference.

Yes, Ebonhawke. I actually saw someone die to the angry chickens, then we all (including the victim) laughed about it when we got the reference.

I saw an NPC named Apple Jack, who was standing next to an apple stand. It was a little boy, but it might be a reverance to My Little Pony.

(Applejack is a female character in the series, in case you didn’t know)

Fairly certain there’s an engineer in the bottom of the airship at Fort Trinity named Kaylee

Rizzy.8293:

Lions Arch’s name is inspired by Singapore

Did A-net confirm this, or are you just speculating from a thread created on these forums?

That wouldn’t be pop culture either…

Dione.4189:

I saw an NPC named Apple Jack, who was standing next to an apple stand.

The term ‘Apple Jack’ originally meant a hard liqueur made from apples. Then, it was the title of a 1977 Dolly Parton song, referring to a person who made Apple Jack.

Holy kitten! I was going to post an almost identical thread today!

Absolutely, the Terminator 2 reference. Blink and you’ll miss it.

I do not remember where it is, but it is somewhere in the early human zones. Someone makes a reference to Skyrim by paraphrasing the “I used to be an adventurer but then I took an arrow in the knee” line from that annoying guard in Whiterun. I am tempted to say it is “My brother was in the Lionguard until he took an arrow in the knee” or something like that.

There are a few more I have noticed, but can’t think of right now (which is why I didn’t post this thread earlier).

As well as the Hylek, there are other ancient cultures being referenced. I can think of at least three areas in Fireheart Rise alone:

Amduat Point: The Amduat was one of the Coffin Texts inscribed on the inside of sarcophagi to guide pharoahs through the afterworld, the Duat. Anybody who knows this knows where my name is derived from.

Sati Passage: This one may be an unintentional double reference. Sati (aka Satet) was a goddess that personified the Nile flood. Sati was also a Hindu goddess and was Shiva’s first wife. The “Act of Sati”, where a wife will throw herself on a husband’s funeral pyre, is named after her.

Simurgh Timberland: The Simurgh was a Persian mythological figure that is usually depicted as a bird (sometimes a peakitten, others an eagle) often with the head of a lion (or man) and the limbs of a lion. The Simurgh was said to have all knowledge and, according to the Shahnameh (the Book of Kings), raised an abandoned infant that later became king. When that king’s wife had trouble gicing birth the Simurgh came and showed him how to perform a caesarian section and Rostam, one of the greatest of all heroes was born.

Dostoev Sky Peak made me start looking around for a skritt NPC called Ratskolnikov. I didn’t find him, but then I’m not sure I really wanted to.

There’s a gravestone located in the graveyard just east of the entrance to Divinity’s Reach in the Human starting area…

Kah Meena
“His will be a sword
that pierces the Mists”

Novaserra.7049:

Ranger boss in Ascalonian Catacombs has 2 wolves called Shadow and Fang = Warcraft reference perhaps for Shadowfang keep?

Shadowfang was a Diablo 2 reference.

Mr Crazy Moose.5760:

Novaserra.7049:

Ranger boss in Ascalonian Catacombs has 2 wolves called Shadow and Fang = Warcraft reference perhaps for Shadowfang keep?

Shadowfang was a Diablo 2 reference.

Which shouldn’t be surprising since the founders of ArenaNet were former Blizzard employees that worked on Diablo 2, Starcraft and the pre-WoW Warcraft franchise.

Shadow and Fang are rather generic pet names in fantasy games/settings though, but not exluding the possibility of that reference.

To add: The whole Moletariat-thing is hilarious. Check out the SE story mode grand speech, Soviet style with the sound quality of 1984 totalitarianism. if you have the time and your team doesn´t rush, listen to that speech for a few minutes, a great parody on warsaw pact grandeurism.

Love the Dostoev Sky Peak one! I havent seen this but knowing it’s there is genius!

Part of the Asura’s personal story quest for those who picked the robot. You do a robot fighting competition and the last one you face is OVR-9000…

at the start of the metrica zone are 5 schools each with golems in the arena.

Aeronautics, Hydro-something, terra-something, incerna-something.
They each have golems, AER, HYD, RCK, INC, there is also an asura with a golem called HRT.

They can occasionally all meet up, at which point they start making fun of the guy with HRT.

Then another asura with a large black golem called WST walks up and starts to mock them all. Suddenly the 5 schools combine their golems. Utilizing the technology of fire, earth, wind, water and heart to turn into META-golem who then battles the evil Waste golem.

tl;dr large captain planet reference at the start of metrica.

The “clever girl” reference was amazing. Off topic but an interesting aside, I’m 27, but back in school as an undergrade to get a new degree. I’m in an intro speech class with a bunch of 18 year old freshmen. My professor made a Jurassic Park reference and when only like 3 people got it, he asked how many people had seen Jurassic Park. Only like 5 of us had. What’s happening to the world?

And now I must find that Captain Planet reference. That’s amazing.

One of the dynamic events in I think it’s Blaze-ridge steps where you aid an Ogre in taming pets for his clan has a Merrie Melodies reference.

On occasion after taming one he will state ‘’ I will love him and pet him and call him George’’ which is a reference to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlVqfC8-UI

Yes! I forgot about that one! That line is so embedded in my psyche that I actually heard it when I saw him say it.

I remembered another one I was going to mention… There’s a rather large Pirates of Penzance reference in, I think, Bloodtide Coast. There is a Heart area where you have to break up fights, dispose of rum , etc., in a pirate’s hideout. The pirate captain, or Pirate King, is named Captain Penzance and if you hang around for long enough you will see some of the locals complaining about the nonsense he is spewing… and then you will see him performing a paraphrased version of what is probably the most famous song from that musical.

I wonder if GW2 has the ‘Wilhelm Scream’ somewhere in it?

The Pirate Song one is actually triggered if you follow him back into the camp after an event where you escort him around the nearby swamp to get some treasure.

If you’re curious about the song, take a listen… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7jlYKKh45w

The guy who asks you fi you want to join a PvP match in the Heart of Mists.

You can say you are a Pacifist to leave the conversation with him, possibly in a reference to Monty Python’s mafia sketch.

Sokar Rostau.7316:

I remembered another one I was going to mention… There’s a rather large Pirates of Penzance reference in, I think, Bloodtide Coast.

They are, in fact, the Penzan Pirates. That was awesome, there were a couple of us that listened to the whole song.

Right after you wake up as a sylvari there’s a “one does not simply” line. I forget what it is specifacially but it has to do with dragon fighting

“Splish splash, 4 Norns in a bath” is of course a reference to Bobby Darin’s song, Splish splash, I was taking a bath.

From Galaxy Quest: “By Grabthar’s hammer, what a savings…”

From random vendor norn: “By Ogden’s hammer, what savings!”

i could be wrong, but sometimes ill hear a random charr guy say something about “false gods” which could be a reference to teal’c from stargate sg-1 which he says from time to time. it sounds alot like him to.

The Skirrt and the Shinies from LOTR! xD

lol shinies are from EQ2!!!

Skittburgh (Brisban Wildlands) – skritt NPC named Twitchok (reference to League of Legends)
Skittsburght East End – reference to infamous back in ‘60s district of London, known for one of the biggest british gangs
Molengrad (Snowden Drifts) – reference to historical name of Volgograd (Stalingrad)
The Iron Veil (Timberline Falls north) – reference to Iron Curtain, symbolic border between capitalistic and communistic countries from ’45 till ’90s
Caer Evermore (Timberline Falls south), Caer Aval (Straits of Devastation) and Caer Shadowfain (Cursed Shore) – possibly reference to The Witcher saga, where castles were commonly named Caer xx, this name came from welsh language
Asura storyline – personal golem of Zojja is called Mr. Sparkles (reference to big daddy a.k.a. Mr. Bubbles from Bioshock)
Biergarten (Hoelbrak) – in german means beer garden, fits pretty much the keg storage
Thaumanova Reactor (Metrica Province) – along with eastern slavic name and local events, it might be reference to Chernobyl nuclear plant
Town of Nolan (Diessa Plateau) – I can’t resist, it reminds me Dolan too much

Early in the asura starter area, you return to your old school and meet one of your professors and even find your old desk. You inquire about another old professor and during the discussion, you find that this particular old professor kind of “lost it” and began running around in his underpants shouting his name is “Prof. Yakkington”.

Chessrook.8643:

There’s a gravestone located in the graveyard just east of the entrance to Divinity’s Reach in the Human starting area…

Kah Meena
“His will be a sword
that pierces the Mists”

HAH no way!
We have some Otaku’s in AR.

Snowden Drifts, reference to Catch-22 (which I highly recommend reading).

Also, a lot of the place names have some fairly clever wordplay. For example, a location in Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Dissun’s Mine.

The thief skill “Scorpion Wire” is a reference to “Mortal Kombat”.

There’s a pirate in the zone that has Vigil Keep. He sings the “Yo ho! A pirate’s life for me” song from Pirate of the Caribbean.

Need to think of some, there’s so many. The ones that made me smile though were Dostoev Sky Peak and I really liked that there was an Engineer Kaylee in Fort Trinity’s airship engine room… she says something about loving engines and how she’s a natural with them, something like that

Maeglin.7416:

One of the dynamic events in I think it’s Blaze-ridge steps where you aid an Ogre in taming pets for his clan has a Merrie Melodies reference.

On occasion after taming one he will state ‘’ I will love him and pet him and call him George’’ which is a reference to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlVqfC8-UI

That one makes me laugh every time I hear it. Glad I am not alone.

I don’t who would be old enough to get this reference, and I felt really silly when I instantly recognized it. In Bloodtide Coast at Moriarty’s Hold, Captain Penzan sings the Guild Wars version of the Modern Major General’s song from The Pirate Movie. It only adds to it that his lackeys are the Penzan Privateers.

A heart quest has you turn red hyleks blue, and then reds will attack them.

Reference to Age of Empires 2 meme: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wololo

Mr Crazy Moose.5760:

Novaserra.7049:

Ranger boss in Ascalonian Catacombs has 2 wolves called Shadow and Fang = Warcraft reference perhaps for Shadowfang keep?

Shadowfang was a Diablo 2 reference.

Another obvious Blizzard reference can be found in the form of a meta event in Metrica Province.

Orissa.1872:

Asura storyline – personal golem of Zojja is called Mr. Sparkles (reference to big daddy a.k.a. Mr. Bubbles from Bioshock)

I only just saw that yesterday. Would of never occured to me what it was about until you explained it. In fact I thought it was a reference to Homer Simpson