I thought this might be fun. Come up with a list of arbitrary length (we don’t do Top 10 lists here on “the AN”™) of iconic characters, real life or otherwise, that MMORPG players would probably recognize even if they had never played the game in question. The rules: It had to be either a real person or character. No conceptual or generic icons like “the Ban Stick” or “nerfs.” I also stayed away from designers because you could probably make a couple of lists with just names like Raph Koster, Richard Bartle (who is still alive), Chris Crawford, ad infinitum. This list isn’t necessarily the most important icons in the MMORPG-o’drome, but perhaps the most recognizable to the most number of players.
The list after the jump.
§
 |
14. Statesman, NPC, City of Heroes. He’s Paragon City’s first and finest cape, and is also apparantly bad-ass enough to have jacked Magneto’s hat. |
 |
13. Fansy the Famous Bard, player character, Everquest. When the going gets tough, the tough start griefing. |
 |
12. Leeroy Jenkins, player character, World of Warcraft. Leeroy is that guy. He’s in every guild you’ve ever been in, every pickup group you’ve ever been in, and was perhaps even you at one point. You will eventually LOL about it, but when it’s happening, all you see is murder. |
|
11. Sheyla Morrison, Everquest Guide and drama queen. You’ve probably never heard “her” name, but you’ve undoubtedly heard her story, usually in some bastardized form on the boards. |
 |
10. Woody Hearn, Comic artist, GUComics. He’s branched out into other computer gaming formats, but for a long time his strips were about Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and a few other MMORPGs. But he’s still damn funny, and there’s a good chance you’ve got one of his comics taped to your monitor. My dream of course is to one day screw up a game or infuriate a fan base so badly that I wind up as the subject of one of his panels ftw. |
 |
9. Lucan D’Lere, NPC, Everquest II. He’s evil, undead, and sounds a lot like Saruman. And you got to meet him if you did the old school betrayal quest. |
 |
8. Warchief Thrall, World of Warcraft. He’s the greatest Orc in the world…of Warcraft. |
 |
7. John Smedley. You either hate him or have never played a Sony game. I kid. He’s the President of Sony Online Entertainment, and keymaster of the most diverse portfolio of MMORPGs in the industry. SOE may not be the 500lb gorilla in the room anymore (or maybe they just seem a lot smaller next to that new 8 million lb gorilla) but don’t count Smed out just yet. He bought Vanguard you know. |
 |
6. Sanya Weathers, Internet Relations Manager, Mythic Entertainment, and former “Tweety” ranter. She wasn’t the first community manager, but she wrote the book on how to do it right. And lemme tell you something about that book. It’s filthy filthy filthy. |
 |
5. Antonia Bayle, NPC, Everquest II. Even if you didn’t play EQ2, there’s a good chance you picked up the box to, you know, look over her bewbies the system requirements. |
 |
4. Lum the Mad, commentator, The Rantings of Lum the Mad. Back before there were blogs or blogging software or even keyboards I think, Scott “Lum the Mad” Jennings ranted incoherently into a dictaphone, where it was then transcribed via teletype onto the Arpanets and disseminated over the gophers. I am told this makes him very very old. He is, however, still kicking. |
 |
3. Orcs, NPC, every fantasy MMO you can think of. This one sort of breaks my rules, but every single fantasy MMO has them. And I know, we could say the same thing about the goddamned Elves and Dwarves, but won’t somebody think of the Orcs? |
 |
2. Lord British (aka Richard Garriott), NPC/Alter Ego, Ultima Online. Was famously assassinated during the Ultima Online beta, but he got better. The same cannot, however, be said of Ultima Online. Two sequels have been canceled, and only a small but dedicated fan base remains. Presumably this fan base is physically and/or psychologically unable to cope with that fancy new spacial Z-axis all the physicist kids keep talking about. |
 |
1. Firiona Vie, NPC, Everquest. She is literally the MMORPG poster child. Even gamers who have never stepped foot into a virtual world know this is “the Everquest chick.” If there is a single iconic representation of MMORPG’s, she’s it. She’s also a great example of how evil never attacks your midriff, arms, legs, head, or cleavage. |
Does my list suck, or did I forget somebody obvious? Write up your own. Hell, make it a meme and track it back here.
§
Related Posts
- Do Good, Get a Cool Calendar
- Your Wednesday MMORPG Horoscope
- SOE Cluon Level Still Dangerously Low
- Oh And Remember Next Friday Is Hawaiian Chainmail Day
- I Control The Sun
Posted in MMOs |
Posted
on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 4:18 pm.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
You forgot Sam “Da Man” Deathwalker. 5 BOXORS ROXORS!
Dives, Player Character, World of Warcraft. The raidleader who’s explosion of expletives proved that (NSFW) Onyxia is Serious business! (Still (NSFW)!)
I’ve heard “more dots more dots” and “50 dkp minus” at least as many times as I’ve heard “LEEEEROY JENKINS!”. Besides, for a mean spirited guy like me, listening to somebody else freak out never gets old!
Number one should be ‘a moss snake’
I need to get something off my chest. I got a phone call this morning from a woman. To protect her identity I will call her “Amberlina.” We had the following conversation:
Amberlina: I have a good idea for a post. What’s a really old way to put stuff up on the internet?
Me: Um…how old?
Amberlina: Really old. Like how you did it back in the old timey days.
Me: You really don’t want me to ever fix your blog again, do you?
Amberlina: Pleeeeeeeeeeeze?
Me: Okay, well I used to use gopher a lot.
Amberlina: Go…gopher?
Me: Yeah, gopher. It was a protocol like anonymous FTP.
Amberlina: Did you use those punch card things?
Me: Someday your breasts will sag, you will have varicose veins, and I will point and laugh.
Amberlina: Okay sorry, so it’s called gopher like the animal?
Me: Yes.
Amberlina: Cool. I’m off to make friends.
And now you know the rest of the story.
@Cuppycake: Oh dang, that’s a good one!
@TheeNickster: I thought of Diver, but then I’d have to eat my words.
@Engels: And bats, and rats, and Annoying Lucradins, and…
@moxcamel: lol
Ishe really did say “old timey.”In regards to the Moss Snake, I was thinking of the famous ‘kick’ they used to do till it was changed, and of course, the fabled moss snake thread.
A member of my forums linked this article. I just wanted to drop in and say thanks for inclusion. Send me an email and we’ll see if we can’t get you into a panel.
Woody Hearn – owner/cartoonist
Two More Minutes, LLC.
GUComics.Com
From the Sheyla Morrison link:
Pulled out a gun from where?
Ya know, I bet all the people who were upset about people playing EQ so much must feel pretty stupid now that WoW is socially acceptable and way WAY more popular.
Sometimes, it’s better not to ask.
You would think so. But instead, the names have changed while the song remains the same.
http://afkgamer.com/archives/2005/09/21/warcraft-widows/
You know, I wrote a newspaper article about the gophers.
Really. Well, it wasn’t really a newspaper. It was called the Little Rock Free Press and they wanted me to write a geek column. This was back in 1992 or so before geeks were taking over the world. There were only 2 or 3 columns before I found out that they took the “free” in their title seriously and didn’t plan on actually paying me.
Eventually it went out of business entirely. The last issue was full to the brim with Subgenius propaganda that the art director put in since no one else cared.
Cuppycake must be Sam, because only he thinks what he does is impressive.
I think he pulled it out of his butt, Tipa…
I’m not sure Lucan D’Lere belongs in the list based on your criteria of “at MMORPG players would probably recognize even if they had never played the game in question”
I think he’s someone most people who played EQ1 or EQ2 would be aware of, but I doubt he’s notable to people who didn’t play either one those games specifically (since he was in both of them.)
Because I have to prove Lum right…
You forgot the only real man gamer!
(My GF still loves to show that page to people we know. 
)
Mmm, nothing like a fed ego.
I would have put “A Rat” as #1 MMORPG Icon of all time personally.
Firionae Vie may be the “chick on the box” but “A Rat” is what when I install a MMORPG because I know that within 10mins of playing it, I’ll have 100s of them in front of me, ready for some love
SOE is overrepresented in your list I believe. They would have been hot characters 3 years ago but in modern times I think they all would be considered too oldskool.
And if Lum the Mad can get on the list Tigole could as well, maybe he is more well known as designer than character but so is Lord British.
@Psychochild: /swoon
@Kemor: Rat would have arguably been a better choice than Orc. Bats, rats, snakes, elves…in the end I decided Orcs needed the love.
@Wolfe: WRT SOE being “overrepresented,” I think it’s because SOE ties their characters so heavily into their public image. Many players could pick Firiona, Antonia, and Lucan out of a lineup even if they’d never played the EQ series. WRT Tigole, I specifically left designers out. Designers could fill an entire list of their own. Lum is on the list for his pre-designer work as a commentator.
At least from my gaming years Tigole has his fame coming from the days as leader of Legacy of Steel and influential on the whole western mmo community politics scene. Blizzard hired him (and another notoriously influential fellow from foh) to win the political battle against sleeping opponents rather than to write design documents.
Oh, I had to add that there might be a big cultural difference on how much of an impacts SOE titles have had on the gamer population between Europe and the US. Where we Euro people have had internet as the only channel to see game art and the US probably have seen a lot more posters and other physical types of advertisement.
Tigole was the guild leader of Legacy of Steel on the Nameless server in EverQuest long before he was ever a designer
Legacy of Steel was the server’s pre-eminent raiding guild and probably one of the top five game-wide. Up there with Fires of Heaven back in the day, only smaller and more focused.
‘course, I only know this because I was also a guild leader on the Nameless, and so I paid attention to their site and posted in discussions with Tigole in the Nameless Tavern some.
For my part, if you’re going to use notable NPCs, I would have used Lord Nagafen. Everyone might not know the name, but if anyone’s raided at all in any game, they are feeling the legacy of this venerable dragon. He was the start of it all, and he deserves some credit for being probably the first mob ever that took six groups working together to take down.
Well I honestly haven’t been a huge MMO gamer, but I expected Leeroy to be higher on the list.
Oh another one for those Ultima fans (not sure if he was in UO, but Lord British wasn’t only in UO either): Iolo the Bard.
And honestly… orcs? You couldn’t think of anything else? Really?
In hindsight I should have gone with a 5-way tie between bat/rat/elf/orc/dwarf. I’m just relieved that (if the comments are any indicator) I didn’t miss anything super obvious.
I put Leeroy lower on the list because I’m not sure he’s got the steam to attain lasting icon status. 5 years from now many players will still be able to pull Firiona out of a lineup, but I’m not so sure about Leeroy. I could be wrong, but I’ve got 5 years to bury this post.
@Talean: You’re right about Lord Nagafen. He’s the original Dragon raid. In fact, when I was polling friends for the post, one person even mentioned Nagafen, and I couldn’t quite place it so I moved on.
Okay, I can see that I guess.
The next list needs a guest appearance by Chuck Norris or something, though.
Fansy and Woody! From the ridiculous to the sublime in one go!
I guess it’s only because nobody remembers the characters names in the original dialogue of “The SoW Story”, but my list would also include “Burned Woods” because that gem still has instant recognition in most MMO circles.
Oddest thing is that the soundclip of Leeroy Jenkins made its way onto the local DC morning show, to much hilarity (about a year and half late, yet still funny somehow!)
@Ancarett: lol that was funny!
[...] The Top 14 MMORPG Icons of All Time [...]
It’s… it’s an honor just to be nominated by someone else with a foul mouth.
I still think Necros rule in EQ1!! I wouldn’t of been surprised if they were on the list.
You obviously weren’t part of the revolution! We knew what we were doing. It just took the world another twenty years or so to figure it out!
I think one of the more famous things from MMO’s is the creatures that dont have any legs…. Kick
..A moss snake kicks you for 5 damage…
Hey, neat list, and neat blog. Its been a long time since that fateful (and extremely rocky) launch day of Everquest…ahh yes my first MMO and online video game period…
I saw you put Woody on there and he definately belongs. He started doing comics about old old OLD school EQ, and is still around today. If that isn’t an icon I don’t know what is. Now to figure out a way to get MY WoW character on the list..hmmm.
Jastiger
Wait! ive got an idea to add to the list. Hold on a minute. Let me run it through SOE to make sure its viable …. “Loading, Please wait”………AFK.
One word: “Asheron”.
A “Top x” list without the most dedicated, persistent, and environmentally-conscious NPC in MMO history: Fippy “You’ve ruined your own lands you’ll not ruin mine” Darkpaw???
Ah yes, Iolo the bard. He’s actually a real person.
He’s a member of the SCA that Lord British wrote into the game.
one problem: There are no Orcs in Dark Age of Camelot…at least I’ve never seen one.
They DO have Moss Snakes, however.
Where is Ranz? The guy who killed Lord British?
I think an honorable mention should be Belan the noble Looter!
As a long time player of EQ I still to this day always think of Fippy Darkpaw whenever I remember that game. Fippy being the named Gnoll in Qeynos- he even had a mention at one point in the loading messages due to the enormous amount of times people starting out had killed him back in the day.
I would like to spread sun light on this.
Hmmm, what about Furor? His long time dominance over Everquest that eventually earned him a job at Blizzard. Or Thott for that matter too.
That right there is the best name not on this list already. He was memorable in the DAoC days and extremely recognizable now. Millions of WoW users go to http://www.thottbot.com daily, though I imagine less than 10% have ever even heard of Thott himself.
I personally think Garriot should be #1 just because UO was the first graphical MMORPG (yes, there were MMORPGs without graphics, ever heard of MUDs?).
Woot x 10 Billion for your choosing of the Orcs over other races.
I
I would have liked to have seen Fippy Darkpaw
You know it’s kind of sad that you mention all these EQ icons, yet EQ was not even a popular MMORPG. I mean… Thrall and Leeroy Jenkins? THAT’S IT??? If you actually got a couple million of the WoW players to vote on who the actual MMORPG icons would be, you’d get more votes than any of the other MMORPG icons put together. Where’s Hogger? The low level elite that’s haunted MILLIONS of players and used to be known as the NPC that killed the most players in WoW? Where’s Ragnaros? The one boss that if your guild could kill him, you automatically proved to the server that you weren’t a noob guild anymore and you actually had the skills of 40 players to actually work together and destroy the fire lord himself. See what I mean? Oh look… Firiona Vie is the #1 icon. WHO CARES? If you get 9 million WoW players together, you’d see Hogger or even Leeroy Jenkins as #1… not some EQ chick that is known to less than 1 million players WORLDWIDE!
I don’t know about that Krovax. EQ ruled the world in it’s time. Just because currently more yappers play WoW doesn’t mean that EQ was always in the state it’s in. Everyone who’s anyone older than… (When did WoW come out? I can’t remember…) I guess anyone who started mmo’s more than 5 years ago would relate far better to the eq stuff than the newcomers to the genre.
I thought the list was very fitting. Fansy… *sigh* oh Fansy.
Allakhazam coulda definitely made an appearance on the list though.
i would have to go with Asheron too….
He is the name giver, main villain (ok, not quite) and (anti-) Hero of the game Asherons Call, which is for me , and i am sure for many other mmo-gaming old timers, THE 1st generation (graphical) mmorpg.
its skill based, indivdualistic approach is unreached in fun and SKILL necessary to play (effectively), at least it was during the first 4 years of its existence.
i think games like wow, eq, daoc and others have state of the arts graphics and all, but Asherons Call broke the ground, even for THE EQ.