The World of Azeroth is a huge, complicated and sometimes almost completely alien place, as any player knows. However, it is also a somewhat familiar place if you know what to look for. Since the release of the original World of Warcraft game Blizzard has been slipping in references to our world. These vary from simple names, to quest lines, to places that refer back to things in the real world.

This year with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard continued this tradition with a veritable ton of real world references placed in the game. In this article we are going to look at just a few of them, however I would invite readers to visit our forums afterwards and point out even more that you find in game.

One of the pop culture references that has returned once again is the legendary Harrison Jones. This time trapped in a troll crypt in the northern reaches of the Grizzly Hills. While not found in the same spot there is also another Indiana Jones reference in the game. For anyone that can brave the heroic version of the Gun'drak instance found in Zul'Drak you can try to get the achievement "Snakes. Why'd it Have to be Snakes?", which of course is from the Indiana Jones movies. All you need to earn this achievement is defeat the snake boss Slad'ran without getting snake wrapped by the constrictors.

In the Grizzly Hills you can happen across a group of forest animals that include a skunk, rabbit, fawn, and doe. If that group sounds familiar, it should, it's taken straight out of the pages of Bambi. In fact they are named after the characters as well, the major difference being the fawn is called Bambina instead of Bambi. If you stay and watch for long enough though there is an interesting twist. A Hunter will spawn and proclaim, "A skunk, rabbit and a fawn travelling together. Now that's something you don't see every day. No Matter, I'll be dining on venison tonight." At this point he shoots the doe, and Bambina will exclaim, "NOOOOO! Mother! We'll avenge you!". At this point Bambina will enrage, attack and kill the hunter. I guess turn about is fair play! Good for Bambi!

Some of the references are very subtle, such as our next one. While adventuring in the Borean Tundra, you can happen across an item that starts a quest, called the Ultrasonic Screwdriver. For any sci-fi fan this will instantly be recognizable as a reference back to Dr. Who and his Sonic Screwdriver. Even the name of the quest reminds you of its origin "Master and Servant", referring to one of the arch villains found in the series "The Master".

For our next pop culture reference we are going to venture into the raid instance called Naxxramas, found hovering over Dragonblight. In it the first boss you will find in the Military Quarter is Instructor Razuvious who will remind many of us of a movie from our childhood, the Karate Kid. As you engage him he calls out "Sweep the leg, you have a problem with that?". This of course refers back to the coach of the Cobra-Ka at the tournament.

One of the more off beat references that many people will likely not catch is the names of the robots found in the Borean Tundra. Twonky, Ed-210, Max Blasto, and The Grinder are all pulled from the amazing Richard Garfield board game called RoboRally. For anyone who does not know who Richard Garfield is, he is the inventor of Magic the Gathering. However he also designed an very cool very different board game that involves guiding a robot through a factory floor in a race against other robots. It works by programming the robots with random cards in the best possible order, all while trying to reach rally points and destroy your opponents. It has been a huge hit in the gaming scene for many years and is very popular with computer people. Obviously there is a fan or two at Blizzard.

Not all the references in the game are to older movies or games either. In the Death Knight starting zone you can get the quest "Tonight We Dine In Havenshire.". It does not take a spartan soldier to recognize that this refers to the line screamed out in the Frank Miller comic and movie "300". Also there is a Lost reference found in the game in the scholazar Basin. You can find a hatch on one of the islands in the zone, complete with the series of numbers 5,9,16,17,24,43. This refers back to the hatch to access the Swan in the show Lost.

With a game this big there are literally thousands of references to outside sources. This is just a few that caught the "Messiah's" eyes. As with any other game, programmers try to slip in little references back to the things that they are fond of as little easter eggs of homage back to the people and things they either respect, like, or even dislike and want to make fun of. How many can you find in the game? It can almost be a game in and of itself to try to find them all.