Blizzard Wins April Fools'

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Blizzard Wins April Fools'



Popular PC developer Blizzard took April Fools' '09 by storm - unleashing not one, not two, but five pranks this year including uber-massive StarCraft mecha, a new Diablo class, and PvP Dance Battles.

Yes, yes, we have a general April Fools' Roundup [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90621-April-Fools-2009-Roundup] post. But this level of commitment to messing with people deserves special recognition on its own.

First, there was the WoW Europe "Pimp My Mount" [http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/mount-p1mpage.html] page, which teased players with the chance to turn their standard horse, giant cat, or hawkstrider into a truly epic mount. Amusing, sure, but not quite up to the standards of a company that has repeatedly demonstrated a love for elaborate April Fools' pranks.

Naturally, they were just getting started. The Diablo III site was updated with a look at the game's new character class: massive Radial Dialogue Tree [http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/archivist.xml] - personal favorites include, "In my day, there were no colors," and "Tyrael and I go way back."

StarCraft II was the next game to be tricked out, with the brand-new Terran Terra-Tron [http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/terratron.xml] unit - a more-than-meets-the-eye (*cough*) robot comprised of an entire Terran base - capturing the heart of mecha fans (and StarCraft fans) worldwide. "Dr. Ron Volt," eh? Yeah, I see what you did there.

Well, that covered all three of their franchises. Funny stuff - let's call it a day, right? Wrong. Not to be outdone by their EU counterparts, the North American WoW page gave Azerothians a sneak peek at the new Dance Battle PvP System [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/dance/index.xml], replacing the tired old swords and sorcery of modern WoW PvP with something brand new - and significantly more stylish. This new leg armor gives me +50 to funk, baby.

As for the fifth joke ... well, unless you're a regular on the WoW forums, you might well have missed it. Every single post on the forums has complaint thread [http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/01/the-forums-have-been-rpd/] seem like an epic adventure. Or, well, making it seem much more amusing, anyway.

There's a certain poetry to these [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16101960909&sid=1], now:

"lol", she stated, as she liberally applied her custom fragrance, which was made with bits of real nightsaber.
Oh, and the actual RP forums [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15864848470&sid=1] have been given a change of their own: Punctuation has been removed, and every sentence now ends in a random variation on "lol." I lol'd IRL, guys. Good show, good show indeed.

Well, that about does it - Blizzard wins this year's April Fools'. Whatever else you might want to say about the team in Irvine, you can't say that they don't have a sense of humor.

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Izerous

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Dec 15, 2008
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I'm just guessing here, but I think with so much effort like this Blizzard might have had an internal competition. Which team can come up with the best April fools joke for this year. Working on something like that would be great for internal employee morale etc.
 

BloodyOne

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Mar 23, 2009
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That Archivist was awesome.
I seriously hope that they put the Terra-Tron as an easter egg or cheat code.
Nice one Blizzard. Well...nice five...

Guys, check out the box they have for sale.
 

MiketheBassMan

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Jan 21, 2009
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Izerous said:
I'm just guessing here, but I think with so much effort like this Blizzard might have had an internal competition. Which team can come up with the best April fools joke for this year. Working on something like that would be great for internal employee morale etc.
Precisely what I was thinking.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Out4Blood4 said:
That Archivist was awesome.
I seriously hope that they put the Terra-Tron as an easter egg or cheat code.
Nice one Blizzard. Well...nice five...

Guys, check out the box they have for sale.
Ah yes. Can't forget "The Orange" Cardboard Box [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/dance/images/ss5-x.jpg], clearly a shout out to a certain other PC developer :)
 

BloodyOne

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Mar 23, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Out4Blood4 said:
That Archivist was awesome.
I seriously hope that they put the Terra-Tron as an easter egg or cheat code.
Nice one Blizzard. Well...nice five...

Guys, check out the box they have for sale.
Ah yes. Can't forget "The Orange" Cardboard Box [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/dance/images/ss5-x.jpg], clearly a shout out to a certain other PC developer :)
Well they give quite a lot of shoutouts, they even parody themselves in their own games.
BTW, that was just a filler picture, I took a screenshot and put in a new one (since the picture was scripted and I couldn't copy the large version).
 

BrotherRool

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Oct 31, 2008
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It's the itnernet culture references that do it.

But his efforts were for naught; as his hair was a bird, he found his point to be invalid.

We've all seen the picture right?

And then when it "he put on his robes and wizard hat"
 

Mister Benoit

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Sep 19, 2008
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Blizzard.com is the fist place I go to every april fools, they're great.

Archivist and Terra-Tron are awesome.
 

BloodyOne

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Mar 23, 2009
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BrotherRool said:
It's the itnernet culture references that do it.

But his efforts were for naught; as his hair was a bird, he found his point to be invalid.

We've all seen the picture right?

And then when it "he put on his robes and wizard hat"
WHAT?!?!
 

Clashero

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Aug 15, 2008
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I don't play any Blizzard games, but in Guild Wars, every character was turned into a cute little chibi of Gwen, the game's most universally beloved character... even when she's setting fire to the city.
 

MonkeyWorldUK

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May 18, 2008
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Man, oh man. I do love Blizzard so very much. This year's Diablo fool is so much better than last years! But I suppose they had much more to go on this time around.

The forum gag was the best thing I've seen from them for ages, very nice work Blizzard :)
 

BloodyOne

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Mar 23, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Cid SilverWing said:
Why do Blizzard waste their time on idiotic pranks?
Yes, how dare a developer have some fun with their community? :p
Spacelord said:
Cid SilverWing said:
Why do Blizzard waste their time on idiotic pranks?
BECAUSE THEY CAN


Personally, I'm all for it! ^^
Woo Hoo! One point for Inalienable Rights and the freedom to do WHATEVER WE PLEASE
Hmmm, twas that rude of me?
 

oliveira8

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Feb 2, 2009
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Man..lame I cant open the SC2 website....Its been loading up since I opened it when I got home today...like over 10 hours ago. :(
 

Robyrt

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Aug 1, 2008
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Note that the RP-ing of the forums has liberal references to Penny Arcade's "Song of Sorcelation" parody. It's pretty meta.