World of Warcraft Community Magazine Issue 1 | Page 71

World of Warcraft Community Magazine // 71

general, although mostly used by

features hundreds of dragon eggs

actually would). It became such

gamers. Quite a few of my friends

which spawn baby dragons, or

a byword for WoW stupidity and

still use ‘epic’ today in general;

whelps whenever anyone touches

so famous that Blizzard added an

most of them are gamers and

them. This classically made it

achievement for that room some

many of those played WoW.

difficult to keep control of the room

time later, that required players to

as lots of whelps meant lots of

kill 50 whelps in 15 seconds and

gone hand in hand for many years

dying. In the video, Leeroy is away

under. It rewarded players with

now, and one of the biggest games

from keyboard while the rest of

the title “....Jenkins”. Thanks to

in terms of videos being made

the team discuss their options for

Leeroy, there are thousands or

by the community was definitely

the fight. Leeroy returns, utters

millions of characters running

World of Warcraft. Thousands,

the now infamous words “Let’s

around with the surname Jenkins.

possibly millions of videos have

do this. Leeeeeeeroooooooy

Leeroy, we salute your hijinks.

been made in the game’s 10 year

Jeeeeenkiiiiins!” and runs into

history. Most of these are fairly basic

the egg room on his own. There

YouTube and gaming have

‘playthroughs’ of various parts of the
game, but some people have taken
the game and crafted excellent
stories or impressive ‘show off’
videos. Videos like Zinwrath, gave
us excellent comedy storylines,
while Big Blue Dress and Hide

For nearly 10 years World
of Warcraft has been enjoyed by

“POSSIBLY ONE OF THE
BIGGEST WAYS THAT WORLD OF
WARCRAFT HAS INFLUENCED
THE WIDER CULTURE IS IN
THE FORM OF LANGUAGE.”

and Seek saw people using WoW

then follows a minute of madness

millions of gamers. It has suffered

to create music videos. The most

as the players try and recover

through the controversy that many

famous though, is one concerning

the encounter but they all end

popular games are victim to and

a dangerously carefree player by

up dying. Obviously everyone is

has inspired videos and bred its own

the name of Leeroy Jenkins.

annoyed with Leeroy and berate

language. With the new expansion,

him on their microphones.

Warlords of Draenor on the horizon,

video that achieved cult status in

Leeroy, unphased simply replies

World of Warcraft can only continue

the gaming community, not just

with “At least I have chicken.”

to affect the world around us.

Leeroy Jenkins featured in a

among WoW gamers. If you haven’t

“Leeroy Jenkins!” became the

Expect many more videos of epic

seen it (where have you been?) it

exclamation of choice if you wanted

(aha) feats and funny disasters and

is of a team getting ready to run a

to wind people up and make them

who knows? Maybe the next Leeroy

notoriously tricky part of the Upper

believe you were about to run into

Jenkins is just around the corner.■

Blackrock Spire dungeon in the

somewhere unprepared (and if you

original game. It is a section that

were particularly mischievous, you

By Ian Plumpton
The GameOn Magazine