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BlizzCon attendee to appear in Cataclysm

Blizzard confirms that Red Shirt Guy of viral Internet fame will appear as an NPC in World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion.

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Two weeks ago during BlizzCon 2010, a fan stupefied World of Warcraft developers with a question regarding a narrative quibble derived from a WOW novel. Now, that fan will live on forever in WOW history.

The fan, now known as "Red Shirt Guy," pointed out that a character--Falstad Wildhammer--was oddly nowhere to be seen in the Cataclysm beta. The WOW developers sitting in on the panel retorted, saying, "Didn't he die?" However, according to the events of the WOW novel The Shattering, he survived. The Blizzard developers acknowledged the mistake and said, "We're going to get that fixed."

Red Shirt Guy will live on forever as an NPC.
Red Shirt Guy will live on forever as an NPC.

The video has amassed close to 3 million views on YouTube thanks in part to the awkward delivery of Red Shirt Guy and the way in which he stymied the game's developers.

Now, WOW developers have decided to immortalize Red Shirt Guy. A screenshot (pictured) appeared on the official WOW forums showing that not only has Falstad Wildhammer been added to the title, but another non-player character, Wildhammer Fact Checker (donning a red shirt), is also now in the game.

Further, the image has been verified by WOW lead world designer Alex Afrasiabi, who wrote "it's real" in response to a question regarding the image's genuineness.

For more on this year's BlizzCon, check out GameSpot's coverage of the event.

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