Blizzard will add "Red Shirt Guy," as he has come to be known, to World of Warcraft when the Cataclysm expansion hits on December 7.
Red Shirt Guy shot to viral fame following Blizzcon 2010, when he grilled a panel of World of Warcraft designers about a minor plot discrepancy in the new WoW novel The Shattering – a character was said to be dead but was actually still alive. The video has racked up 2.5 million views thus far thanks to a potent combination of the fan's awkward delivery, trivial question and deeper knowledge of the game than the designers on the panel.
"We're going to get that fixed," one told him following his question. Fix it they did. This image from the game now shows Falstad Wildhammer – except now he's accompanied by the Wildhammer Fact Checker, complete with little red shirt and neckbeard.
Buzzfeed points out that the image seen above, posted on the game's official forums, has been verified as real by a WoW lead designer.
Most internet citizens do not respond well to people who know more about videogames than they do, which probably explains some of the negative reaction to this fan's question.
Granted, you probably could make the case that this guy knows just a bit too much about the game. But I would also argue that getting up in front of thousands of people to grill the makers of your favorite game takes major chutzpah1.
1The author would like to clarify that he is not Red Shirt Guy.
