Penny Arcade posted a joke about Figureprints driving people back to play WoW, but today's commentary (by the always insightful Tycho) shows that it wasn't just a joke-- the PA guys have sold their souls back to Blizzard. The game has changed a lot in the past few years, and I admit-- going back to play my Hunter, which I've been doing lately, has made the game almost completely new for me. From all the talent changes to all the new items and the midgame updates, it's almost a brand new Azeroth for anyone coming back to the game.

PvP Online, another popular webcomic, has been running a "return to WoW" comic series as well-- 'tis the season, apparently, to come back to Azeroth. Besides all the changes and the new content, the only other reason I can think of is that there's not much else out there in terms of really established MMO experiences-- everybody else is still getting up to running speed when most WoW players already know what they're doing and how to do it. Are we in the middle of a World of Warcraft cultural resurgence right now?

The list of famous fans is getting longer as World of Warcraft becomes more and more popular. The first famous names I remember hearing about were a whole slew of cartoonists whose work I really enjoy: Roman Dirge (Lenore), Jhonen Vasquez (JTHM), Scott Kurtz (PVP Online), Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade), and Tim Buckley (Ctrl+Alt+Del). Now, being a long-time comic book geek myself, these guys didn't really surprise me when they said that they were playing World of Warcraft. After all, video games and comics are generally thought of as sharing space in the realm of the Geek.

One of the next names did take me a bit by surprise -- that was when comedian Dave Chappelle proclaimed his love for WoW. After that, it was just a mattter of time. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) admitted that he was a total WoW fan. Then he showed in an Eastvale Logging Camp t-shirt to the Video Game Awards, and got to introduce the world premiere of the Burning Crusade trailer to the rest of the world.

But this most recent name added to the ranks is a new one to me. World of Warcraft has just gained a professional football player as a fan. In a recent interview with Nick Smith, the newly recruited offensive lineman for the New York Jets, WoW came up as a topic and he talked about his time in Azeroth. Or at least, said that he had been playing WoW until Burning Crusade came out.

Yeah... I stopped playing when the expansion came out because I just couldn't keep up. Last summer though, I was like that guy in the South Park episode. I could kill anyone over and over again until they quit. It was awesome. That was pretty much all I did: eat, workout and play WoW.

While I'm thrilled to see someone in professional sports join the WoW gamer fold, I honestly hope that he was just joking about being like any guy in a South Park episode. There are just certain images that really don't need to conjured up. O.o

How about you? Do you know of any other famous names who play World of Warcraft?

[via thejetsblog.com]