On WoW strange icons, Pandaren, and Samwise Didier

Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft (WoW) player Kaelaiden was mining for Adamantite around Outland. No big deal? Well, yeah, but the thing is instead of an Adamantite Ore icon, a picture of a grinning basta dude appeared on his screen. He’s not at all pissed off, mind you. He is just curious if this is either a bug, a joke, or a virus.

If you really want to know, that face belongs to Samwise Didier. He is a veteran Blizzard Entertainment employee he mostly took care of design and artwork for video games StarCraft, WarCraft, and Diablo. He is responsible for creating the fictional race Pandaren. These giant panda-looking humanoids were once rumored to be the new playable race in WoW but as it turned out, the vote went to the Draenei race.

The Pandaren, though, are not totally absent in World of Warcraft. Samwise Didier has almost always incorporated them in his designs, however subtle. Chen’s Empty Keg, for one, refers to the secret Pandaren brew master Chen Stormstout. Three children NPCs in Stormwind, likewise, can be heard debating about the existence of Pandaren.

Anyway, Samwise Didier’s icon, as well as other random icons, appear whenever there’s a spell or item that doesn’t have an icon associated with it. This usually happens with quests spells or special item abilities. So the next time you see Didier’s face, don’t swear. Just simply smile and say, “Hi Samwise!”

Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft (WoW) player Kaelaiden was mining for Adamantite around Outland. No big deal? Well, yeah, but the thing is instead of an Adamantite Ore icon, a picture of a grinning basta dude appeared on his screen. He’s not at all pissed off, mind you. He is just curious if this is either a bug, a joke, or a virus.

If you really want to know, that face belongs to Samwise Didier. He is a veteran Blizzard Entertainment employee he mostly took care of design and artwork for video games StarCraft, WarCraft, and Diablo. He is responsible for creating the fictional race Pandaren. These giant panda-looking humanoids were once rumored to be the new playable race in WoW but as it turned out, the vote went to the Draenei race.

The Pandaren, though, are not totally absent in World of Warcraft. Samwise Didier has almost always incorporated them in his designs, however subtle. Chen’s Empty Keg, for one, refers to the secret Pandaren brew master Chen Stormstout. Three children NPCs in Stormwind, likewise, can be heard debating about the existence of Pandaren.

Anyway, Samwise Didier’s icon, as well as other random icons, appear whenever there’s a spell or item that doesn’t have an icon associated with it. This usually happens with quests spells or special item abilities. So the next time you see Didier’s face, don’t swear. Just simply smile and say, “Hi Samwise!”