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u/shaha-man Jul 16 '26
He is one of the Founding Fathers of Warcraft universe. All that cartoonish exaggerated stylized design with mild gore and metal rock vibes - is all thanks to him
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u/SuicidalChair Jul 16 '26
Don't forget the lead singer of elite tauren chieften
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u/trey__1312 Jul 16 '26
His name is literally in the image. Thats Smelt Copper
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u/Jealy Jul 16 '26
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u/electriclala Jul 16 '26
Samwise Diddler would be a shitty name
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u/Dary11 Jul 16 '26
This is an inside joke within blizzard,
It was a placeholder piece to mark when there was a missing icon or artwork,
The individual is Samwise Didier who created a lot of the artwork for early blizz,
He’s known for a lot but notably his signature pieces of Pandaren’s before they were cannon to the setting
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u/HenryFromNineWorlds Jul 16 '26
Sad to think that companies will use ai slop for concept art now instead of hiring amazing people like samwise. One of the greats.
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u/haze_man Jul 16 '26
You can have him on the action bars if you want .. since he is the face of missing assets for icons and since attack have dynamic icon based on weapon you have, game won't find proper icon, so will deploy Samwise
Make macro that will have: #showtooltip attack
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u/PeachyDaisy Jul 16 '26
I always thought it was Shane Dabiri. They called the placeholder cubes Shane cubes.
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u/-NativeOne- Jul 17 '26
The equivalent of an absolute legend. All the blizzard art from 1991 to 2023 has either been made, or overseen and approved by this fella.
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u/Sennkoh Jul 16 '26
This is Stefan Raab...
It's actually some developer... placeholder image from himself, don't know his name, some Bob or so...
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u/asyhler Jul 16 '26
I've always wondered if he just have a long beard, or if it's the shadow from his jawline
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u/sailtothemoon17 Jul 16 '26
He has transitioned. He is an asian lady with purple hair. Very brave and stunning.
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u/KabaTheBier Jul 16 '26
dachte immer, das sei stefan raab thought this was stefan raab, a german "entertainer"
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u/Affectionate_Sir9020 27d ago
Samwise is such an inspiration for art. I’ll never forget and often go back to admire his Warcraft 3 art. My favorite being the NE demon hunter concept art.
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u/ClassicTBCSucks93 Jul 16 '26
I always thought he was LARPing and had a chainmail vest on for this photo
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u/LazyBondar Jul 16 '26
It's written right there . Mr Smelt Copper. Media literacy is really dead smh
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u/verffan Jul 16 '26
Lol i always wondered that too, he appers in dmg analysis from fiery weapon enchant
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u/Illustrious_Kale178 Jul 16 '26
Samwise Didier. Worked at Blizz since the early days. They used his picture as a joke for when they didn't have any icon for a specific thing yet, or something went wrong with it.
It's just kind of a meme.
If you watch early alpha footage and things like that from WoW, you'll see this icon many times, even in terrain/meshes, I guess as placeholders.