Leeroy Jenkins, sometimes misspelled Leroy Jenkins and often elongated with numerous additional letters, is an Internet phenomenon named for a player character created by Ben Schulz in Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The character became popular due to a video of the game that circulated around the Internet. The phenomenon has since spread beyond the boundaries of the gaming community into other online and mainstream media.
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The video was released by the World of Warcraft player guild "PALS FOR LIFE". It features a group of players discussing a detailed battle strategy for the next encounter while one of their party members, Leeroy, is away from his computer. Their plan is ruined when Leeroy returns and, ignorant of the strategy, immediately charges headlong into battle shouting his own name in a stylized battle cry. His companions rush to help, but Leeroy's actions ruin the meticulous plan, and all of the group members are killed.
The Internet phenomenon started with the release of the video clip to the World of Warcraft game forum in a thread titled "UBRS (vid) ROOKERY OVERPOWERED! blue please.", which jokingly presented the video in a serious context.[1] The thread requested that other players provide help with strategy and that Blizzard reduce the difficulty of the encounter. The video spread as an internet meme, and Leeroy's response to the other players' chastisements, "at least I have chicken", was also much parodied.
When asked about his actions in the video by National Public Radio, Ben Schulz said the players "were drinking 40s and just yelling at each other."[2] The video prompted some debate over whether it was staged.[3]
The character's popularity resulted in his inclusion in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game with art by Mike Krahulik.[4] Reflecting the video in which he appears, Leeroy is a detriment to the rest of the player's team, exhausting them for the current and following turns. For gameplay reasons, his effects are not entirely negative: although no one else can attack, Leeroy can attack instantly should the player repeat Leeroy's famous shout, and his attack is unusually high compared to the cost of playing him. However, his health is such that opponents should deal with him easily on subsequent turns.[5] Upper Deck Entertainment released a World of Warcraft Miniatures game in late 2008, which included a Leeroy Jenkins figurine. As a reference to Leeroy's famous claim, the figure is seen holding a chicken leg in his left hand.[6]
The August 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK featured an article on the video, titled "The Ballad of Leeroy Jenkins". The article took the position that the video was designed as a negative commentary on the kind of "nerd-guilds" that meticulously and statistically plan out raids with all the seriousness of actual military tactics. They added that they felt Leeroy is in fact the hero of the piece, acting against the geekiness of his guild.[7]
Tanner Higgin, doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside as of 2009, began to use the Leeroy Jenkins video and subsequent discourse to "teach game analysis, more specifically the analysis of gamic race".[8]
Leeroy Jenkins was mentioned as part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the game show Jeopardy! as part of their college week tournament, though no contestant rang in.[9]
The South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" was a parody of the World of Warcraft series as a whole, with the episode's antagonist a griefer named Jenkins.[10][11]
World of Warcraft awards title of "Jenkins" to players who could kill 50 of the famous rookery whelps from the video within 15 seconds, with the achievement "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy!" being attained for the same feat.[12]
In 2009, the military publication Armed Forces Journal published an article titled "Let's Do This!: Leeroy Jenkins and the American Way of Advising". The article, by Capt. Robert M Chamberlain, links Jenkins to the American approach to advising Iraq.[13]
In the October 19, 2011 episode of Psych, "Last Night Gus", a character shares the name of Leroy Jenkins, in which Shawn introduces him with the infamous battle cry.[14]
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