Red Shirt Guy



"The Red Shirt Guy" refers to a fan who asked about a question about the dwarven leadership during the Lore panel at BlizzCon 2010. A video of his question subsequently went viral.

He confirmed in a response video that he has Asperger syndrome. Although he did not wish to make his character's name known, he stated that his guild is Carpe Imperium on Malfurion US.

He posts as "Insane Guy of Doom" on Scrolls of Lore, where the administrator created a special rank for him - 'Time-Lost Proto Nerd'. The rank is in reference to a joke link on Cracked.com.

Background
There are some lore issues regarding Kurdran Wildhammer and Falstad Wildhammer. Chris Metzen implied that in Day of the Dragon, Falstad was supposed to be killed, but the book has it so that he survived. This survival was reflected in his inclusion in WoW as an NPC at Aerie Peak.

Falstad was originally in the Cataclysm beta as a member of the Council of Three Hammers according to reports, but was replaced by Kurdran in a later build.

In The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, Varian Wrynn suggests (or decrees) that Falstad be the Wildhammer representative on the Council of Three Hammers.

Transcript
The Red Shirt Guy: Hello. I have- I just finished reading The Shattering yesterday... and I noticed something. It said that Falstad Wildhammer was going to be on the Council of Three Hammers, but in the beta it's Kurdran Wildhammer, and Falstad is not in the game at all. What happened to him?

Chris Metzen: Isn't Falstad dead? ...from, uh, Day of the Dragon? ...No?

The Red Shirt Guy: No, he survived, and, in fact, he is- was the leader of Aerie Peak in vanilla WoW and through Wrath of the Lich King.

Chris Metzen: Right, of course. Uh. Yeah, Alex, what's up with that?

Alex Afrasiabi: *Dismissive noise* Thanks, thanks for pointing that out. We're gonna get that fixed.

The Red Shirt Guy: Thank you!

Alex Afrasiabi: You bet.

*Resounding cheers*

Blizzard response
On 30 October, 2010, a screenshot was brought to light featuring Falstad in place of Kurdran on the High Seat, and standing next to him was a dwarf NPC with a red tabard named "Wildhammer Fact Checker". At that time, neither NPC could be found in the High Seat in the beta, leading to speculation that the screenshot was fake. Valnoth has stated that it is "real" but some still felt it was an elaborate hoax. The Cataclysm beta build released on November 3rd contained the two NPCs, confirming the screenshot as legitimate; in Patch 4.0.3a they both appeared on live servers, removing any doubt.

On April 15, 2011, the Council of Three Hammers faction leader story, Fire and Iron, was released on the official site. Written from the perspective of Kurdran Wildhammer, the story features a cameo appearance from the Wildhammer Fact Checker and also gave lore-based reasons behind why Kurdran was replaced with Falstad.

Trivia

 * Chris Metzen's question "Isn't Falstad dead?" became a popular catch phrase/meme.