Retail Copperpinchs

Winter Veil includes a bunch of goblin vendors who are dressed up for the holiday. Most players don’t spend a lot of time looking at these little NPCs. You run to them to get a quest, and return to turn it in. You go back when you need to buy some wrapping paper, or holiday spices, and then head off to make something with that important ingredient. When Winter Veil ends, these goblins disappear, (until next year).

Blizzard didn’t have to put a whole lot of effort into naming the “for a limited time” goblin NPCs. However, being Blizzard, they did take the time to give the little green folk who want to sell you holiday items some rather interesting names.

The ones that are friendly to Horde players have all been given the surname “Copperpinch”. Again, it makes me wonder exactly how they are related. Are two of them the parents of the family? Are the rest siblings to each other? Did some of the Copperpinch goblins marry into the family and change their last name? I’ve no idea, but it would be interesting to find out, someday.

Someone on Twitter (Again, forgive me, I cannot recall who it was), pointed out that the Winter Veil vendor goblins have been given first names that fit a specific theme. Each is named after an “in real life” retail store!

Somehow, this seems fitting. I can believe that if a goblin took a Winter Veil vacation from Azeroth and visited the real world right now, he or she would be inspired enough by the capitalism and commercialism of the season to name their child after a retail store. For a race that shares words of wisdom like “Time is money, friend!”, naming a child after a retail store would probably be seen as a lucky name that would bring the kid lots of gold in his or her lifetime.

Image of Kmart by Rob Stinnett on Flickr
Image of JC Penney by Rob Stinnett on Flickr
Image of J Crew by Michael Daddino on Flickr
Image of Nordstrom by Mike Kalasnik on Flickr
Image of Sears by Mike Kalasnik on Flickr
Image of Woolworths by Paul Robertson on Flickr