Ideas for references to others franchise

JeanPhilippeQC

Developers probably have their own ideas about how to make references to other franchises but there goes my list:

Mobs called after Koopalings Larry, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy, Ludwig from Mario Franchise.
A boar special elite called “Ganonpork”. A wink to Zelda franchise
A minotaur mob called Theseus. Reference of Theseus and the Minotaur from Greek Mythology.
A deer mob called “Rudolf”. A reference to Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
A quest called “Make love, not Ashes”. Reference to “Make love, not Warcraft” episode of South Park.
A quest named “Make Verra great again”. Sorry for the politic reference.
A quest named “I will be Bach…”. Reference to Johann Sebastian Bach, composer from Baroque.
An animal husbandry quest called “Gonna capture them…”. Reference to Pokémon’s “Gonna catch them all.”
A quest called “It’s-a-me”. Reference to Super Mario.
A quest called “You can’t see me!”. Reference to WWE John Cena.

bloodprophet

Please no.

Leave the pop culture stuff out of Verra.

George_Black

Bad taste.

SongRune

Punny quest titles are great. No opinion on 'pop culture', but anything too 'modern' (and particularly anything political) risks hitting weirdly for portions of your audience. I like "Theseus" (because the name is cool on its own as well), "It's a me!" (when the quest only lightly hints of a Mario reference), and "I'll be Bach" (if the quest is related to music, not Terminator), but "Make love, not Ashes" should be a reference to the age old saying, not a TV episode that itself referenced that saying.

The key to this sort of thing is to make it subtle, to make sure the name relevant to the quest first and foremost, and avoid making the quests "about" the reference in any meaningful way. If the quest stands well alone, and the title isn't forced, a subtle reference or punny name can be great. When you start making the references "real" or "the point", though, it gets cliche fast, and the quests (and references) generally get stale and out of place over time. A good rule of thumb, I feel, is that if your reference isn't still as good in 20 years as it is today, don't use it. MMOs can have a long life, if nothing else. Beyond that, name your quests after you've created them. Don't build them around the reference. If you do both of these things, I find these sorts of titles tend to work well.