World of Warcraft/Shout Out

• Its most touching Shout Out would have to be the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, located in the Barrens. The shrine is engraved with the initials "MK" and the Spirit Healer that stands over it is named "Koiter" referring to Michael Koiter, a Blizzard employee who died during the creation of the game.
• There are, in fact, several such memorials in-game. The closest thing to an Alliance equivalent of the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior is the In Loving Memory memorial. Less seriously, in Outland, there's also a memorial to the cancelled Blizzard game, Starcraft: Ghost.
• The game also contains a poem written in honor of Dak Krause, who died of leukemia. http://www.wowpedia.org/Caylee_Dak
• Another real life shout out is a quest in Mulgore which was made for a kid with cancer (who voiced the quest-giver). Said kid has since passed away.
• Similarly, the weapon Merciless Crossbow of the Phoenix has a tooltip that says "Finely crafted to Ephoenix's specification." Ephoenix was the name of Ezra Chatterton's hunter. Ezra had the opportunity to visit Blizzard as part of a Make A Wish wish and the crossbow is named after him.
• With the introduction of achievements, another slew of references made its way into game, including the possibility to earn the title "Jenkins". Leeroy even got his own card in the TCG.
• On a more positive note, the game is completely packed with references to other properties. A short list: During a quest where you ride a giant in Northrend, if his HP gets low it's warned that "Gymer Needs Storm Cloud Badly!". Many engineer NPCs are reference to Star Trek series characters such as "Jhordy Lapforge" and "Chief Engineer Trep". The manhole from Lost can be found in Sholazar Basin. An Engineering item is called MOLL-E. There's a whole section on another site, if you what to explore.
• Ulduar has a boss named Kologarn who has some relatively blatant shout outs. He is a giant construct guarding a bridge (really, he is the bridge) and when first aggroed, yells You shall not pass! Being a construct, part of the battle strategy involves destroying his arms. When an arm is destroyed he may yell Just a scratch or Only a flesh wound! among other things.
• All non-combat/flavour pets have 42 hitpoints. Apparently, collecting them is the meaning of life.
• Cataclysm contains the two main characters from the fanfic Interactive Fiction parody You Awaken in Razor Hill, Tednugent and his pet Scratchfever ('Tednug' and 'Scratchfever' in-game), patrolling the area around the town of Razor Hill. They even perform a little in-joke from the story, highlighting Ted's odd attraction to harpies.
• Another quest in Cataclysm involves you defending a botanist's house using solar power to grow plants to ward off zombies. And you get your own Singing Sunflower if you make it to the end.
• A quest called A Tiny, Clever Commander. Complete with the target enemy being "Commander" Nazrim.
• The NPC John J. Keeshan and the quests involving him made for the Cataclysm expansion in the Redridge Mountains are essentially ones to Rambo.
• The Twilight Highlands quest Four Heads are Better than None. Your targets? A pair of two-headed ogres named Za'brox and Beeble'phod. Mix the names up a little...
• And who can forget the "See the Invisible", "Touch the Untouchable", "Fight the Power", "Break the Unbreakable" quest line.
• There's a gnome engineer named Oglethorpe Obnoticus.
• In Dalaran there's a shark in The Underbelly named Segacedi after the Sega CD add-on to the Sega Genesis. He has the title of "Sewer Shark", which is the name of one of the games released for it.
• In Outland the Arakkoa capital is called "Skettis". The Arakkoa strongly resemble the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal.