References/Easter Eggs

This is a topic that I'm curious to hear what people think about. Tons of games have little references or easter eggs alluding to other media, celebrities, or real world events, some of these being more obvious than others.

What do you feel about the inclusion of these? Is there a right balance to strike when referencing something (such as it being too obvious or too obscure)? Do references like these belong anywhere near the main plot? And how do you go about including these in your own games, if at all?

Personally, I rather enjoy the inclusion of these but I do hate when they're too obvious or forced. A good example of this I've seen several times is a forced "arrow to the knee" joke that just makes me roll my eyes rather than bring any sort of entertainment. I find it the most enjoyable when you have to think at least a little to catch the reference for a nice little fun "aha!" moment, or when it's obvious and played to the point of satirizing what it is referencing, I've got a few like these that I'm trying to implement into my project.

I love Easter eggs. I use them quite a bit.

For my game, if an Easter egg is included, it has some meaning personally for me; not necessarily because of something popular, but because it reflects things I enjoy.

I like a lot of subtlety, so there's many I expect the common person to not get right away, some so obvious but occur so quickly that they're easy to miss; and, there's probably some that someone will never even realize unless they have personally experienced what it is that's being referenced.

I find it important that the use of the reference fits the game context well enough that even for people not familiar with it don't get confused by it. If it's only funny for those who know the reference, I don't think it should be included.
In my older games, I was a lot more in-your-face with using references, but now I like to use them more subtly, or use lesser known ones and make them fit the world better instead of forcing them in for a joke.

I like easter eggs. But on me, instead of being cameo, I tried to actually blend it into my game as an actual game component.

One of my easter egg on my (on going) game was a carbon copy of a skill from another game. The name and exact effect is almost the same, I just modify some so it fits with the balance of my game. I tried to blend it well with the mechanic so that the said skill is really meaningful to be added in game, not just some random easter egg for a sake of easter egg. If my players don't get where I took the skill idea, it's not a problem at all. But if some noticed, they might be asking me if I also played / a fan of "this other game", so I'd say "yes".

Some other easter eggs were actually some references from an actual science. I watched quite lot of science video, and read some wikis that sometimes I wanted to put some of science terminology on some of my skill name / skill effects.