Massively Multiplayer Mashup
Warcraft disease outbreak spawns "stupid" infection research
Many players of World of Warcraft will surely remember the Corrupted Blood plague of September 2005. The unintentional virus, unleashed by a dungeon boss and carried out by the pets of unknowing players, spread from pet to NPC and player to player, turning capital cities into ghost towns.
Now a pair of Princeton researchers are examining the event, hoping to use it as a model to study the spread of real-world infectious diseases.
"When this accidental outbreak happened, players embraced it. Some thought it was really cool," said Nina Fefferman of Princeton to Reuters. "Someone thinks, 'I'll just get close and get a quick look and it won't affect me."
Fefferman and her student associate Eric Lofgren published a paper on the outbreak, claiming that it shows one phenomenon traditional researchers often overlook: the "stupid factor."
"Now that it has been pointed out to us, it is clear that it is going to be happening," Fefferman elaborated. "There have been a lot of studies that looked at compliance with public health measures. But they have always been along the lines of what would happen if we put people into a quarantine zone--will they stay?
"No one has ever looked at what would happen when people who are not in a quarantine zone get in and then leave."
Fefferman is now working with Blizzard to model similar outbreaks, hoping that video games will be a safe way of looking at real sociological scenarios.
"With very large numbers of players, these games provide a population where controlled outbreak simulations may be done seamlessly within the player experience."
While Lofgren is a Warcraft player, Fefferman is not. One would hope that she realizes the difference between a harmless death in Orgrimmar, and genuine stupidity in the face of a deadly disease.
Massively Minor Minutiae
- The Webzen FPS MMO Huxley is holding a beta test on September 13th, with 999 lucky Korean volunteers getting a chance to play.
- EA Mythic has unveiled the Elven armies from Warhammer Online at the Games Convention in Leipzig. As designer and comedian Paul Barnett says in an MMORPG.com video, "Americans bring War to Germany--it'll all be over by Christmas."
- Blizzard plans to decrease the journey from level 1-58 in World of Warcraft, and before the new expansion. Speaking of which, Wrath of the Lich King may include flying mounts. Also, the Warcraft Armory is updated, and the loot earned from playing WoW: The Card Game is revealed: the rare Spectral Tiger mount, some food, and a fishing chair.
- K2's Sword of the New World has switched to a free-to-play business model, in an effort to "build a strong community." To celebrate the do-over launch, players will earn double the experience between August 21 and 28.
- SOE has posted the server merge schedule for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The merges are set to take place on August 28th.
- Lord of the Rings Online introduces the Pedigree System, allowing players to create a family tree full of their friends or real-life family. A player designated as a child in your family tree, for instance, would have the option of displaying a "Son of..." surname. Also, bats.
- Star Wars Galaxies online events manager Jason Ryan has posted a dev blog, where he talks about the experience of roleplaying Darth Vader. SOE also announced new content designed for Imperial players level 85-90.
- Unlike most gamers (and now Time magazine), IBM is getting interested in Second Life.
