WoW may model real epidemics

Lincoln Russell 21 Aug, 2007 at 1:16pm ET Article published in Tech

Researchers have written in a research journal that World of Warcraft may be used to model how real-world epidemics might spread. In 2005, Blizzard released a virus called “Corrupted Blood” into the virtual world that quickly escaped its control area.

At it’s peak, the virus infected most of the major cities, caused a breakdown in “civil society”, and had individuals abandoning virtual pets for fear that they transmitted the disease. Blizzard’s efforts to quarantine the massive outbreak failed, and it resorted to rebooting the servers to remove it. (via Inq)

Comments

21 Aug 2007 ~ 2:04pm BuddyJ Aww man. I read the headline and thought they were gonna introduce the Black Plague to WoW. I wanna see players crying because their favourite character died of the plague.
21 Aug 2007 ~ 2:08pm CB Since the characters can't permanently die, it can't really simulate a real plague.
21 Aug 2007 ~ 7:47pm pigflipper I remember when this happened, it was a pain in the ass, damn Hakkar and his plague.
21 Aug 2007 ~ 8:44pm Medlock

pigflipper wrote:

I remember when this happened, it was a pain in the ass, damn Hakkar and his plague.

I heard all about it but was never on to witness it myself. It sounded so awesome.
22 Aug 2007 ~ 2:14am RWB I never heard of that.... awesome idea though.

Just read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood

That is insane!
22 Aug 2007 ~ 2:16am Thrax

pigflipper wrote:

I remember when this happened, it was a pain in the ass, damn Hakkar and his plague.

It was, er.. Exciting. I'm glad I was raiding BWL at the time.
22 Aug 2007 ~ 9:24am Middge I remember logging on and walking around Ironforge to see the piles of bodies. It took me a while to realise what the heck happened. Then just when I figured it out, I died