Life imitates computer games

So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, you’ve at least heard of “World of Warcraft,” the Blizzard game where players create characters on a Blizzard server and play simultaneously with other people–LOTS of other people–in real-time. At any given moment in time, thee are over 200,000 people logged on to the World of Warcraft servers playing the game; Blizzard has over two million subscribers total, making WoW the most popular computergame…well, ever.

I play myself; I have five characters, including a level 60 warrior named Ragnarokkr on the Medivh server.

Recently, Blizzard released a new WoW patch. They do this from time to time, often to add new content–new quests, new areas to explore, new dungeons for groups of characters to adventure in. The last patch, which was released about a week ago, introduced a new elite dungeon designed to be played by groups of 20 high-level, powerful characters.

The main adversary in this new high-level dungeon has an ability to infect a player with a disease called “Corruption of Blood.” It kills the payer rather quickly and it can be spread to other, nearby players. Blizzard didn’t think a player infected with this disease would have the opportunity to leave the dungeon before dying of it. (Death in the game is a minor nuisance; if your character dies, you become a ghost, and you can reincarnate by returning to the place where you died or by having a priest or shaman player ressurect you.)

They were wrong.

Last Thursday, someone infected with this disease and playing on the Eonar server, where two of my characters live, managed to make it to one of the capital cities in the game world, a place called Ironforge. At any given time of the day or night, you can reasonably expect to see about a thousand players running around in Ironforge, meaning that this virtual non-existant city has a larger population than almost every real city in the world through three-quarters of human history.

Anyway, the capital cities have a very high population density, and the disease can be transmitted from character to character. You can tell where this is going, right?

My character died almost immediately when I entered the city. The entire place was littered with corpses. People would die, resurrect their characters, and then promptly die again–or worse yet, become infected just as they were leaving the city. It took hours before it was safe to move in Ironforge.

Well, it turns out that the problem has totally run away from Blizzard. On some servers, it’s impossible to go to ANY city without becoming “infected.” It’s bad enough that there’s an article about it on The Register:

It’s said that attempts have been made to quarantine the infected, but the efforts of what might be called the World of Warcraft Health Organisation (WWHO) appear to be ineffective. Plague-carrying players escape the curfew to lug the lurgey out into the wider WoW world.

The Corrupted Blood disease is, in short, out of control and rapidly taking on epidemic status.

Of some interest is the fact that when I read the article, Google Ads paced an ad for a site which sells online game currency for genuine real-world currency. There are many such sites, and they have become big business. How big? People make six figures a year doing nothing but generating online currency and then selling it for real money. That big.

It really is a World of Warcraft world.

28 thoughts on “Life imitates computer games

  1. That’s actually pretty damn cool. Not in a “Yay! Plague!” kind of way, but in a “unexpected thing in a virutal world” kind of way.

    I keep thinking that WoW might be fun to play. Maybe I’ll wait a while before picking it up, though.

  2. That’s actually pretty damn cool. Not in a “Yay! Plague!” kind of way, but in a “unexpected thing in a virutal world” kind of way.

    I keep thinking that WoW might be fun to play. Maybe I’ll wait a while before picking it up, though.

  3. This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever heard about WoW. That’s awesome! They should take advantage of this and introduce an immunity item. Make it very rare and not permanent, then allow warlords to rise up and price gouge.

    Or, they can select 0.5% of the population at random and make them immune, paving the way for a scenario similar to The Stand.

    Does it affect all of the races? It shouldn’t, of course, but I imagine the Blizzard folks made it so that it does for the sake of game balance.

    Is Medivh affected? Most of the people I know who play focus on that server.

    You know, if they set up a server to run little experiments like this without artificial checks and balances, just to see how the world decends into chaos and what new forms of order arise as a result, it could make for a fun and interesting simulation. What happens if every human that dies resurrects as an undead, but undead can’t respawn? What happens if Taurens gain the ability to cause permanent structural damage to defensive fortifications? The possibilities are endless, and it seems to me that having actual wars between the two sides without the artificial play balance would be worthwhile, even if it meant having to do a “server reset” every couple of months or so.

    Just an outsider’s point of view.

      • Chat I just had with

        Datan0de: Hell, I’d probably play WoW if I knew that the world was slowly dying of an unstoppable plague!

        Datan0de: I commented in the thread, BTW.

        Datan0de: They should set up a separate server with rotating doomsday scenarios.

        Datan0de: Call it “End of the World of Warcraft” or something like that.

        Fatesgirl: LOL

        Datan0de: Every 2 months or so they have to do a reset ‘cuz the situation just becomes untenable.

        Datan0de: This month it’s a plague. In November the world will slowly be consumed by nanotech grey goo. January is Alien Invasion month.

        Fatesgirl: 🙂

        Datan0de: Do WoW characters need to eat? ‘Cuz they could have all kinds of wacky fun with famine and food shortages!

        Datan0de: OMG, I’m really getting excited about this idea! 🙂

        Datan0de: Prizes go to the characters who survive the longest.

        Datan0de: The last 100 people to cack this round will be immune to next month’s pulmonary spores, or something like that.

        Fatesgirl: goodness

        Datan0de: Alliance vs Horde- total, all-out war, with no respawns!

        Datan0de: Allow structural damage, so cities can be ground into dust.

        Datan0de: Turn Ironforge into Sarajevo for a month. All ranged weapons do structural damage. Buildings can burn down.

        Datan0de: Crops can burn too, and people can/will starve.

        Datan0de: Alliance vs Horde in a war over the last remaining scraps of food…

        Datan0de: Alliance can try to grow new crops, but there’s a plant disease that makes that increasingly ineffective…

        Datan0de: Horde can/must resort to either stealing food from the Alliance.. or cannibalize.

        Datan0de: Have a degenerative disease. There’s an antidote, but it’s addictive!

        Datan0de: The disease causes your hit points to waste away. Once you’re hooked on the cure your other stats drop if you don’t get it regularly.

        Datan0de: Only Taurens can make it, but they have to kill/harvest necromancers to do so.

        Datan0de: Necromancers can either sell their blood to the Taurens to make the cure, or risk being enslaved by the Taurens and forced into blood farms…

        Datan0de: Maybe have a handful of uber-powerful weapons that can knock down cities, but makes you move very slowly. Sure, with it you can get a 10 to 1 kill ratio against attackers, but every man, woman, and child on the server is gonna be mobbing you to try to get it for themselves.

        • Re: Chat I just had with

          Ooh! Ooh! Or, have a disease that incites a class war!

          The disease affects everyone, but the high level characters worst of all. A high level character can stave off the effects by smoking a low level character every now and then. The low level characters can band together and kill a high level character, then turn him into a more longer lasting cure that’ll have enough doses for the entire party, but only works for the low level guys.

          Added twist- killing a high level character yields mondo experience points, so after a short while your fellow newbies start eyeing you as a potential target…

        • Re: Chat I just had with

          Dude! It’s times like this when I can really appreciate the value of having you as an arch-nemesis. That idea is the most brilliant thing I’ve heard in a very, very long time, and I would so play a game like what you’re describing.

          I do see one potential flaw, though, and that is the entire worldwide market for that game would probably consist of…well, the people you and I know personally. For those people who play an MMORPG so that they can get the biggest, baddest character on the block–which is to say, most MMORPG players–that game would have very little appeal.

  4. This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever heard about WoW. That’s awesome! They should take advantage of this and introduce an immunity item. Make it very rare and not permanent, then allow warlords to rise up and price gouge.

    Or, they can select 0.5% of the population at random and make them immune, paving the way for a scenario similar to The Stand.

    Does it affect all of the races? It shouldn’t, of course, but I imagine the Blizzard folks made it so that it does for the sake of game balance.

    Is Medivh affected? Most of the people I know who play focus on that server.

    You know, if they set up a server to run little experiments like this without artificial checks and balances, just to see how the world decends into chaos and what new forms of order arise as a result, it could make for a fun and interesting simulation. What happens if every human that dies resurrects as an undead, but undead can’t respawn? What happens if Taurens gain the ability to cause permanent structural damage to defensive fortifications? The possibilities are endless, and it seems to me that having actual wars between the two sides without the artificial play balance would be worthwhile, even if it meant having to do a “server reset” every couple of months or so.

    Just an outsider’s point of view.

  5. Chat I just had with

    Datan0de: Hell, I’d probably play WoW if I knew that the world was slowly dying of an unstoppable plague!

    Datan0de: I commented in the thread, BTW.

    Datan0de: They should set up a separate server with rotating doomsday scenarios.

    Datan0de: Call it “End of the World of Warcraft” or something like that.

    Fatesgirl: LOL

    Datan0de: Every 2 months or so they have to do a reset ‘cuz the situation just becomes untenable.

    Datan0de: This month it’s a plague. In November the world will slowly be consumed by nanotech grey goo. January is Alien Invasion month.

    Fatesgirl: 🙂

    Datan0de: Do WoW characters need to eat? ‘Cuz they could have all kinds of wacky fun with famine and food shortages!

    Datan0de: OMG, I’m really getting excited about this idea! 🙂

    Datan0de: Prizes go to the characters who survive the longest.

    Datan0de: The last 100 people to cack this round will be immune to next month’s pulmonary spores, or something like that.

    Fatesgirl: goodness

    Datan0de: Alliance vs Horde- total, all-out war, with no respawns!

    Datan0de: Allow structural damage, so cities can be ground into dust.

    Datan0de: Turn Ironforge into Sarajevo for a month. All ranged weapons do structural damage. Buildings can burn down.

    Datan0de: Crops can burn too, and people can/will starve.

    Datan0de: Alliance vs Horde in a war over the last remaining scraps of food…

    Datan0de: Alliance can try to grow new crops, but there’s a plant disease that makes that increasingly ineffective…

    Datan0de: Horde can/must resort to either stealing food from the Alliance.. or cannibalize.

    Datan0de: Have a degenerative disease. There’s an antidote, but it’s addictive!

    Datan0de: The disease causes your hit points to waste away. Once you’re hooked on the cure your other stats drop if you don’t get it regularly.

    Datan0de: Only Taurens can make it, but they have to kill/harvest necromancers to do so.

    Datan0de: Necromancers can either sell their blood to the Taurens to make the cure, or risk being enslaved by the Taurens and forced into blood farms…

    Datan0de: Maybe have a handful of uber-powerful weapons that can knock down cities, but makes you move very slowly. Sure, with it you can get a 10 to 1 kill ratio against attackers, but every man, woman, and child on the server is gonna be mobbing you to try to get it for themselves.

  6. Re: Chat I just had with

    Ooh! Ooh! Or, have a disease that incites a class war!

    The disease affects everyone, but the high level characters worst of all. A high level character can stave off the effects by smoking a low level character every now and then. The low level characters can band together and kill a high level character, then turn him into a more longer lasting cure that’ll have enough doses for the entire party, but only works for the low level guys.

    Added twist- killing a high level character yields mondo experience points, so after a short while your fellow newbies start eyeing you as a potential target…

  7. Had a run in with a mate buying WoW gold with real money. In my opinion this is totally cheating and defeats the point of the game, but I can see how it would be attractive to some people who just want the high lvl character with the best purple armour and weps without actually doing the grinding.

    As fo the disease, it’s yet to make an appearance on my server or in Horde territory. Can’t say I like the idea of it much, as it will interfere with me working up to lvl60. Once I have one character there, I will be much more laid back about fucking with it. I don’t really want to play a game that makes me sick and die. That’s a bit boring.

    • I haven’t seen the disease affecting any Horde-side cities at all. I suspect there’s a reason for that; namely, for every Horde player there are three Alliance players. Seventy-five percent of the players who play WoW prefer Alliance, I suspect because the characters are prettier.

      What’s interesting about this virtual disease is the way it mimics real epidemology. Without a certain minimum population density, it can’t spread; it just kills everyone who gets it before they have a chance to pass it on. The population density in Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff just isn’t high enough to keep it going.

      And that’s kind of cool, in a way. Blizzard has accidentally modelled real-life phenomena without intending to at all.

  8. Had a run in with a mate buying WoW gold with real money. In my opinion this is totally cheating and defeats the point of the game, but I can see how it would be attractive to some people who just want the high lvl character with the best purple armour and weps without actually doing the grinding.

    As fo the disease, it’s yet to make an appearance on my server or in Horde territory. Can’t say I like the idea of it much, as it will interfere with me working up to lvl60. Once I have one character there, I will be much more laid back about fucking with it. I don’t really want to play a game that makes me sick and die. That’s a bit boring.

  9. Re: Chat I just had with

    Dude! It’s times like this when I can really appreciate the value of having you as an arch-nemesis. That idea is the most brilliant thing I’ve heard in a very, very long time, and I would so play a game like what you’re describing.

    I do see one potential flaw, though, and that is the entire worldwide market for that game would probably consist of…well, the people you and I know personally. For those people who play an MMORPG so that they can get the biggest, baddest character on the block–which is to say, most MMORPG players–that game would have very little appeal.

  10. I haven’t seen the disease affecting any Horde-side cities at all. I suspect there’s a reason for that; namely, for every Horde player there are three Alliance players. Seventy-five percent of the players who play WoW prefer Alliance, I suspect because the characters are prettier.

    What’s interesting about this virtual disease is the way it mimics real epidemology. Without a certain minimum population density, it can’t spread; it just kills everyone who gets it before they have a chance to pass it on. The population density in Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff just isn’t high enough to keep it going.

    And that’s kind of cool, in a way. Blizzard has accidentally modelled real-life phenomena without intending to at all.

  11. That’s wicked. I’m personally not a WoW player, but its things like this that push me just that much closer. I’m really hoping that Blizzard responds to this with something equally as interesting.

  12. That’s wicked. I’m personally not a WoW player, but its things like this that push me just that much closer. I’m really hoping that Blizzard responds to this with something equally as interesting.

  13. Hi there! This is the second time I’ve stumbled over your LJ (once when doing some BDSM web-searching for the purpose of bringing a new partner up to speed, again when you got quoted on the Polyamory Weekly webcast), so I thought it was high time I friended you. Feel free to do likewise if you’re so inclined.

  14. Hi there! This is the second time I’ve stumbled over your LJ (once when doing some BDSM web-searching for the purpose of bringing a new partner up to speed, again when you got quoted on the Polyamory Weekly webcast), so I thought it was high time I friended you. Feel free to do likewise if you’re so inclined.

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