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Web Nuggets: [Closed] Warcraft Players Using "Terrorist Tactics"

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  1.  (1510.1)
    Wired ran an article on this yesterday. Apparently some warcraft players are using "suicide bombing" and "bioterrorism" to kill other players and generally wreak mayhem/be griefers.

    The unsettling part is that so-called experts in Terrorism are saying this could serve as model, a virtual world version of real terrorism.

    I played World of Warcraft for about a week before I got tired of grinding (which felt like work not play or art) so I never got to the lofty levels and locations described in the articles. Has this really been all that disruptive? Or just the general online noise-making nonsense?
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeMar 21st 2008 edited
     (1510.2)
    I've been playing sort of regularly since launch and it was never a problem on my server. When I originally heard about the cursed blood situation, it was released out of the instance (read: high level dungeon) on accident and the CDC actually studied the way it moved through the game's population; Blizzard eventually made it so that when you left the dungeon that disease would be removed from your character. The person interviewed for the article probably took advantage of that before they changed things.

    I think it's generally just noise-making nonsense and "those in authority" have been trying to begin ties to MMOs and terrorists over the last year or so. However, considering the fact they tried to do that with Counter Strike years ago (hugely ironic considering the Army's American Army FPS), I'll be surprised if much comes of it.
    • CommentAuthorMalach
    • CommentTimeMar 21st 2008
     (1510.3)
    Wired's even further behind the curve than usual, on that one - at least a year, if I recall correctly.

    There's a fairly mammoth difference between a virtual world where the majority of the 'laws' are implemented in such a way that it's close on impossible to break them, and the real world where we have much more freedom of action. In a virtual world, the legal infrastructure can be altered to cause new laws to come into effect instantly.

    I'm in the middle of kicking caffiene and nicotine at the moment, so forgive me for not putting together something more meaningful here - I'm sure someone who has a fully functional brain right now can come up with something more intelligent to say...
  4.  (1510.4)
    I'm sure someone who has a fully functional brain right now can come up with something more intelligent to say...


    Virtual terrorism in World of Warcraft? I say: ROTFL.

    Honestly, I just imagine an orc blowing up and the victims yelling: OMFG U FAG U KILLD MY CHAR OMGOMGOMG!!1!!
    • CommentAuthorMalach
    • CommentTimeMar 21st 2008
     (1510.5)
    @Andrenavarro - You may find this useful. Just for future reference.
  6.  (1510.6)
    Malach:
    Actually, it's a second wave from that original story about the spread of that "virtual plague" that the CDC was looking at.


    Honestly, this kind of thing makes me more interested in WoW than anything else. A virtual world where players are carrying out terror campaigns? Virtual societies shifting in response, perhaps even responding in kind with warfare. All this wholly seperate from the "orcs killing elves" storyline? That's interesting.

    I know second life has zones and areas for battle and such, but with WoW you have this premade world being repurposed Plus the, what, 5-7 million people on WoW?
  7.  (1510.7)
    Honestly, this kind of thing makes me more interested in WoW than anything else. A virtual world where players are carrying out terror campaigns? Virtual societies shifting in response, perhaps even responding in kind with warfare. All this wholly seperate from the "orcs killing elves" storyline? That's interesting.


    Yeah, I agree it's fascinating. Virtual worlds are getting richer and richer, but I still find this unexplicably funny. I mean, I just read the sentence "Terrorism in World of Warcraft" and burst in laughter.
  8.  (1510.8)
    @Orwellseyes

    No, its really not.

    I was playing wow at the time, though not on the server in question. Its no more then a tightly controlled corporate server being hit by a computer virus. Any attempt to spin WoW into a creature that can be repurpossed or really impacted by this is hogwash. There is no room for player reaction, and any attempt would just lead to account closure (and in fact did).
    • CommentAuthorMalach
    • CommentTimeMar 21st 2008
     (1510.9)
    @orwellseyes - I think it's very much a one-off event, and waaaay over-reported. If you're looking for a world that gives you the freedom to repurpose, I don't think WoW is it, unfortunately.
  10.  (1510.10)
    I agree it was over-reported, and those reports try very hard to make it sound like something it is not. Keep in mind it happened because of a exploit and bug on an already in-game "disease" that was linked to a specific monster fight in a specific zone. Should have been removed upon leaving area, was not, and people figured out how to abuse it. It was then corrected. More so keep in mind the 10 million number is useless. WoW has hundreds of distinct servers with no interaction between them, and countless "dead" accounts.

    This really is an example of trying to make something allot more then it is.
  11.  (1510.11)
    JTraub:

    Just out of curiosity, would you play a game where players could cause havoc like this on a regular basis without fear of account closure? Would such a game even survive long enough to get popular or just get buried in bastards?

    Like I said, I played WoW for a pretty brief time, long enough to feel it wasn't my cup of tea.
  12.  (1510.12)
    I agree it was over-reported, and those reports try very hard to make it sound like something it is not.


    I second this.
  13.  (1510.13)
    Second Life, which I don't play with, is very close to being that game. Its not a game of course, its a simulation which has lots of games in it.

    But the short answer is, if I am paying for a corporate "game" experience: no. Griefing is more or less making other people miserable for your own fun, and I am happy to see it smashed down, just like I am happy when trolls die here.

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