This is crazy. It seems that a “world” created in a massively multiplayer online game (World of Warcraft) contained a creature that infected players with a devastating plague. To add insult to injury, the plague was contagious and ended up spreading outside the world to other players in other worlds of the game. The plague was created to be incurable by any spells or items available to the players, so there was no defense to thwart it.

A massive virtual panic occurred and the game maker was forced to play god and actually change the rules of the game to quell people’s fears that their beloved dwarf/elf/ogre character would not meet their maker (where do video game characters go when they die? I’ve sent about 100,000 Mario’s to heaven by now).

Imagine folks calling in to work sick because their character in World of Warcraft came down with the plague.

I would argue that calling in sick because of this may be warranted, as some players actually lost money because of the plague. Players who were killed by the plague lose equipment value automatically, and that value costs money. Albeit it’s virtual ‘World of Warcraft’ money, but isn’t all money virtual nowadays? Same difference…

My mind is swimming with all of the implications this has on our virtual online gaming communities and the possibilities available to capitalize on a gamer’s fear of losing their ‘character’ or ‘progress’ in a particular game environment. The time might be right to start a sort of virtual-Ghostbusters for online gaming specializing not in cheating and hacks, but in protecting and curing virtual characters from in-game afflictions. You could make a killing, even if it is just ‘World of Warcraft’ money…

Stories:
World of Warcraft plague ’swamps servers’ | The Register
IGN: World of Warcraft Gets Plagued
BBC NEWS | Technology | Deadly plague hits Warcraft world