How World of Warcraft Might Help Head Off the Next Pandemic - Issue 17: Big Bangs
▻http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/how-world-of-warcraft-might-help-head-off-the-next-pandemic
On Sept. 13, 2005, Nick Yee died. A few moments later, he came back to life. Then he died again. And he wasn’t the only one. His city was littered with bodies, bones scattered across the floor of the auction house and town square. “It was simply hilarious,” he said, “that everyone was dying and no one was sure what was happening.” It was hilarious because the Nick Yee that died wasn’t really Nick Yee. It was his avatar, a Night Elf in World of Warcraft, an online role-playing game played by millions of people around the world. Yee’s Night Elf died of a sickness called Corrupted Blood, which had quickly spread from a single dungeon to several servers, infecting millions of players and bringing the game to a crashing halt. In another part of the world, a Night Elf Druid logged on and started (...)
