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Sep 19
2005

Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

Plague in World of Warcraft

This just in by email from Brian Jepson: "This is really weird--apparently Blizzard recently added a new opponent that has a powerful attack with a contagious effect. They've even tried quarantining affected characters: http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/09/plaguelands.html"

As virtual worlds become more complex, they appear to mimic the natural world, even to unexpected side effects. All I can say is: just extend that line of sight for a few years, a decade, and tell me what you see!

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Comments: 5

  Andy Lester [09.19.05 10:07 AM]

It's a bug, at least as far as existing outside of a specific dungeon, and has been fixed.

http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8036

Still, it's interesting to see it get "outside the lab".

  Pete Cashmore [09.19.05 11:03 AM]

In Bloglines, this headline appears to read "Plaque in World of Warcraft". I figured maybe Blizzard had introduced gum disease, but I guess a "plague" is even more amazing.

I think we'll see some really exciting developments in virtual worlds, particularly those with economies like Second Life, as they mature.

  Jim Gaynor [09.19.05 01:34 PM]

The contagious effect was only supposed to affect characters inside an "instance" - an in-game area that is limited only to the party of characters that started it - but some inventive characters found a way to bring it out by exploiting game mechanics, and released it in a high-population area of the the in-game world.

I can confirm that it was still "loose" on Saturday (on the game server "Uther"), despite Blizzard's claims to have fixed it on Friday.

  Mike Ford [09.20.05 07:40 AM]

Regarding Andy Lester's statement above, it wasn't fixed. They attempted to disinfect the world outside of the dungeon, but they were unsuccessful.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=4929988&p=1&tmp=1#post4929988

  Catsimboy [09.20.05 08:22 PM]

Maybe they're trying to rip-off the Matrix Online's fly virus.

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