World of Warcraft Terrorism: The new strategy/tactic

Virtual terrorists blowing themselves up and spreading disease inside World of Warcraft could provide counterterrorists with a window into real-world plots.
Such activities in the massively multiplayer online game bear an eerieresemblance to actual terrorism, and analyzing terror tactics in Warcraft could prove more enlightening than current computer simulations used by counterterrorists.
"People got really smart about figuring out how to cause the mostdamage to the largest number of people," said Robert Allen, a level-60mage and self-admitted virtual bioterrorist who purposely spread anin-game contagion to kill other players.
Scientists have already noted World of Warcraft's usefulness in studying how diseases spread.The game's network of 10 million players -- each capable of makingdecisions, either logical or illogical, rational or irrational -- givesscientists a ready-made virtual world to scrutinize that's not based oncomputer models or artificial intelligence. The game could be aninvaluable tool not only for counterterrorists and epidemiologists butalso sociologists and economists.
Charles Blair,deputy director of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies,said he thinks the game could provide a powerful new way to study howterrorist cells form and operate. His organization already usescomputer models to study terrorists' tactical decision-making, but World of Warcraft'sarmy of players adds a realistic dimension that might prove moreenlightening than even the best baked-in artificial intelligence.
"The main strength is that [Warcraft] involves 'real' people makingreal decisions in a world with some kind of [controllable] bounds,"said Blair, who said studying players' actions could prove useful tomilitary intelligence analysts. "To put it academically, you have bothdependent and independent variables."
Warcraft has a history of in-game terrorist activity.Early on, players found a curse in a high-level dungeon that would turnthem into living bombs. They would then teleport to major cities anddetonate themselves, killing nearby players. These suicide bombersgradually began to target areas where large number of players gathered,usually at auction houses or banks. Eventually, attacks occurred withenough frequency that some players simply avoided dangerous cities.
Virtual bioterrorist Allen and his guild, domus fulminata, used asimilar teleportation technique to spread an epidemic throughoutin-game cities. Using a contagious curse called Corrupted Blood thatcould kill most players in seconds, Allen and his guild purposelyinfected other players and created a semi-permanent well of disease incities' non-player characters. Allen and his group found the chaoscaused by their actions humorous.
"It's just funny to watch people run away screaming," he said.
Such actions bear telltale signs of terrorism. Allen's small groupblended in with the general population and waited for a weakness in thesystem to attack.
Just as in real life, such tactics can be effective in Warcraft.
"The advantage goes to the asymmetric actors who can operate underthe radar," said Yale University terrorism expert Stuart Gottlieb.
Like the Department of Homeland Security, World of Warcraftoperator Blizzard Entertainment tries to foresee vulnerabilities andaddress them as they become apparent. After the company's initialattempt to end the Corrupted Blood attacks, players found ways tocircumvent new security measures by using in-game pets as vectors fordisease.
Yet Blizzard is uncomfortable calling Warcraft players terrorists.
"As we have always stated, World of Warcraft is firstand foremost a game," said Blizzard representative Shon Damron. "It'snever been designed to mirror reality or anything in the real world."
Whether the game's operators want to admit it or not, Warcraftdoes mirror reality to some extent. Perhaps the game's biggest weaknessas a model for studying terror tactics is that death in World of Warcraft is a nuisance at most.
Because the stakes for both terrorists and civilians are lower thanthey are in the real world, Yale's Gottlieb said he remains skepticalthat the game could shed much light on the deeply complex social,political and cultural causes of terrorism.
"This is very interesting and relevant to the times," he said,"though I wouldn't base a new counterterrorism strategy on the nuancesof a videogame."