Plenty.
In an interesting blog post over at the Health Disparities Blog, the so-called Corrupted Blood incident at the massively popular online role-playing game was chronicled.
The game designers created a virus that would infect virtual players and spread to others in the surrounding area. Eventually, this virus got out from the dungeon which was supposed to confine it, and into the “real” world, infecting many towns within the fantasy land.
While some rushed to help those stricken with the virus, others purposely got infected and willingly spread the virus.
This sort of real-life behavior, otherwise known as the “stupid factor,” was lacking in computer models. Sadly, it needs to be considered when assessing real-life pandemic response.
Related posts:
- World of Warcraft and pandemic behavior
- Did the 1918 flu pandemic increase the risk of heart disease?
- Beware using the web for H1N1 pandemic flu drugs
- How do I prevent and treat swine flu, and, is a pandemic imminent?
- Medical schools are using Second Life to teach future doctors
- "If multiple partnerships save lives, then monogamy can be deadly"
- Is the seasonal flu vaccine associated with H1N1 pandemic influenza?
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{ 4 comments }
Oh boy !. After reading the whole thing …it does sound scary. There are always anti-social elements who do exactly the opposite of survival. We already see this in reality.
did players flood the virtual ED if their character got so much as the sniffles?
The neat thing about the WoW plague was all the similarities that could be drawn between it and the real world:
teleporters = intercontinental air travel
pets = zoonotic reservoir
non-player characters = asymptomatic hosts
low-level players = elderly, immunocompromised
To learn more about the use of video games and health care, I’d recommend Googling the following:
1. The CDC-sponsored fake flu in the children’s game Whyville
2. The hamster (…maybe gerbil) outbreak in The Sims
3. All of the creative ways Second Life is being used for medical education
Cheers!
@ paul: I don’t know much about how one finds the healers in Warcraft, and I’m sure they don’t set up shops – do they? …but it would be interesting to see you could track how many players flock to the healers they know to get an idea of the general numbers utilizing the known “healthcare system” in the pandemic.
I for one think WoW is the perfect place to test these kinds things given the population and dynamics.
True chaos beats chaos theory any day.
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