Virtual Worlds #5: A Plague Hits Azeroth

Who'd have thought it would go this far? We've seen the items of online worlds bought and sold for real money. We've seen the sociological dynamics of MMORPG players examined by scientists. But this is a first -- a deadly, cureless plague sweeps World of Warcraft, leaving towns barren and players holed up in remote locations, wary of strangers.

Introduced in the 1.7 content patch a few weeks ago, the source of the plague was a particular boss, Hakkar, in the Zul'Gurub raid instance. Among his weaponry is a harmful, status-altering spell he casts on players -- a "debuff" -- called Corrupted Blood. This debuff counts down for a few seconds, then hits the sufferer for 200 to 300 damage points, accompanied by a blood-splash graphical effect. However, it'll then spread to other players, pets or NPCs in a small radius, making the same thing happen to them.

So far it's just a fun way of making the Hakkar encounter a little different -- a parting shot, if you will. But some bright hunter (or so we assume) was thoughtful enough to infect his pet with the debuff, unsummon it, head for a nice crowded area like one of the main auction houses, summon it back again, and watch the fun.

This place is like a graveyard

Whole towns were turned into no-go zones on some servers. Non-player characters, like shopkeepers and guards, could heal quickly enough to stay alive, so they continued to spread the infection. Many players fled to more remote locations, staying away from highly trafficked zones and hoping to avoid infection. Others saw it as the perfect opportunity to cause chaos, and began working on ways to spread the disease to opposing towns.

Actually, it's not quite the first time something like this has happened to an MMORPG. Horizons did something slightly similar, introducing a far less damaging plague that could be cured by its dragon characters. Nobody plays Horizons, though, so we can probably ignore that.

Was it intentional? Including the disease was obviously deliberate, but it's equally obvious that it wasn't supposed to go this far. Perhaps there was a mistake implementing the debuff; perhaps they just didn't think it through properly. Whatever happened, towns full of corpses was not quite what Blizzard had in mind.

If you see this, run far away

But here's the thing: judging from the buzz surrounding the event, I'm not the only person who thinks introducing this disease was a better idea than it sounds. Sure, it was lacking something in the implementation. Limit the damage to a percentage of maximum hit points, tweak the infection characteristics a bit, hide a cure somewhere obscure, and you have the start of an entertaining world event.

Blizzard has a vast player base, and it's growing. World of Warcraft still vies for the top spot on the PC charts. Why doesn't Blizzard have some fun with us? Surely WOW's position as top dog is safe enough that the odd irate cancellation isn't going to worry them? The potential for creating novel, server-wide events in WOW is huge - and no, we're not talking about fishing contests or fairs.

Watching the official World of Warcraft forums, it was obvious at least some players were enjoying this new challenge. Information was shared, some of it right and some of it mistaken. OK, so a good number of players were trying to figure out how to spread the plague as quickly as possible, but bans were threatened for those exploiting the situation to deliberately antagonize others.

This is Horizons, in case you didn't know

If Blizzard had been prepared, the opportunities for coping with the situation could have been fascinating. As both factions were infected, there's even incentive for opposing players to cooperate. What about a one-time quest, requiring raid groups from both sides working together to take down an as-yet unseen boss to find the cure?

Just like they did in the Corrupted Blood incident, players from both sides can and will use the official forums to share information between factions and coordinate their activities. Maybe some of the people who were infected with such a plague and survived could gain a bonus to their First Aid skills. Maybe they could have the chance to enchant their weapons with plague-causing spells. With all that money pouring into Blizzard's offices, it's time they used their dominant position and doubtless huge billfold to innovate.

Besides just being desirable for the players, this kind of event is big news. Even as it was, mainstream press picked up on the story. "Deadly plague hits Warcraft world" makes great publicity for the game, and although in this case it was something negative, what if there had been a good old-fashioned tale of heroism to tell?

Zul'Gurub -- pretty, but deadly

But Corrupted Blood is gone, removed in a flurry of hotfixes and server restarts not long after it was discovered. Normality is restored to Azeroth, and more's the pity. It's a sad reflection on the creativity of the most popular MMORPG in history that the most exciting community-wide event to happen in World of Warcraft for ages was a bug.

Virtual Worlds provides a regular in-depth exploration of thorny issues, news, analysis, and commentary on everything happening in the massively multiplayer world.

Recent columns:
- Virtual Worlds #4: Have you been duped?
- Virtual Worlds #3: Sony's Great Experiment
- Virtual Worlds #2: Marveling at the Opportunities

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