Even people who don’t play World of Warcraft heard about the Corrupted Blood spell. (Side note: the fact that wikipedia has an entry on it, blows my mind.) If you didn’t know, the Corrupted Blood event in WoW was not by design. It was a simulated virus that seemed to take on a life of it’s own. Now researchers are wondering if such a game could be use to model real-world disasters.

All Things Considered, October 5, 2005 · A recent outbreak of a “plague” in a popular online game has scientists considering how the virtual world may provide clues to what people would do in real-world pandemics. In the role-playing game World of Warcraft, a “corrupted blood” spell killed characters and affected players in unexpected ways.

In NPR tradition, text is not available, it’s streaming media only.

Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroyyyyyyyy Jenkins!