August 27, 2007
Video Games Could Prove Useful
University researchers got a glimpse of what a global pandemic could look like, thanks to a glitch in a popular video game.
World of Warcraft, an online virtual world that allows users from all around the planet to interact with each other, became home to an extra little bit of pestilence and death. A virtual disease was infecting the virtual characters, reports the The Times, and killing them off.
The virus in this incident, which happened in September 2005, behaved similarly to how scientists believe a real deadly virus would. And now the researchers are able to see firsthand what could happen on earth without actually unleashing a deadly pandemic here. —Dan Carnevale
Posted on Monday August 27, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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A lucky turn for all the Second Life users out there; a vaccine would be handy to have ready. And as an extra bonus, the plague took place in an online game that often gives students an excellent reason to skip class.
— D.A. Moody Aug 27, 10:11 PM #
The learning value of internet games is still under review. We need to be cautiously optimistic because of their popularity amongst youth.
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Professor
PhD Program in Educational Leadership
Prairie View A&M University
The Texas A&M University System
— William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Aug 27, 10:39 PM #