Comments on: Corrupted Blood Conclusions

By: Professor Pyro, Ph.D.

Professor Pyro, Ph.D. — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:00:13 +0000

Ultimately, I think that this whole research article is kind of absurd. Part of the fun of playing games is the lack of real life repercussions, and therefore, when playing games, you don’t mind (much) being killed, seeing as it only causes a minor inconvenience anyway. So using Corrupted Blood as a measure for real life events is kind of strange. Seeing as if you were, for instance, to be infected with the Black Death, you WILL die. So anyone short of an idiot would stay the hell away from any infected areas unless they must.

By: Malibu Stacey

Malibu Stacey — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:27:39 +0000

There’s plenty of stuff in the EVE Online backstory which would lend itself to something like this being introduced to the game such as Mind-Lock and the Jovian Disease. It’d be an interesting thing to add to the game since people can defend themselves with force from people carrying a disease plus the size of the “unsharded” galaxy would give it a nice twist.

By: phuzz

phuzz — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:10:00 +0000

In the article they do mention the possibility of intentionally introducing diseases to WoW, now I can’t see Blizzard introducing another deadly disease, but something that mutated your character, perhaps alphaxion’s Demonic Herpes, or maybe something that just slows you down a bit.
Either way it would be fun to watch…

By: Noc

Noc — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:08:26 +0000

Also, not all diseases kill you; a great many just make you feel shitty and inconvenience you tremendously. And having a game character constantly contracting and being killed by the disease is, if nothing else, a tremendous inconvenience.

By: andthensobecause

andthensobecause — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:46:47 +0000

I would actually enjoy MMO events that had plagues. New bosses are great and all, but give me a nice plague to mess things up and I would maybe consider WoW again.

By: spd from Russia

spd from Russia — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:17:09 +0000

wow needs a real plague!
interesting article thnx

By: Nimic

Nimic — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:32:20 +0000

I am personally very skeptical that this is the case since most MMO:s lack what the real world has in abundance: real personal risk. How do you think players would have reacted if the disease not only killed their characters but also deleted them?

I don’t really know much about this, but I can speculate that while there’s obviously reduced risk in this game-related instance, there’s also increased incentive in real world instances. She uses the example of journalists who journey into these areas knowing that it’s dangerous. He or she’s got much more to lose than any game player venturing into dangerous territory, but he’s also got much more to gain from it.

By: po

po — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:18:12 +0000

Or maybe something embarrasing that usually only affects boars/bears, for those who spend far too much time around them ;)

By: alphaxion

alphaxion — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:06:44 +0000

demonic herpes!

sores erupt on your characters face that spawn little creatures in an almost gremlins like scenario.

would make hanging around a city that much more fun ;)

By: Marcus

Marcus — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:06:03 +0000

I have not personally read her articles but it would be interesting to see how or if they argue that player behavior in an MMO actually can be used as some kind of model for human behavior in “real” situations.

I am personally very skeptical that this is the case since most MMO:s lack what the real world has in abundance: real personal risk. How do you think players would have reacted if the disease not only killed their characters but also deleted them?
Their behavior would obviously be very different and until MMO:s start including real risk (like EVE does to some extent), I think that their use for modeling real life situations are very limited.

By: po

po — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:03:00 +0000

So what next? WoW cooties?

By: phil

phil — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:58:40 +0000

This is one of the reasons I play games – fascinating situations arising that are impossible in any other medium.

It also touches on another reason why I play games – a morbid fear of germs trapping me inside my vacuum sealed house.