Corrupted Blood incident

Last updated

The Corrupted Blood debuff being spread among characters in Ironforge, one of World of Warcraft's in-game cities WoW Corrupted Blood Plague.jpg
The Corrupted Blood debuff being spread among characters in Ironforge, one of World of Warcraft's in-game cities

The Corrupted Blood incident (also known as the World of Warcraft pandemic [1] [2] ) took place between September 13 and October 8, 2005, in World of Warcraft , a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. When participating in a boss battle at the end of a raid, player characters would become infected with a debuff that was transmitted between characters in close proximity. While developers intended to keep the effects of the debuff in the boss's game region, a programming oversight soon led to an in-game pandemic throughout the fictional world of Azeroth.

Contents

World of Warcraft introduced the game region of Zul'Gurub on September 13. The boss of the region, Hakkar the Soulflayer, cast Corrupted Blood on raid participants; the debuff's effects expired when players defeated Hakkar. Corrupted Blood soon spread beyond Zul'Gurub as players reacted to the infection with panic, either fast traveling to heavily-populated game regions or deactivating their animal companions. When those companions were reactivated, they still carried the debuff, becoming disease vectors, while non-player characters became asymptomatic carriers. Player reactions to the Corrupted Blood pandemic varied: some provided aid by healing players or warning them of outbreak zones, while griefers intentionally contracted the debuff to spread it across World of Warcraft. After several failed hotfixes, Blizzard ended the pandemic by performing a hard reset, and a later patch prevented companions from contracting Corrupted Blood entirely.

Although it was the result of a software bug, the Corrupted Blood incident gained attention from World of Warcraft players and disease researchers. Blizzard developed intentional in-game pandemics in two expansion sets: Wrath of the Lich King in 2008 and Shadowlands in 2020. Epidemiologists, meanwhile, took interest in how MMORPGs, unlike mathematical models, could capture individual human responses to disease outbreaks rather than generating assumptions about behavior.

Background

Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), on November 23, 2004, in North America and Australia, and a European release followed in February 2005. [3] As a role-playing game, players create their player characters by choosing among various fantasy races, character classes, and allegiance to one of the game's in-universe factions. After creating their character, the player begins a quest in the fantasy world of Azeroth, where they may fight monsters either alone or together with other players in parties. For larger dungeon crawls, players may create a raid group of up to 40 characters. [4] Player characters gain experience levels through the completion of quests and the defeat of non-player characters (NPCs) such as monsters or dragons. Gaining experience levels, higher-level armor, and improved weaponry then allows player characters to participate in more difficult dungeon crawls. [5]

World of Warcraft was immediately popular upon its release, with over 240,000 subscribers within 24 hours of its North American launch. By March 2005, its subscriber base had reached 1.5 million individuals. [4] By the time of the Corrupted Blood incident, World of Warcraft had over four million subscribers, corresponding to a $700 million annual revenue stream. It was significantly more popular than other MMORPGs of the time: EverQuest II had approximately 500,000 subscribers in September 2005, while The Matrix Online struggled to acquire 50,000 subscribers within three months of its release. [6] To retain their subscribers after players finished all the content that was available upon World of Warcraft's release, Blizzard maintained a team of developers to regularly add new content such as raids. [3]

Incident

Zul'Gurub raid and pandemic origins

Zul'Gurub was added to the game's open world on Sept 17 2005 with patch 1.7, it was the game's 4th major raid and the first 20 man. [7] The boss of this region was Hakkar the Soulflayer, who would cast a debuff on players called "Corrupted Blood". After Hakkar cast Corrupted Blood on one player in a raid group, the debuff would be transmitted to other player characters in close proximity. The effects of Corrupted Blood were intended to last for 10 seconds, or until the players defeated Hakkar, whichever came first. [2] One of Hakkar's healing mechanisms was to temporarily stun a raid party and drain their blood. Blizzard developers intended for players to defeat Hakkar by first weakening him with attacks and then exposing themselves to Corrupted Blood. [8] [9]

Developers had intended to limit the effects of the debuff to the Zul'Gurub region, but several factors led to its spread throughout the in-game universe. [9] First, World of Warcraft enabled fast travel, which allowed player characters to quickly move to large population centers from more remote regions like Zul'Gurub, sometimes while still under the effects of Corrupted Blood. [7]

A programming oversight further contributed to the spread of the in-game pandemic. Players with animal companions could protect their pets during boss battles by placing them into a type of suspended animation mid-fight. [7] Pet companions could contract Corrupted Blood, and after noticing that their pet had become infected, many players would place the animal into its suspended state to protect them from death. These pets were subsequently re-activated after the completion of the boss battle, but developers had forgotten to include an "off-switch" that would recognize the conclusion of the raid and remove the debuff from companions. [10] Players who defeated Hakkar would subsequently fast travel to markets in urban centers in order to repair their damaged armor and weaponry. They then re-activated their infected pets, who became disease vectors, allowing Corrupted Blood to spread beyond players involved in the raid. [11] Other NPCs could become infected with the disease, but they were incapable of dying, and instead became asymptomatic carriers for player characters. [2]

Once it spread beyond the Zul'Gurub region, Corrupted Blood quickly became pandemic in Azeroth. The index case was never identified, but an early epicenter for the pandemic was in the Archimonde server, where a player summoned their infected pet in one of Azeroth's capital cities. [10] Another outbreak soon occurred in Orgrimmar, the capital city of the Orcs, [12] and in the dwarf city of Ironforge. [2] There was no in-game cure for Corrupted Blood, which inflicted between 263 and 317 hit points of damage every two seconds. [13] This level of damage would kill a character of average experience level between 60 and 90 seconds. [14] While World of Warcraft player characters are resurrected after death, [12] the items that the characters had acquired would become damaged upon each revival, making character death inconvenient for players. [13]

Player reactions and responses

The sudden arrival and spread of the Corrupted Blood pandemic created widespread panic among World of Warcraft's user base. One player told The Washington Post that the "world chat would explode any time a city fell. We kept a close eye not only on our guild chat but on world chat as well to see where not to go. We didn't want to catch it." [2] Casual World of Warcraft players who had read about the incident on the news would log into their accounts to better understand the pandemic, promptly infecting their characters. [7] The in-game environment soon filled with the skeletons and corpses of player characters who had succumbed to the infection, and internet forums described seeing "hundreds" of these bodies throughout Azeroth's population centers. [12] [7] One player described Azeroth as "filled to the brim with corpses", the "streets literally white with the bones of the dead". [15] Another posted that "[s]ome servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague. And anyone less than like Level 50 nearly immediately dies." [16] Some players incorrectly speculated that the Corrupted Blood incident had been intentional, with developers intending for the Hakkar boss battle to lead directly into a pandemic-based game event. [12]

Once players realized the scope of the pandemic, individual reactions to the infection varied. Some players whose characters possessed healing abilities headed to major cities as impromptu first responders, but these characters often contracted and died from the disease as well. [7] Healing measures were largely ineffective, as only one character class, Paladins, were capable of removing debuffs of Corrupted Blood's nature, and players risked reinfection almost immediately upon healing. [17] More often, rather than removing the Corrupted Blood infection, healing characters merely kept characters alive and contagious, thereby prolonging the spread of the infection. [9] Less powerful player characters, meanwhile, would stand at the edges of infected towns, warning other player characters not to enter. [18] Players transmitted information from afar by using the game's farthest-reaching chat function, "yell". [11] At least one player became an unofficial town crier, making announcements about new pandemic developments in the open world's public spaces. [9] Other players enacted self-quarantine methods, remaining in less-populated wilderness areas of Azeroth rather than entering towns or cities where they risked infection. [10] Although the pandemic did not extend to the real world, epidemiologist Nina Fefferman noted that "players seemed to really feel they were at risk and took the threat of infection seriously". [19]

Griefers, players who engage in bad faith multiplayer game tactics, took advantage of the Corrupted Blood incident to target and inconvenience other players. [13] These players would purposely contract Corrupted Blood and travel to densely populated areas to further its spread. [15] One griefer whose guild engaged in this practice told Wired that he did so because he was amused by the reactions of other players, saying, "It's just funny to watch people run away screaming". [20] Fefferman compared these players to Typhoid Mary, an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever who resisted warnings and quarantines to infect others with the disease. [18] Other players, attempting to inform other players of pandemic developments through forums and Internet chats, accidentally spread misinformation that increased the spread of Corrupted Blood. [15]

Developer response and end of incident

At approximately 1:15 p.m. (EDT) on the afternoon of September 16, a Blizzard staff member reported that the team was "aware of the issue and working on it". [11] While the company quickly became aware that Corrupted Blood had spread beyond its intended reach, identifying and fixing the issue that led to the pandemic proved difficult. [10] One of the first steps that Blizzard took to attempt containment of the virus was to institute quarantine zones, placing barriers around heavily infected areas. The effect that this quarantine had was limited, as some players managed to bypass Blizzard's containment measures. [15] Developers, meanwhile, faced difficulties in isolating and removing the virus from the pet companions that were driving its spread. Their two options for healing pet companions were to manually check every animal in the game universe for Corrupted Blood infection or developing "really hacky code" that would automatically check for infection every time a companion was summoned. [10]

Blizzard attempted to put a stop to the pandemic with hotfixes, including restarting each game server on a rolling basis, but Corrupted Blood outbreaks soon re-emerged in restarted areas. [12] These outbreaks also came on a rolling basis: the plague would dissipate after running through a particular game region, only to re-emerge once players, believing that the danger had passed, repopulated the area. [10] After one week without finding a suitable remedy, Blizzard performed hard resets on the World of Warcraft servers, resetting Azeroth to its state from just before the introduction of Corrupted Blood. [1] On October 8, Blizzard released a patch for World of Warcraft that made pet companions immune to contracting Corrupted Blood. [21]

Impact

On World of Warcraft and other games

While Blizzard had not intended to create a pandemic event with the Corrupted Blood incident, the company noted the popularity that the pandemic had received. In 2008, Blizzard released an intentional plague in World of Warcraft to echo the success of the Corrupted Blood pandemic. [22] On October 22, shortly before the release of a World of Warcraft expansion set titled Wrath of the Lich King , several mysterious crates appeared in one Azeroth town. Player characters who inspected these crates became infected with an unknown disease, and if they did not find a cure within 10 minutes, they would be transformed into zombies. Unlike Corrupted Blood, it was possible to cure the zombie infection through healing spells or NPC aid. As the number of infected characters grew, however, the time frame for healing became shorter and the virus became resistant to cleansing. [23] Blizzard put a stop to the Lich King plague on October 28 after receiving complaints from players that the zombie infection was detracting from other parts of the game. [24]

Another zombie pandemic known as the Scourge invasion was featured in 2020's World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion. [25] To limit griefing attacks, the 2020 Scourge invasion was designed to make opting into the event more of a conscious choice by players who wanted to fight against the zombie hordes. [26] The Scourge invasion received criticism, however, for its handling of new players. Shadowlands created a new starting area for players, Exile's Reach, in which new characters were separated from the rest of the game until they reached level 10. While this alternative starting area was isolated from the zombie pandemic, players whose characters began in other starting areas remained susceptible to infection and death. [27]

In 2012, Star Wars: The Old Republic , a MMORPG by BioWare, released an online disease resembling the Corrupted Blood plague. Characters infected with the Rakghoul Plague would develop a signature cough that became progressively louder before they transformed into a zombie-like creature. Because the plague was transmitted more easily in heavily populated centers, player characters conducted business in more remote business areas to avoid infection. [28] Unlike the Corrupted Blood incident, BioWare intentionally released the Rakghoul Plague, and player characters who succumbed to the disease received special items. [29] Lead designer Daniel Erickson told reporters that the Rakghoul Plague was inspired by the Corrupted Blood incident, but that developers wanted to steer players away from griefing and towards positive interactions with the pandemic. [30]

Blizzard closed the Zul'Gurub raid in 2010 as part of a larger update which transformed the region into a five-person dungeon with new bosses. [31] The region was added to World of Warcraft Classic in 2020. Because Classic was derived from code created after the Corrupted Blood patch, pets were immune to Corrupted Blood, preventing another pandemic. [14]

As a research model

The impact that the Corrupted Blood pandemic had on World of Warcraft players gained the attention of epidemiologists. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contacted Blizzard after the incident, asking if they could use data from what they perceived as a planned disease simulation to inform their disease modeling research. Blizzard informed the facility that the Corrupted Blood outbreak was the unintentional result of a software bug and they thus had no usable data. [1] [32] Despite its accidental nature, the Corrupted Blood incident bore several resemblances to real-world pandemics, leading researchers to explore the event as a disease model. In an article for the journal Epidemiology , Ran Balicer of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev compared the role that pet companions played in the spread of Corrupted Blood to avian influenza, which spread through asymptomatic ducks. The use of fast travel to quickly spread the disease between distant locations was also compared to the role that air travel played in the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. [33]

Of particular interest to researchers in the use of MMORPGs for epidemiology is that character responses to a virtual pandemic are the result of individual player reactions, adding "a level of authenticity that doesn't exist in other simulations". [34] Disease researchers typically study disease spread and control through the use of three general models, all of which make significant assumptions about human behavior. As behavior is difficult to predict, the effectiveness of these models is limited. [18] [35] The use of MMORPG environments like World of Warcraft introduces human behavior into disease models: while player characters are virtual, players are attached to the health and success of their characters and others, creating an immersive social environment. [36] Video game models necessarily include player behaviors that would not be included in a general model. For instance, characters may deliberately enter infected areas in the hope that a healing character would protect them, just as individuals may expose themselves to infection under the belief that a vaccine may be in the region. [37]

Some researchers have responded skeptically to the notion that games like World of Warcraft may accurately model real-world infectious disease patterns. Although Gary Smith, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, admitted that mathematical disease models fail to take into account the spectrum of human behavior, he questioned the ability of a video game to remedy this error, saying that "the study is just as 'observational' as disease outbreak studies in the real world". [19] Dmitri Williams, an associate professor at the University of Southern California and a World of Warcraft player, questioned whether a player's behavior in a game "where you are encouraged to behave in a way that you would never behave offline" would be applicable to the real world. [2] Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, noted that because characters could regenerate, there was not as much risk in becoming infected with a virtual disease, limiting the applicability of player behavior to the real world. [24]

While the Corrupted Blood incident created a focus on video games as tools of disease research, there were some specific aspects of the debuff that limited its applicability to other pandemics. For instance, the basic reproduction number of Corrupted Blood was significantly higher than any observed real-world pathogen, which in turn affected the rate of spread and player reactions. [36] Additionally, players who had been infected with Corrupted Blood did not gain immunity to the debuff, which kept the infection circulating in perpetuity. [38]

Outside of disease research, some have speculated that the griefing attacks that took place during the Corrupted Blood pandemic may provide a model for bioterrorism research. Charles Blair of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies told Wired that, just as the human behavior in World of Warcraft supplemented general disease models, the behavior of griefers could augment the computer-modeled tactical decision-making enacted by terrorist researchers. [20] [38]

Comparisons to the COVID-19 pandemic

The sudden impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led several researchers to turn to the Corrupted Blood incident as a potential model for understanding the virus's sociological impact. [11] The Elysium Project, an independent fan-led organization maintaining early versions of World of Warcraft, ran an experiment titled "Pandemic In Azeroth" which mimicked both the Corrupted Blood incident and the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic infected 88 percent of active players, but by implementing sanitation and isolation measures, this number soon dropped to 42.2 percent. [39] [40]

Other researchers noted the similarities between the game and the real-world pandemics. Both had an immediate impact on dense urban areas, which limited the effectiveness of containment procedures in stopping the spread of disease, while air travel, like fast travel, allowed infections to spread across large parts of the world with ease. [1] Lofgren compared the in-game "first responders", many of whom contracted Corrupted Blood when they attempted to heal others, to healthcare workers that were overrun with COVID-19 patients and became infected themselves. [7] While a direct analogue was not made to griefers, meanwhile, Lofgren also acknowledged individuals who contracted the COVID-19 virus but chose not to quarantine, thus infecting others through negligence. [41]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos</i> 2002 video game

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the third game set in the Warcraft fictional universe, and the first to be rendered in three dimensions. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July 2003. Warcraft III is set several years after the events of Warcraft II, and tells the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.

<i>Warcraft: Orcs & Humans</i> 1994 video game

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game (RTS) developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, and published by Interplay Productions in Europe. It was released for MS-DOS in North America on 15 November 1994, and for Mac OS in early 1996. The MS-DOS version was re-released by Sold-Out Software in 2002.

<i>World of Warcraft</i> 2004 video game

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had nine major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), and Dragonflight (2022). Three further expansions, The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023.

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world.

<i>World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade</i> 2007 video game expansion set

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the first expansion set for the MMORPG World of Warcraft. It was released on January 16, 2007 at local midnight in Europe and North America, selling nearly 2.4 million copies on release day alone and making it, at the time, the fastest-selling PC game released at that point. Approximately 3.53 million copies were sold in the first month of release, including 1.9 million in North America, nearly 1.6 million in Europe, and over 100,000 copies in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Metzen</span> American game designer (born 1973)

Christopher Vincent Metzen is an American game designer, artist, voice actor, and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft. Metzen was hired by Blizzard Entertainment as an animator and an artist; his first work for the company was with the video game Justice League Task Force.

<i>World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King</i> 2008 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following The Burning Crusade. It launched on November 13, 2008 and sold 2.8 million copies within the first day, making it the fastest selling computer game of all time released at that point. The game added a substantial amount of new content into the game world, including the new continent of Northrend, home of The Lich King Arthas and his undead minions. In order to advance through Northrend, players were required to reach at least level 68, with the level cap for the expansion being 80. The first hero class was introduced, the Death Knight, that starts at level 55.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bubonic plague</span> Human and animal disease

Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well as swollen and painful lymph nodes occurring in the area closest to where the bacteria entered the skin. Acral necrosis, the dark discoloration of skin, is another symptom. Occasionally, swollen lymph nodes, known as "buboes", may break open.

World of Warcraft, or WoW, is set in a fictional universe, its primary setting being the planet of Azeroth. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, introduced a second planet, Outland. Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expanded upon Azeroth and respectively added Northrend, the frigid northern continent of Azeroth, and drastically changed various other continents by destroying some and unveiling new ones. The next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, added Pandaria, the southern continent previously hidden behind a perennial mist cover. Warlords of Draenor introduced the planet of Draenor, a version of Outland in a different timeline before its partial destruction. The Legion expansion took adventurers to the Broken Isles, an island chain near the Maelstrom in the middle of the Great Sea, and the damaged planet Argus, the headquarters of the Burning Legion. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, added two new island continents to the center of Azeroth: Kul Tiras and Zandalar. The latest expansion, Shadowlands, introduced the eponymous Shadowlands, a realm composed of five major zones: Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, Revendreth, and the Maw.

<i>World of Warcraft: Cataclysm</i> 2010 expansion set for World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Wrath of the Lich King. It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered details before it was announced by Blizzard. The expansion was released on December 7, 2010.

<i>Warcraft</i> (film) 2016 film by Duncan Jones

Warcraft is a 2016 American action fantasy film based on the video game series of the same name. Directed by Duncan Jones, who co-wrote with Charles Leavitt, it stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, and Daniel Wu. The film follows Anduin Lothar of Stormwind and Durotan of the Frostwolf clan as heroes set on opposite sides of a growing war, as the warlock Gul'dan leads the Horde to invade Azeroth using a magic portal. Together, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war and restore peace.

<i>World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor</i> 2014 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion set to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Mists of Pandaria. It was announced on November 8, 2013 at BlizzCon 2013. The expansion was released on November 13, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvanas Windrunner</span> Character in Warcraft series of video games

Sylvanas Windrunner is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally introduced in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, she received a dramatic redesign in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, followed by a minor redesign in World of Warcraft: Legion. Once a high elf ranger-general of Silvermoon, Sylvanas was murdered by Arthas Menethil when she led a doomed resistance against his invasion. In one climactic battle, that left the capital city of Silvermoon in ruins, he managed to finally beat the elven general, ripping her soul out and transforming her into a banshee. This newest agent of the Lich King was empowered by hatred of the living and an everlasting desire to rule over her new people. In The Frozen Throne, Sylvanas was able to regain her free will and body, and founded the Forsaken faction of undead while styling herself as the "Banshee Queen" and "Dark Lady". With her new undead forces vowing to take revenge on the Lich King, they set out to wage war against the Scourge. Throughout nearly the entirety of Legion and the first one-third of Battle for Azeroth, she was also the Warchief of the Horde, standing as one of the most powerful political leaders in all of Azeroth following the death of Vol'jin during the opening events of Legion. She effectively abandoned the role in patch 9.1, Chains of Domination, resulting in the title of Warchief being retired and replaced by the Horde Council while leadership of the Forsaken is inherited by Desolate Council.

<i>Azeroth Choppers</i> American TV series or program

Azeroth Choppers was a weekly web series by Blizzard Entertainment that ran from April 17 to June 5, 2014. It featured Paul Teutul, Jr. and his company Paul Jr. Designs building motorcycles based on Blizzard's long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaina Proudmoore</span> Character in Warcraft

Jaina Proudmoore is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. Within the games, she is the most powerful sorceress alive. She is currently Lord Admiral, ruler of the Kul Tiras kingdom. Jaina was formerly the leader of the Kirin Tor, a faction of mages ruling over the city of Dalaran. She swore to defeat the Burning Legion and its sinister agents any way she could and helped defeat and banish the demons. Once a diplomat, she advocated for peace between the Alliance and the Horde, and she later joined the Alliance after the destruction of her city of Theramore at the hands of the Horde. The character has become one of the most iconic and noted characters in Warcraft lore, and has received positive critical reception from gamers. Jaina's other appearances include the collectible card game Hearthstone and the crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game Heroes of the Storm. Jaina was voiced by Carrie Gordon Lowrey in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and World of Warcraft, and is currently voiced by Laura Bailey in the subsequent World of Warcraft expansions, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.

<i>World of Warcraft: Legion</i> 2016 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Legion is the sixth expansion set in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Warlords of Draenor. It was announced on August 6, 2015 at Gamescom 2015. The expansion was released on August 30, 2016.

<i>World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth</i> 2018 expansion set for the game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is the seventh expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Legion. It was announced at BlizzCon on November 3, 2017. In contrast to previous expansions, which went live at midnight in each time zone, Battle for Azeroth had a simultaneous release for all regions, corresponding to midnight Central European Summer Time on August 14, 2018.

<i>World of Warcraft: Shadowlands</i> 2020 expansion set for the MMORPG

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is the eighth expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Battle for Azeroth. It was announced and made available for preorder at BlizzCon on November 1, 2019. Originally scheduled for release on October 27, 2020, its release was delayed until November 23, the sixteenth anniversary of the original game's release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anduin Wrynn</span> Warcraft character

Anduin Llane Wrynn is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. First appearing in the original launch of World of Warcraft in 2004, Anduin is the son of Tiffin and Varian Wrynn, and the king of the human kingdom of Stormwind. Following Varian's disappearance, young Anduin is crowned king of Stormwind. He succeeds his father following his death in World of Warcraft: Legion, as well as his position as leader of the Alliance. Anduin also appears as a playable character in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm. The character is voiced by Josh Keaton.

Thrall (<i>Warcraft</i>) Fictional character in the Warcraft universe

Thrall, born as Go'el, is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. Within the series, Thrall is an orc shaman who served for a time as a Warchief of the Horde, one of the major factions of the Warcraft universe, as well as the leader of a shaman faction dedicated to preserving the balance between elemental forces in the world of Azeroth known as the Earthen Ring. Originally introduced in promotional material released by Blizzard Entertainment as the protagonist of the canceled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was co-developed by Blizzard and Animation Magic from 1996 until 1998, Thrall's first proper appearance is in the 2001 novelization of the canceled video game's narrative authored by American novelist Christie Golden. The novel's story is set during his youth, where he is depicted as a slave who was raised by an abusive human military officer, but eventually rebelled and escaped captivity.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Andrei, Mihai (March 6, 2020). "The weird World of Warcraft pandemic of 2005". ZME Science. Archived from the original on March 27, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Elker, Jhaan (April 9, 2020). "World of Warcraft experienced a pandemic in 2005. That experience may help coronavirus researchers" . The Washington Post . Archived from the original on March 30, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Williams, Mike (July 22, 2019). "How World of Warcraft Was Made: The Definitive Inside Story of Nearly 20 Years of Development". USGamer . Archived from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Ducheneaut, Nicolas; Yee, Nick; Nickell, Eric; Moore, Robert J. (October 1, 2006). "Building an MMO With Mass Appeal: A Look at Gameplay in World of Warcraft". Games and Culture. 1 (4): 281–317. doi:10.1177/1555412006292613. S2CID   6669698. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  5. Ashton, Martin; Verbrugge, Clark (June 2011). "Measuring cooperative gameplay pacing in World of Warcraft". Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games. pp. 77–83. doi:10.1145/2159365.2159376. ISBN   9781450308045. S2CID   8725796. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  6. Schiesel, Seth (September 6, 2005). "Conqueror in a War of Virtual Worlds" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Katwala, Amit (March 17, 2020). "World of Warcraft perfectly predicted our coronavirus pandemic". Wired . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  8. Ziebart, A. (July 26, 2011). "WoW Archivist: The Corrupted Blood plague". Engadget . Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Ouellette, Jennifer (March 16, 2020). "What a WoW virtual outbreak taught us about how humans behave in epidemics". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Messner, Steven (August 26, 2019). "How Blizzard coped with World of Warcraft's blood plague and other early disasters". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on April 1, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Earle, Peter C. (May 28, 2020). "World of Warcraft's Corrupted Blood Outbreak is Not a Model for COVID-19". American Institute for Economic Research. Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Ward, Mark (September 22, 2005). "Deadly plague hits Warcraft world". BBC News. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 McNamara, Tom (September 22, 2005). "World of Warcraft Gets Plagued". IGN . Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Rossi, Matthew (April 14, 2020). "Zul'Gurub is live in WoW Classic, but Corrupted Blood doesn't plague Azeroth (this time)". Blizzard Watch. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Marshall, Andrew (April 27, 2009). "Online 'blood plague' offers lessons for pandemics". Reuters . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  16. Smith, Tony (September 21, 2005). "World of Warcraft plague 'swamps servers'". The Register . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  17. Hruska, Joel (March 16, 2020). "Researchers Are Dusting Off WoW's Corrupted Blood Plague to Understand Coronavirus Infections". ExtremeTech . Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  18. 1 2 3 Orland, Kyle (May 20, 2008). "GFH: The Real Life Lessons of WoW's Corrupted Blood". Game Developer . Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  19. 1 2 "Virtual game is a 'disease model'". BBC News. August 21, 2007. Archived from the original on January 27, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  20. 1 2 Thier, David (March 20, 2008). "World of Warcraft Shines Light on Terror Tactics". Wired. Archived from the original on August 5, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  21. Bove, Kate (March 29, 2020). "What World of Warcraft Taught Us About Real-World Pandemics 15 Years Ago". Comic Book Resources . Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  22. Boehme, Sean (October 28, 2020). "World of Warcraft's Most Insane Meta-Event Explained". Screen Rant . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  23. Andrews, S. (November 5, 2014). "WoW Archivist: The zombie plague event". Engadget . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  24. 1 2 Ahmed, Murad (October 28, 2008). "World of Warcraft plague halted by Blizzard" . The Sunday Times . Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  25. Wong, Myles (November 23, 2020). "Shadowlands Scourge Invasion Brings Back WoW's Most Annoying Tradition". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  26. Whitbrook, James (November 18, 2020). "World of Warcraft's Zombie Invasion Hits Different in 2020". Gizmodo . Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  27. Dunn, Zachary (November 23, 2020). "World of Warcraft's Scourge Is Killing New Players in Starter Zones". GameRant. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  28. Chaddock, Ryan (June 9, 2016). "How MMO Diseases May Save Real Lives". Nerdist. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  29. Thursten, Chris (April 16, 2012). "Rakghoul plague strikes Star Wars: The Old Republic in secret world event". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  30. Olivetti, J. (May 2, 2012). "SWTOR on the rise and planning more PvP endgame content". Engadget . Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  31. Young, Rory (April 16, 2020). "World of Warcraft Classic Adds Zul'Gurub". GameRant. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  32. "Looking Back... World of Warcraft". Computer and Video Games. January 4, 2005. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  33. Balicer, Ran D. (March 2007). "Modeling Infectious Diseases Dissemination Through Online Role-Playing Games". Epidemiology. 18 (2): 260–261. doi: 10.1097/01.ede.0000254692.80550.60 . PMID   17301707. S2CID   20959479. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  34. "Playing With Epidemics". Science. 316 (5827): 961. May 2007. doi:10.1126/science.316.5827.961a. S2CID   220092978. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  35. Sydell, Laura (October 5, 2005). "'Virtual' Virus Sheds Light on Real-World Behavior". All Things Considered . NPR. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  36. 1 2 Lofgren, Eric T.; Fefferman, Nina H. (September 2007). "The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics". The Lancet. 7 (9): 625–629. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(07)70212-8. PMID   17714675. S2CID   11039532. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  37. Girish, Nachiket (2019). "'Corrupted Blood' and Public Health". Berkeley Scientific Journal. 24 (1): 15–17. doi: 10.5070/BS3241046896 . ISSN   1097-0967. S2CID   213929583. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  38. 1 2 Oultram, Stuart (2013). "Virtual plagues and real-world pandemics: reflecting on the potential for online computer role-playing games to inform real world epidemic research". Medical Humanities. 39 (2): 115–118. doi:10.1136/medhum-2012-010299. PMID   23584861. S2CID   22120756. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  39. Grayson, Nathan (April 15, 2020). "World Of Warcraft Fan Server Unleashes Days-Long Virtual Plague To Teach Covid-19 Prevention". Kotaku . Archived from the original on June 1, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  40. McMahon, James (April 30, 2020). "Can video games help rid the world of COVID-19?". NME . Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  41. Fenlon, Wes (March 13, 2020). "The researchers who once studied WoW's Corrupted Blood plague are now fighting the coronavirus". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.