The Games for Health conference recently took place in Baltimore, MD, and a World of Warcraft cultural artifact was the subject of much discussion by one epidemiologist. Nina H. Fefferman discussed the problems facing researchers who want to study the spread of diseases, and the solutions that online games can provide. She singled out the well known "corrupted blood" epidemic as the perfect example of how virtual worlds can provide insight into real behavior under unique circumstances.Though it sounds like she was a little hazy on the lowest-level details (the disease was spread through Hunter pets, for example, not by hearthing players), this is an interesting discussion. It's one that has been had before, of course, in places as diverse as Terra Nova and the BBC. Ms. Fefferman's discussion is a good summation of the issue, and an exploration of the more anti-social elements of the epidemic's spread. Intriguingly, it sounds as though Blizzard may be theoretically open to future experiments using the WoW playerbase. Fefferman offers her hopes that she'll be able to design and observe the spread of digital diseases in other virtual populations; unusual but insightful experiments that may offer scientific advances and unique gameplay opportunities.
