[curiousuburb]

BBC reports on Virtual Plague

A deadly virtual plague has broken out in the online game World of Warcraft. Although limited to only a few of the game's servers the numbers of characters that have fallen victim is thought to be in the thousands. Originally it was thought that the deadly digital disease was the result of a programming bug in a location only recently added to the Warcraft game. However, it now appears that players kicked off the plague and then kept it spreading after the first outbreak. ... continues ...

So... any players here noticing an itchy sensation when playing lately?

Does it only infect Windows players, and not OS X client players?

Bring out your Dead!

[scratt]

Damnit.. Beat me to it... Just rushed over here to spread the news!!

Really interesting... Very cyberpunk.

[Blueflame]

For those who are interested, here's a video of the plague spreading in Ironforge (the capital city of the Dwarves).

http://files.filefront.com/WoW_plaug.../fileinfo.html

To understand how it spreads: it has a 3 second duration dealing ~300 damage every second. This doesn't kill most high level characters right away. It will jump to anyone nearby. Classes with a pet (hunter, warlock) would get the disease and bounce the disease between themselves and their pet to bring it back to the main cities. Once in the city the disease would jump to computer controlled vendors like the bread seller and the auctioneers. The computer controlled characters regen health at such a fast rate when not actually fighting that they never die and simply bounce the plague around anyone nearby.

Blueflame

[bassplayinMacFiend]

awesome. Just like the old days!

[Eugene]

Yeah, it's a blood leech area affect that comes off the last boss in the new Zul'Gurrub raid zone. Hasn't affected my realm though. That boss encounter is braindead by the way, a 20 minute chest.

[autodata]

It killed a bunch of folks in IF on the server I use (eldre'thalas), but I haven't seen it for a few days.

[torifile]

So, is this a "planned" plague or is a software bug? It sounds like it was sort of planned to make the world more interesting (note: I've never played WoW or any MMORPG, for that matter).

[Brad]

Well, it's a little of both. It was a planned feature that had unintended consequences.

As reported a few days ago by Ars: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050921-5337.html

The trouble started when Blizzard programmers added a new instance, which is a separate area connected to the outside world that players can enter and attempt unique quests. One of these instances, Zul'Grub, contained the god of blood, Hakkar. Hakkar was a powerful foe that could cast spells of his own, including a spell called Corrupted Blood. This spell did a large amount of damage to any player within the vicinity of the casting, and the effects lingered on after the spell was over. What happened next was something Blizzard did not expect. Some of the players who had gone into the instance emerged back into the main world of Azeroth, and started spreading the Corrupted Blood disease to others who they came into close contact with. The infection soon spread into many of the cities and towns in the virtual world. Since the disease was intended to be a danger to powerful players, it tended to kill those less than level 50 almost instantly.

[scratt]

It's a great PR exercise also... Accident or not....

And, personally I think it's a really cool testament to the whole system that it has that kind of interaction capable in it...

The spreading of the virus by high level players also has amazing parallels with terrorism, which is particularly topical today.

I am enthralled by the whole thing to be honest...

[BarracksSi]

Just watched the vid...

So this is WoW? Seriously?

[scratt]

Originally Posted by BarracksSi Just watched the vid... So this is WoW? Seriously?

Looks confusing and geeky, doesn't it?!?

[BarracksSi]

Originally Posted by scratt Looks confusing and geeky, doesn't it?!?

Sure does...

(going back to GT4)

[Mugge]

QT says I lack a plug-in for the video, but I can't figure out what kind of plug in. I can play it with sound, but I just get a white screen.

Help please

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Mugge QT says I lack a plug-in for the video, but I can't figure out what kind of plug in. I can play it with sound, but I just get a white screen. Help please

MPlayer or VLC will play the avi...

Google is your friend...

[Mugge]

But why does it say QT then? And what exactly did you search for in Google? I know that VLC will play divx, but then why did it show up as a QT file? I still think I'm missing out on a plug-in here.

I'm probably being stupid now, but I can't really see the connection

*Watches file in VLC*

Oooh red stuff hurts

It could have been funnier if it was something with zombies, though. "Nuyargh uhrgh braaains brains eat your braaains"

[scratt]

When I downloaded it I think it was an avi...

Did you look at the file extension, or just the icon?

Anyway... You've seen it now..

[Mugge]

I saw that, but isn't .avi the format QT uses? ... Or maybe not, this was why I didn't get it before! I apears that .avi isn't on top of Apples list for QT compatible formats. Despite that I have thought so for many many years

Well, I gues we learn something every day

[staph]

AVIs can wrap mpeg-4s, but that certainly doesn't mean that all AVI content will be quicktime compatible.

[ast3r3x]

Correct, this movie was divx. Which I guess natively QT doesn't support. There are tons of different AVI types, you can either get QT codecs for them all, or get VLC.

[Koodari]

Filefront sucks, it has never worked right with my Firefox. Opera will download with no problem.

I'm disappointed how safe Blizzard has played with WoW. An accidental plague here or there doesn't change it. One of my friends played Ultima Online for years; then I know those involved in MUDs. In these games people could actually change the environment in a way visible to other players, fight each other whenever they want to, and so on. In WoW every day in the game world is the same. The eternal experience point/loot treadmill.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Koodari In WoW every day in the game world is the same. The eternal experience point/loot treadmill.

I was actually intrigued by Wow.. Since I saw the video it makes me much less enthusiastic.

[curiousuburb]

AVI was originally a Windows-only format, and is known for sloppy codecs which lose sync at times.

QT player plays some 'standard' AVI files, but requires the divx patch to see most flavours of DiVX

for a comprehensive history of AVI, see McGowan

or see the Library of Congress version

for a wider sampling of arcane codecs and their origins, see fourcc

for some interesting PDFs on DV, including a few on codecs and QT, see here

[Koodari]

Originally Posted by scratt I was actually intrigued by Wow.. Since I saw the video it makes me much less enthusiastic.

How can you draw conclusions from seeing video of one location from the game world, and one situation?

If it's the interface, know that it's heavily modified in the video. By default there is one row of buttons in the bottom, a minimap, one textbox for combat messages, and one textbox for everything else. It's clean. This dude has added four rows of buttons, a minimum of four 3rd party UI add-ons (probably closer to ten), and at least four macros.

[Wrao]

I played WoW for a little bit... I never got hooked, and ultimately I think the game is really boring after you've reached level 20 or so. That said, I think that a virtual plague is a fun thing to add to the game, and I hope blizzard continues to add more interesting 'out of the norm' type things to pop up.

When I was playing, I always wanted more random cool shit to happen. Leveling and questing and stuff got really boring really quickly but I always liked exploring. But the fruits of my explorations never really yielded anything except maybe accidentally stumbling upon a much higher level area and dying instantly.

[Mugge]

Originally Posted by curiousuburb AVI was originally a Windows-only format, and is known for sloppy codecs which lose sync at times. QT player plays some 'standard' AVI files, but requires the divx patch to see most flavours of DiVX for a comprehensive history of AVI, see McGowan or see the Library of Congress version for a wider sampling of arcane codecs and their origins, see fourcc for some interesting PDFs on DV, including a few on codecs and QT, see here

A little much technical. But it made me smarter, thanks!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Wrao But the fruits of my explorations never really yielded anything except maybe accidentally stumbling upon a much higher level area and dying instantly.

Oh wow, yeah, I can't even count the number of times some monster said, "Eh, what's this?" and killed me in one hit.

Once, I found a way up into the mountains that I wasn't supposed to be able to find, and I came across an area that had *nothing*. Just one huge completely flat area with one texture across the whole thing, and surrounded by *very* high cliffs.

[nassau]

so, you can't just walk up to anyone in the game and fight them?

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Koodari How can you draw conclusions from seeing video of one location from the game world, and one situation?

Because that's all I've seen...

Is there a demo?

Can I try before I buy?

I would be interested.. But to be honest at first glance it looked confusing, a bit of a dissapointment and like it was full of equally confused and dissapointed people all huddled around a meeting place...

I think also that if you were not an early adopter you are going to find lots of wankers in there who are very powerful, not particularly helpful and take great pleasure from wreaking havoc... Like, say, spreading viruses and wiping entire realms out!!

I was really exctied about wow but have to say (from what I have read and seen) it has not lived up to my expectations at all... But well done to them for trying.. Let's hope we get more of this kind of thing, or they grow up the concept a bit..

[Wrao]

Judging from this thread and the revolution thread, I can deduce that Scratt isn't a gamer.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Wrao Judging from this thread and the revolution thread, I can deduce that Scratt isn't a gamer.

Wrong!

Used to write them. Still play them..
But my tastes I guess have matured, or I am getting real choosy..

Give you a run down.. Civ III, Halo, X2 (eagerly awaiting X3 and even considering making a PC out of components with the mutts nutts graphics card for that 'cos I am too eager to wait for the Mac Port!), Black & White, Howeworld 2, Battlefield 1942, Republic etc. etc. are the kind of games I like.. I even have both a Defender and Stargate arcade machine in my apartment...

The idea of wow I love, and I am infact working on my own multiplayer FPS game at the moment for Mac, which once I have done a proof of concept on I will be looking to put a team together to complete.. That is mainly because so few good games that I like come out now.. Most of it is this Nintendo crap!

I guess, as I said I am getting old. Pop music is awful, games are crappy (except from some real old timers in the industry) and policeman just look too damn young!!