The incident inspired two American epidemiologists, who appeared in the medical journal The Lancet in 2007 an article wrote about the virtual pandemic.
“We saw the full range of behaviors we see in the real world,” said author Nina Fefferman last month. The Washington Post. The newspaper visited her because her article is suddenly relevant again.
During the pandemic, for example, players avoided busy places such as cities and nervously searched for information in chats and on forums. Each player dealt with the incident differently, according to Fefferman. One did not log in for a while, while there were also players who consciously infect or help the weak.
For Eric Lofgren, who wrote the article with Fefferman, the “corrupted blood” incident underlined the importance of understanding human behavior in a pandemic. “Because you can’t predict that everyone will just be quarantined,” he told game magazine PC Gamer.
‘Don’t copy one-on-one’
There is a considerable note to make about the World of WarcraftPlague: How people behave online doesn’t have to reflect real-world behavior. In addition, the pandemic was over with the push of a button and people in the game do not really die, so there was no real threat; a player can simply walk back to his body as a ghost.
Game journalist Steven Saunders says the phenomenon was likely bigger outside the game world than inside it. “It was ultimate at first what the fuckmoment. But when the cause was known, it quickly became less interesting for many players, “says Saunders.
“For people who don’t know that die in World of Warcraft is not very bad and thinking that gamers lead an alternative life in such a game, such an event quickly sounds dramatic. The reaction of players may be interesting psychologically, but it cannot be extrapolated to the reaction to a real virus outbreak. “
Opportunity element
Epidemiologist Teun Bousema, associated with Radboud university medical center, also sees “many limitations” in translating the ‘corrupted blood’ outbreak into the coronavirus pandemic. For example, to what extent the group of gamers reflects society. He also said the spread of the disease was “unrealistically fast”.
However, the professor also sees opportunities. For example, the players had no idea that their behavior would later become food for epidemiologists. Therefore they reacted purely to the event. Bousema: “This can help to identify and investigate behavior that curbs or worsens an epidemic. That is the most difficult to express in a model, because it is the least predictable.”
For example, during the outbreak, players deliberately sought out infected areas. According to Bousema, this is “an interesting, human emotion”, which cannot actually be built into simulations that predict behavior.
“There is a huge element of opportunity in epidemics,” he explains. “And just such perfect storm of gamers’ online behavior, population density and disease characteristics, which ensures unrestrained growth of the epidemic, is interesting. It may not be realistic, but it can alert you to what should be avoided at all costs. “
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