meme-review
Viral Twitter Thread Notes Eery Similarities Between The COVID-19 Pandemic And The Corrupted Blood Incident
If you were playing World of Warcraft in 2005, then you may think of the COVID-19 Pandemic as the second major world-altering pandemic of your lifetime.
In 2005, WoW experienced what would come to be known as the Corrupted Blood Incident, when the entire WoW community was brought to its knees by a bug in the game which spread the "Corrupted Blood" debuff, which drains health, around the MMORPG, killing low-level players. The debuff was intended to be localized in one boss fight, but players found they could leave the boss arena with the debuff and spread it in densely populated areas. NPCs could get it and spread it but not die.
What followed proved a strangely valuable case study in how societies handle an epidemic. Some players set up voluntary quarantines, some of which were ignored by players who felt the debuff was not a serious issue, while others intentionally spread the debuff maliciously. Eventually, developers patched out the issue, but not until a legendary week made its mark in gaming history.
At the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, some remembered the Corrupted Blood Incident. The Washington Post wrote about it in April, while Yahtzee Croshaw published a video remembering the incident.
On Sunday, the Incident was at the forefront of Twitter's mind thanks to a viral thread by Jen Keane, who told the story over a series of tweets.
So it turns out more of ye didn't know about the WoW pandemic than did. 56% didn't know.It's honestly a pretty interesting thing. In 2005, a new raid and boss were introduced, and the boss had a debuff called Corrupted Blood. pic.twitter.com/d0rCa0Bvno
— Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) January 3, 2021
And once out in the world, the corrupted blood spread quickly. NPCs (non player characters, the preprogrammed actors for players to interact with) in the game could catch it, but not die, so they effectively added as asymptomatic spreaders.
— Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) January 3, 2021
Players acted in much the same ways as real people are acting now – some tried to heal others, some stood guard to warn people that an area was not safe, and some people maliciously tried to spread it further.
— Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) January 3, 2021
In the end, they had to reset some servers along with releasing patches (small software fixes) to stop the spread.It was a fascinating accidental case study in the sociological side of an epidemic or pandemic, since many acted like they would do in real life.
— Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) January 3, 2021
In the end, they had to reset some servers along with releasing patches (small software fixes) to stop the spread.It was a fascinating accidental case study in the sociological side of an epidemic or pandemic, since many acted like they would do in real life.
— Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) January 3, 2021
The thread proved educational for a swath of Twitter users who were unfamiliar with one of the oddest and surprisingly prescient moments of gaming history.
H/t to @albamus for this, I'd no idea. World of Warcraft had a “pandemic” back in 2005 due to a software bug. https://t.co/Iqqu3zvHD1
— noisediver (@noisediver) January 4, 2021
I had no idea about this. Quite fascinating. Read! https://t.co/LjrCgWW1OR
— Rathowyn is Just Some They, You Know? (@Rathowyn) January 5, 2021
The thread also brought back war memories from Corrupted Blood survivors.
Read this thread. Sound familiar?I played this during that time. I had to dismiss (kill off permanently) my pet (asymptomatic spreader) due to the bug.We don’t get patches or server restarts in the real world. Wear a fucking mask and stay home. https://t.co/YUppKtJNP0
— phalron (@phalron) January 5, 2021
I played WoW when this happened, it was pretty amazing. https://t.co/BaR6SaiSWE
— Juju Raymore (@JujuRaymore) January 4, 2021
Though Keane is not the first person to make the COVID / Corrupted Blood comparison, the WoW incident proves that those who have not lived through history, even virtual history, are doomed to repeat it.
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