Friday, September 23, 2005
Corrupted Blood Plague Slays Thousands (of Avatars)
BBC NEWS | Technology | Deadly plague hits Warcraft world
The BBC reports that player-controlled avatars in the World of Warcraft are succumbing to a plague which has spread from one dungeon to many areas in the World of Warcraft. Weaker avatars quickly succumb to the contagion. Beware the "corrupted blood" of Hakkar--the god of Blood:
Blizzard, the corporation that controls WoW, has attempted to control the Corrupted Blood plague but there are still "isolated pockets" of contagion. Fortunately for the thousands killed by the plague virtual life offers reincarnation and most of the avatars were swiftly "resurrected."
Many online discussion sites were buzzing with reports from the disaster zones with some describing seeing "hundreds" of bodies lying in the virtual streets of the online towns and cities.
The BBC reports that player-controlled avatars in the World of Warcraft are succumbing to a plague which has spread from one dungeon to many areas in the World of Warcraft. Weaker avatars quickly succumb to the contagion. Beware the "corrupted blood" of Hakkar--the god of Blood:
As players explore the world, the characters they control become more powerful as they complete quests, kill monsters and find magical items and artefacts that boost abilities.
To give these powerful characters more of a challenge, Blizzard regularly introduces new places to explore in the online world.
In the last week, it added the Zul'Gurub dungeon which gave players a chance to confront and kill the fearsome Hakkar - the god of Blood.
In his death throes Hakkar hits foes with a "corrupted blood" infection that can instantly kill weaker characters.
The infection was only supposed to affect those in the immediate vicinity of Hakkar's corpse but some players found a way to transfer it to other areas of the game by infecting an in-game virtual pet with it.
This pet was then unleashed in the orc capital city of Ogrimmar and proved hugely effective as the Corrupted Blood plague spread from player to player.
Although computer controlled characters did not contract the plague, they are said to have acted as "carriers" and infected player-controlled characters they encountered.
Blizzard, the corporation that controls WoW, has attempted to control the Corrupted Blood plague but there are still "isolated pockets" of contagion. Fortunately for the thousands killed by the plague virtual life offers reincarnation and most of the avatars were swiftly "resurrected."
