SecurityFocus is carrying this story about a digital plague in the World of Warcraft. Basically, the game developers, Blizzard, introduced a monster which a self replicating curse which could spread from player to player. But they failed to limit the curse’s active area to the dungeon. This allowed mischievous/curious players to teleport to populated areas such as cities and spread the curse to other players!
It’s an interesting study of what happens when you mix self replicating code with unpredictable human players. While I’m sure that a lot of WoW players were surprised and pissed at getting sick and dying in the supposedly safe cities, it certainly must have added some spice to the game. Sometimes I wish the cities in the MMORPG I play, Final Fantasy XI, were not so safe. I’d love to see the beastmen invade the cities for a change. The carnage and heroism would be pretty cool!