Any of you hardcore WoW fans will recall the “Corrupted Blood” plague that was introduced in the world of WoW a couple of years ago. It was essentially a spell cast by a high-level boss that caused afflicted players to lose a certain number of hitpoints every few seconds until dead. The thing is, the spell was viral: if a player got too close to another player, that second player would become infected, too, and so on.
It was a neat idea, and the game makers most certainly did it as an experiment in gameplay. The scientific implications were likely beyond what they were thinking, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. The Lancet Infectious Diseases will be publishing a paper on the virtual effects of the virtual plague in the September issue as a virtual example of how people transmit, handle, and escape epidemics.
It’ll make for an interesting read, and it makes us glad our subscription to The Lancet Infectious Diseases hasn’t lapsed, as our subscription to Big’Uns has.
Scientists Studying Warcraft Plague [kotaku]
That’s a pretty cool thing for a boss to do.
It seems that before WOW, the only game with bosses that had surprises was everquest. I remember fighting a god type boss in the Plane of Disease that had a pet that would circle the large battle area and silence casters. So casters had to watch this bird. If the healers got nailed, the main tank would die and it was game over for the raid if a backup didn’t step up quick. The silence lasted a good thirrty seconds or so. Every 25% of health lost by the boss would result in several targets being spawned. So every so ofter, the raid leader would warn people to start getting ready to tank and protect the casters. Everybody would have to also stop hitting the boss because you didn’t want to kill it too quickly and release waves when the raid wasn’t ready.
To me, that’s when you know you’re really gaming. When strategy makes or breaks a raid. And wit wins over the sword. .I haven’t had the change to raid in WOW because I haven’t played for fun in years. But I like reading about it and living vicariously through what other gamers have to share.
I’ll bet the first time a raid encountered this boss, it was a total panic with everybody calling out. “Damn, now I got it too!”