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Will terrorists use World of Warcraft to nuke the White House?
...online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they're so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans.
Wired covered a presentation at a Washington conference in which a professor detailed a possible terrorist scenario to nuke the White House, coordinated through World of Warcraft.
Two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.The gold and silver figures are map coordinates. I'm sure you can figure the rest out yourself. The CIA should hire you.
The whole enterprise seems a bit silly, but as MMOs become an increasingly popular -- and global -- phenomenon, it seems there will be guys sitting in windowless offices in Langley playing World of Warcraft. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen. Some of them probably shunted over to Chinese gold farmers so the CIA can requisition epic mounts. Ain't that just like the US government?
Thanks to dingus for finding this on The Huffington Post, of all places!
By Anonymous at 10:51 AM ON 09/18/08
The dream job: being a virtual spy.
By BobJustBob at 10:54 AM ON 09/18/08
In the future, terrorists will be able to talk to each other? I'm terrified!
By budgethero at 11:26 AM ON 09/18/08
remember everyone, trust no one.
yes, this is possible. but i'm not going to start playing mmo's suspecting that the person to my left is a terrorist and the person to my right is a perv'. life and gaming is too short to be so paranoid. and gaming is too fun as well. i'm not gunnu let some paranoid cia and pentagon theorists make me scared while playing a game. it's this kind'a crap that makes it hard for an honest Iraqi or Pakistani or anyone in/related to that area to really make friends on online communities. the gov scares people with terrorist-theories like this, and then someone says they're from the United Arab Emirates. then people clam up and go "oh", and get scared when all that that person from the UAE wants is to talk. nothing more dubious or sinister then that. "hows the weather there?" "do you play soccer?" "do you want to make a party?". but no, the gov wants you to be careful when playing halo3, you might be helping terrorist train. heaven forbid you'ld just be having fun.
By glowweaver at 3:35 PM ON 09/18/08
wowza this is overly rediculous.
By BlackDragon at 4:52 PM ON 09/18/08
Ok This Ought Too Be Interesting Next The Goverment Will Say That The Players Are Needing Surgery For Carpal Tunnerl Syndrome For There Estensive Play And Also The oVertime is included on Super Long Quests For Boars In THe Northern Hills LOL Our Tax Dollars At Work Go For The Crow Feathers
By Magicslayer at 12:46 AM ON 09/19/08
Great, more gov'ment controls over the video games I play. Now the next time I get a raid together for Kara, I'll have to watch how I word things like, "go into the back door" and "lets take the prince down" and i'll be sure not to tell anyone to "kill the mobs before looting" because this might flag me as a terrorist. Next we'll suspect Mario and Luigi to be Italian Mushroom salesmen and ban the game because of possible Drug trafficking, or Sonic pushing steroids. I already was investigated and had my bank account frozen for a weekend because I bought a tracphone, because tracphones were being bought and shipped overseas for terrorists.
This is too much control, don't sacrifice Freedom for Security, because you'll get neather.
By Jynxed40 at 1:17 AM ON 09/19/08
I am not sure if the names are purposely changed or whatever, but as far as I know, you cannot use numbers or " _ " on your character's name on this game. I know it still does not change the fact that terrorist can and will use MMO's as means of "practicing." I just hope the government does not do anything too crazy to monitor this. If they do, the terrorist will just go to a different game or use yahoo pool. Yes there are crazy people out there that have nothing better to do than blow us up, but please do not punish us for it.
By starr rider at 7:55 AM ON 09/19/08
i don,t play wow but i play eve online i,v got frinds that play wow and if terrorits use that game witch is unlikely but could happen but if thats the case all mmo's are not safe like eve its not on earth but theare are lot of poly staff to blow up so it could be other mmo's too like bf2 command & conquerand all the warhammer 40.000 just to name a few if the cia wont to monter wow thay have to monter the rest to it sux there only games so mister cia come back to realuty .
By Moobi at 10:41 AM ON 09/19/08
If the terrorists are smart, they'll train in The Barrens because even highly trained virtual spies would be hard pressed to retain their sanity while trying to weed out the chuckleheaded chat that goes on there in order to weed it out. Barrens chat FTFL.
By Moobi at 10:43 AM ON 09/19/08
Also, no ability to edit my other comment FTL. :(
By Joe at 3:58 PM ON 09/19/08
OK so some CIA flunky presents this HIGHLY unlikely scenario because he wants to get payed for playing WOW. "Ya dude, I play WOW all day looking for Terrorists." How many realms, how many regions to patrol? You would have to hire 600 players to cover everything 24/7. I say let the Terrorist play, it's so fricking addictive that they will be too busy getting an epic mount to ever blow up anything real.
By Mindcrime at 4:30 PM ON 10/14/08
Every time the US gov wants to get their hands into something and control it they start spreading fear that TERRORISTS are involved somehow over the last 8 years! Thanks AGAIN Bush!! I'm so fed up with our government trying to CONTROL us instead of SERVE us as it was originally DESIGNED to do!! ...OH NO! The anti spam text includes the letters SKS!! Is this a coded terrorist sniper threat?!? FEH!!!!
By Cheap WoW Gold at 11:08 AM ON 02/19/09
Ever heard of paranoia? To base something something real from a virtual place..Can't help but roll my eyes.
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Ever heard of paranoia? To base something something real from a virtual place..Can't help but roll my eyes....More »