#7 Blog about Technology; virtual-world modelling

I have just read an article in New Scientist (24 Feb 2007) about the possibility of scientists researching human behaviour by studying game-playing strategies in virtual worlds. In the computer game World of Warcraft, which is played by more than 7.5 million people around the world, adventurers encountered a deadly plague virus that spread rapidly, with devastating effects. Nina Fefferman of Tufts University, Boston, saw it as an opportunity to study how each of thousands of people would respond to the outbreak, to see if it held lessons for real-world disease control. Critics, however, say that in virtual worlds, human behaviours don't really correspond to the real world. In virtual worlds there is nothing at stake; you die and then can be re-born at the click of a mouse. Even so, World of Warcraft's virtual plague has suggested the possibility of a whole new approach to disease-modelling, and further developments may yet help to save lives.