WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed

World of Warcraft, otherwise known simply as WoW, is one of the most popular and successful computer games in history. It is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game that 6 million people pay $10 -15 per month to play. This type of popularity creates a sample size that is large enough to reflect the forces that control it. In Layman's terms, with this many people playing this online game at any given time human nature tends to get a stronger representation.

The first "reality" check was a bug that caused a plague to outbreak and affect people's characters in certain cases instantly killing any player below a certain level.

The second "reality" check was when this group of Warcraft players otherwise known as a guild interrupted a memorial service. Apparently, some dude dies in real life who is a popular WoW player. The people in the game think it would be nice to have a memorial for the player so they log into his account, take the character to a lake, and set it up for everyone to come pay their respects.

A bunch of dudes decide this would be a great time to ambush everyone so they run over a hill, kill the dead guy's character, and then wipe out everyone who was there to show their respects. They filmed the whole thing and put it on the net.
http://spikedhumor.com/articles/22282/WoW_Funeral_Ambush_Video.html
The Google Video

Deadly WoW Plague
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4272418.stm
http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/09/plaguelands.html

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Omega, on 4/4/2006 12:19:44 PM
Total Posts: 27, Joined: 12/27/2005

Thats why they have REAL funerals. He must have been their best player in the guild or something.

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pfidr34, on 4/4/2006 12:23:24 PM
Total Posts: 3, Joined: 3/2/2006

No comment

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SymphonyOfChaos, on 4/4/2006 12:25:11 PM
Total Posts: 3, Joined: 4/4/2006

halo funerals, now that would be something to see....

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Goatlady, on 4/4/2006 12:32:59 PM
Total Posts: 1, Joined: 4/4/2006

I don't play WOW but text-based RPG's [MUDs] and I can relate completely t'how they get overly involved in the game. It's a nice thought that they wanted to do something to show respects to a friend who died. But you shouldn't slate the other players for doing what they wanted to do [Ambush the mourners].
A game's a game. And should always be treated that way. When offgame issues become ingame issues, you've gone too far.

Know where to draw the line between reality and fantasy! If you don't know, for the future of online gaming, FIND OUT!!

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SymphonyOfChaos, on 4/4/2006 12:34:52 PM
Total Posts: 5, Joined: 4/4/2006

did blizzard have any comments or take any actions?
cuz i never saw anything on their news section

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AsiaRulez, on 4/4/2006 12:34:55 PM
Total Posts: 373, Joined: 11/13/2005

LoL. Still... They got owned. I love the way things changed from Peaceful and Calm and then all Hell broke out.
Funny...but disrespectful. These guys will have a very intersting WOW career.

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inflames989, on 4/4/2006 12:43:16 PM
Total Posts: 0, Joined: 12/22/2005

hahahahaha

that sucks

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Kome, on 4/4/2006 12:44:16 PM
Total Posts: 57, Joined: 3/19/2006

its a low blow and those useres are truly without any honor, even if what the geeks did was odd, but come on guys, if geeks cant live in their comp games where else are they?

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archmedia, on 4/4/2006 12:49:50 PM
Total Posts: 4, Joined: 3/26/2006

part of me laughs, part of me thinks it's pretty lame, but in the end, what's worse, the guys pretending to have a funeral, or the ones sabotaging it? are you SO obsessed with a game that you have to mimic real life events with it? then again, i can't blame them for sabotaging it, cause it's a dose of reality saying "hey, get off your fat lame asses and just play the damn game for what it is, it's not real!"

all in all, i think i walk away from this one laughing at the morons that got in a line waiting to "pay respects" and in the end paid the price of being a free standing target..

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archmedia, on 4/4/2006 12:53:11 PM
Total Posts: 5, Joined: 3/26/2006

forgot to mention, back in the day of tribes vs tribes, do you think they gave a shit about the cause? HELL NO! they got as realistic about the sabotage as the others did about the funeral. they both took it seriously and on one side it's sad, but on the other it's funnier then hell. do you think the romans stopped their pillaging to say to themselves "hmm, they're have a funeral" HELL NO

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