US Government to search for terrorists in WoW
Category: PC, Posted: 02/28/2008 at 08:28AM CST by Tim Mellish, Staff Writer
If real life terrorists weren't enough for the regular US citizen to worry about, the United States Government seems to think that these extremists also have a second home in World of Warcraft. The Reynard project is the defense against these terrorists.
While only in the beginning stages of development, the project is claimed to be able to detect abnormal behavior in the World of Warcraft environment, which will then translate in being able to find any odd actions on the online world in general. While World of Warcraft is the testing area, the world wide web and all of it's subsections are the ultimate goal. While this is all well and good, it is odd and confusing why World of Warcraft is the target to be tested.
One could argue the ten million subscribers is a great base to test on, but I doubt terrorists have the time, or desire to play a game like World of Warcraft. What is likable about this project is that it is unclassified, and all results will be available to the general public. I'm just curious on what counts as "detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft." Good luck trying to find these people on PvP servers since the entire point of that experience is to take down the other faction. Whole city raids are the norm, not the exception.
Some may throw on the tin hats, saying they are being spied on; but with Blizzard's various watchdog programs always running you've already accepted some level of privacy being taken away. Also the big positive about this is Blizzard may come away with data which allows them to instantly catch gold farmers the moment they make a new character, and I know all of us would love to not have to deal with their antics anymore.[Via Wired]
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This makes no sense to me. Consider my tin hat on. Not because they are spying on us, but because of why they are spying on us. Catching terrorists in world of warcraft? Do they really think that someone will talk about their personal attack agenda after defeating some one in the game as a brag? Not likely. Do you think they are recruiting for their cause in the game world? I doubt that would go over well. I know if I was playing (which I don't play WOW) and heard someone rally an attack against my country, I would be suspicious to say the least. And as you said in the article : "but I doubt terrorists have the time, or desire to play a game like World of Warcraft. " I agree. If as a human you are so bent on the destruction of another (this is the sign of one twisted person), pastimes would be quite an irrelevant factor to what is moving your life. I don't know what their real goal is here, but suffice it to say, it is not catching (real world) terrorists.
This is just one last black mark before Bush leaves office. It's amazing how half-assedly this whole "war on terror" has been handled. Osama isn't in Ironforge, guys.
This is just a bunch of government guys that found an excuse to play WoW at work and get us to pay their bill.
On the other hand I actually think this could be a good idea. I also doubt that real world terrorists are big in MMO's but if this project can detect the PvP city raids ahead of time based on chat and online activity it would be a great test for real world terrorist detection.
This is almost too surreal to take seriously.
Unless it is some kind of bizarre practice or 'training' but even still, what the heck?
Is there some anti-West movement that's taken hold in WoW, do raids work as trust-building exercises for terrist-inishits?
Very weird.
I'm not less nervous at all about the silly activities and bad decisions being made to stop dem terrists.
is this for real? our government really thinks that terrorists are going to use wow as a method of carrying out their plans? get real. what aspect of wow can actually be used for terror?! it's just a fucking game. get over yourselves you crazy nuts. i think yuko put it best: "Osama isn't in Ironforge"