Does al-Qaeda play World of Warcraft?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 | 2:33 pm
Is that a level 70 Night Elf Druid or is it a terrorist operative?
According to a story that appeared in WIRED this week, intelligence analysts at the Pentagon are concerned that MMO’s such as World of Warcraft could be used as hotbeds of terrorist collaboration.
Sounds far fetched? Maybe, maybe not.
Evidently analysts and spies are hard-pressed to decipher the many MMO’s, servers, and linguistic gymnastics that occur in games like WoW. Phrases like “ZOMGBBQPWNSAUZE” could secretly mean “Put arsenic in watershed at 3:30 a.m.” Hmmmm… I don’t know about that. But then again, I guess you kind of have to want to see it.
Organizations that handle domestic spying such as the NSA and the FBI have in the past coordinated with MMO’s, but to no end that I have ever heard of. Ultra-elite guild “Death and Taxes” disbanded five months ago, but that was because of internal strife – not because the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team raided their apartments.
Is it possible – sure. Anything is possible, and with such a closed and dedicated populace with a myriad of options to communicate privately I suppose such a thing could happen in WoW. Though I don’t know what’s wrong with Istanbul. Used to be that’s where the Cold War spies and wannabe’s went to play cloak and dagger. Heck, even They Might Be Giants dedicated a song to it.
But my question is: have any of these Pentagon analysts actually played World of Warcraft? I logged on last night and trying to find a five-man group to run Heroic Arc turned into a 45 minute “hurry up and wait!”
Once we got inside, “Fail-O-Thon 2008” really began in earnest. We wiped on the first three pulls, argued on who was to blame, and after this idiot Druid rolled on a dagger he couldn’t use I left – after inferring he had an inappropriate relationship with his mother.
And that’s my point. I haven’t known many WoW gamers to be able to do anything but tell really bad Chuck Norris jokes, make ham and cheese Hot Pockets, and roll on gear that they can’t use but do so anyway because “Itz all about teh phat lewts, yo.”
If there are any terrorists currently playing WoW I pity them. Their doom is sealed.
According to a story that appeared in WIRED this week, intelligence analysts at the Pentagon are concerned that MMO’s such as World of Warcraft could be used as hotbeds of terrorist collaboration.
Sounds far fetched? Maybe, maybe not.
Evidently analysts and spies are hard-pressed to decipher the many MMO’s, servers, and linguistic gymnastics that occur in games like WoW. Phrases like “ZOMGBBQPWNSAUZE” could secretly mean “Put arsenic in watershed at 3:30 a.m.” Hmmmm… I don’t know about that. But then again, I guess you kind of have to want to see it.
Organizations that handle domestic spying such as the NSA and the FBI have in the past coordinated with MMO’s, but to no end that I have ever heard of. Ultra-elite guild “Death and Taxes” disbanded five months ago, but that was because of internal strife – not because the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team raided their apartments.
Is it possible – sure. Anything is possible, and with such a closed and dedicated populace with a myriad of options to communicate privately I suppose such a thing could happen in WoW. Though I don’t know what’s wrong with Istanbul. Used to be that’s where the Cold War spies and wannabe’s went to play cloak and dagger. Heck, even They Might Be Giants dedicated a song to it.
But my question is: have any of these Pentagon analysts actually played World of Warcraft? I logged on last night and trying to find a five-man group to run Heroic Arc turned into a 45 minute “hurry up and wait!”
Once we got inside, “Fail-O-Thon 2008” really began in earnest. We wiped on the first three pulls, argued on who was to blame, and after this idiot Druid rolled on a dagger he couldn’t use I left – after inferring he had an inappropriate relationship with his mother.
And that’s my point. I haven’t known many WoW gamers to be able to do anything but tell really bad Chuck Norris jokes, make ham and cheese Hot Pockets, and roll on gear that they can’t use but do so anyway because “Itz all about teh phat lewts, yo.”
If there are any terrorists currently playing WoW I pity them. Their doom is sealed.
Most recent Blogs posts
Comments
ERROR: Macro blog24 is missing!
(
