A curious event caused a stir on a private server of World of Warcraft. The administrator unleashed a disease on the players without warning. The subsequent event was meant to teach how important proper behavior during a pandemic is.
What kind of event is this? On the private server Elysium, the owner “Rain” allowed a disease to spread. The event took place in two phases:
- In Phase 1, no player knew what was happening. The disease could spread freely.
- In Phase 2, everything was reset and players could take measures.
The first phase was meant to show players how dangerous it is when nothing happens. A total of 88% of the players were infected. In the second phase, they were to learn how they could protect themselves. According to official statistics, the infection rate was only 37.82%, as a graph from the creators shows:
The spreading disease reduced all values by 5% and movement speed by 10%, and could spread through players, NPCs, and items. Players below level 10 could not be affected. The actual event lasted just one weekend.
And what was the point of this? According to Rain, the goal was to inform players about the current situation in the world and to show them how important proper behavior is. There are many young players on Elysium who might not grasp the severity of the coronavirus.
In a conversation with the US site Kotaku, Rain also explained that he wanted to conduct this event because large gaming companies see the topic as too sensitive and therefore avoid it.
However, he still wanted to give players access to information that they might not receive otherwise. At the same time, the event was not meant to annoy or copy the deadly plague from Vanilla WoW, which is why the pandemic was so short.
Plague event teaches dealing with Corona
This is what players should do: Once players were made aware of the plague, they could take various measures to contain the disease. These roughly correspond to the recommendations that apply to Corona:
- Face mask items were to ensure that infected players protect others and healthy players protect themselves
- With soap, players could wash their hands for 20 seconds to prevent infections
- A “symptom checker bot” checked whether players showed symptoms and were infected
- With disinfectant, contaminated items and NPCs could be cleaned
Additionally, players were to maintain distance (“Social Distancing”) when completing tasks and isolate themselves if necessary. Many NPCs in the towns informed players about prevention and measures.
At the end of the event, players could fight the Naxxramas boss “Noth, the Plaguebringer,” who was “responsible” for the disease.
Were there rewards? For the players who were most engaged in the event, there was a reward in the form of virtual currency and a unique pet.
What is Blizzard doing in this situation?
Elysium is an unofficial private server operated by fans. The owners have nothing to do with Blizzard, the creators of WoW have been running an official project since the launch of the Classic servers.
But Blizzard is also committed to containing the Corona pandemic. Among other things, a new Reputation Buff that increases all earned reputation by 100% starts on April 20, allowing players to unlock new races more quickly.
Additionally, the XP buff has been extended until shortly before the launch of the new expansion Shadowlands. This doubles the experience gained. Blizzard aims to encourage players to stay at home and not go outside unnecessarily to prevent infections. This “Stay At Home” initiative is currently being recommended and practiced by many companies.
