The average World of Warcraft player has a number of annoyances to deal with during his day-to-day exploits in Azeroth -- gold farmers, gold sellers, ninja-looters, and overzealous paladins, to name a few. Unfortunately for subscribers, another soon-to-be-unpopular community is about to hit Blizzard's servers: Big Brother (that is to say, government intelligence agencies, not the reality TV show).
Wired reports that U.S. intelligence is planning on developing a data mining program using World of Warcraft that will help root out violent extremists that play MMOs. The ultimate goal of the "Reynard project" is to develop software that is capable of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world." On one hand, we can see why they'd want to keep an eye on a community that's 10 million strong (fun fact -- there's 142 countries with a smaller population than WoW). On the other, we're not sure we want The Man looking over our shoulder every time we craft a Big Iron Bomb.
Reader Comments (69)
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 7:05PM (Unverified) said
Sorry...I missed the article, the picture was too funny.
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Posted: Feb 24th 2008 9:08AM psychoticdream said
why do i get the feeling that jack bauer plays a night elf rogue?
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Posted: Feb 24th 2008 6:21AM (Unverified) said
Just about everything. And are they legally allowed to do this? I thought we had certain provisions to protect us from surveillance like that, even in WoW (which I don't "play"). And because this affects international players,too, aren't they even more...unallowed to do this?
And yes, I'm being somewhat sarcastic: of course they're not allowed, and certainly not morally so, but they'll do it anyway. And if the US government catches a terrorist through WoW, I will eat my words, along with an organ of Joystiq's choice.
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And yes, I'm being somewhat sarcastic: of course they're not allowed, and certainly not morally so, but they'll do it anyway. And if the US government catches a terrorist through WoW, I will eat my words, along with an organ of Joystiq's choice.
Posted: Feb 24th 2008 6:44AM (Unverified) said
I certainly hope whatever organ Joystiq prepares for you it's well cooked - the current administration has little problem labeling just about anyone a terrorist. Under their criteria, it'd be child's play to find a "terrorist", especially given some of the potentially subversive names of guilds.
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Posted: Feb 24th 2008 7:28AM usagi704 said
Yeah, ScallionN, I completely understand that this administration has just about everything wrong with them, as my question was more rhetorical than anything else. I just can't believe that they keep doing shit like this, day in and day out. It never ends!
The FISA BS going on right now is so amazing in such a fucked up way. The unlawful current FISA was to be extended, but just because it didn't have the telecom company retroactive immunity in it, Bush vetoed it and is trying to make it seem as if our foreign intelligence ability is now diminished and make it out to be the House Democrat's fault because they won't pass the version with the immunity in it, when in fact it was Bush who is responsible for it expiring!
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The FISA BS going on right now is so amazing in such a fucked up way. The unlawful current FISA was to be extended, but just because it didn't have the telecom company retroactive immunity in it, Bush vetoed it and is trying to make it seem as if our foreign intelligence ability is now diminished and make it out to be the House Democrat's fault because they won't pass the version with the immunity in it, when in fact it was Bush who is responsible for it expiring!
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 7:23PM panzerjedi said
"suspicious behavior and actions" in WoW? Nah. Never.
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 7:25PM Bill Kutargi said
Well that there you are! All those casulties of corrupted blood were caused by terrorists! Case Closed!
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 7:42PM (Unverified) said
Haven't we already won if the terrorists are enjoying our MMOs?
That's gotta be right up there with alcohol, women showing off some calf, and goat-f*****, on the list of things Allah forbids.
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That's gotta be right up there with alcohol, women showing off some calf, and goat-f*****, on the list of things Allah forbids.
Posted: Feb 24th 2008 6:50AM (Unverified) said
I miss it from when it actually had good writing (i.e. Seasons 1-3).
As far as I'm concerned, that show's been off the air for years.
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As far as I'm concerned, that show's been off the air for years.
Posted: Feb 24th 2008 9:55AM (Unverified) said
c'mon nohit 4 and 5 weren't that bad, especially the end of 5 ....
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:32PM ThornedVenom said
There's a difference between dumb and paranoid.
But now there's reason for them to be paranoid, since thanks to their own doing everyone hates their guts.
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But now there's reason for them to be paranoid, since thanks to their own doing everyone hates their guts.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 9:58PM BigD145 said
Paranoia gets you things like the Pol Pot legacy and ... Vietnam War, Korean War, Iraq War, both WW's, every Inquisition, etc., etc. ad nauseum. I give a hearty "F.U.!!" to every leader that talks to an invisible guy in their heads. Everyone else is not the enemy. You are.
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Posted: Feb 24th 2008 12:57AM DerickDBrown said
Well, it is a democracy...
who do we have to blame for the people in office?
(that's right, the generation before mine)
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who do we have to blame for the people in office?
(that's right, the generation before mine)
Posted: Feb 24th 2008 6:54AM (Unverified) said
My god... Anti-American speech and no blind patriots screaming in caps in response?
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:06PM (Unverified) said
I'm curious what kind of suspicious activities one can perform in WoW. Are they going to blow up the auction house?
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:11PM (Unverified) said
I bet their "data mining" program will be a simple word filter - which will be useless when the Terrorists start using Internet slang.
"IDK my BFF Jillhad?"
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"IDK my BFF Jillhad?"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 9:20PM (Unverified) said
The joys of word filters.
"mail bomb"
"assassination"
"same-sex marriages"
"patagonia"
"Nader for president!"
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"mail bomb"
"assassination"
"same-sex marriages"
"patagonia"
"Nader for president!"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:13PM (Unverified) said
Let the hyperbole Big Brother comments commence!
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:33PM ThornedVenom said
OH SHIT MY TERRORIST OPERATIONS HAVE BEEN FOILED!
My Horde brethren was about to suicide bomb the shit out of Ironforge.
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My Horde brethren was about to suicide bomb the shit out of Ironforge.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 8:47PM pabloshong said
You are gonna tell me what I want to know, it is all up to how much you want it to hurt. WHERE IS THE BIG IRON BOMB?!!!
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 10:45PM (Unverified) said
Pssh not if the terriorist speak 1337. Then we are |=|_|(|
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 10:46PM (Unverified) said
shit terrorist' but my other spelling issues really haven't stopped me before so I'm not sure why I'm fixing this one.
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 10:46PM Hyams said
I though this was a joke when I first heard of this. Look: these Islamic terrorists are even more pious/bat-shit-crazy then the Christians that claim Harry Potter and D'n'D are the work of the Devil. They wouldn't go near a fantasy-based MMO like WoW.
Either US Intelligence is horribly ignorant of the ideals of Islamic terrorists - and are wasting time and money on this - or else they have some other reason for spying on WoW players.
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Either US Intelligence is horribly ignorant of the ideals of Islamic terrorists - and are wasting time and money on this - or else they have some other reason for spying on WoW players.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2008 11:07PM ThornedVenom said
Actually, it's just a giant pretext to party with female nightelves during work hours.
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