What a WoW virtual outbreak taught us about how humans behave in epidemics

Enlarge / Hakkar the Soulflayer was the primary source of infection for the "Corrupted Blood" outbreak in World of Warcraft. (credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

When it comes to a global pandemic, human beings are the ultimate wild card. That makes it challenging to build accurate mathematical models to predict how the progress of the disease will play out. We've certainly seen plenty of all-too-human responses to coronavirus over the last two weeks, with some people panicking and hoarding food, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. Others cling to denial, and still others are defying calls for "social distancing" by continuing to go to restaurants, bars, concerts, and so forth. Our epidemiological models are a bit better able to account for that unpredictability thanks in part to a virtual outbreak in World of Warcraft nearly fifteen years ago, known as the "Corrupted Blood incident."

The Corrupted Blood outbreak was not intentional. In 2005, Blizzard Entertainment added a new dungeon called Zul'Gurub into World of Warcraft for highly advanced players, controlled by an "end boss" named Hakkar. Hakkar was a blood god known as the Soulflayer, who had, among his arsenal of weapons, a "debuff" spell called "Corrupted Blood." Infected players would suffer damage at regular repeating intervals, draining away their "hit points" until their avatars exploded in a cloud of blood. The only cure was to kill Hakkar.

Blizzard thought this would ensure the infection wouldn't spread beyond that space. They were wrong. Rather than standing their ground, many infected players panicked, teleporting out of the dungeon before dying or killing Hakkar, and taking the disease with them. And lower ranking players, with fewer hit points, would "die" very quickly upon exposure.

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