An interesting study is being done using a "glitch" in a popular online computer game. Scientists who have been trying to figure out real-life epidemic & catastrophe scenarios recently discovered that mistakes in programming called glitches can actually be utilized for population studies.

What they are looking at is that ultra-popular interactive role-playing games such as World of Warcraft end up with unintentional glitches within their programming and that these can be used for the studying of epidemics spreading throughout a population and the reaction of individuals and groups to that epidemic. In WoW, for instance, a character that was supposed to be a major threat and limited access to only a few players had a glitch that has now spread his maniacal evilness virtually throughout the whole population of some 2.5 million.

Online games, of course, are a lot easier to manipulate and study than real-life epidemics. The studies hope to show how populations, groups and even individuals will react when a catastrophe strikes, especially as we become a more global population. Just a few decades ago, if a situation broke out in, say, east Africa, it would pretty much stay within that area, but in today’s world, not only is that population more mobile, but there is almost constant visitors (business, academic, and missions work, for instance) from various distant parts of the world that the situation can foreseeably spread quickly to multiple populations and out of control. Maybe with these game studies epidemics can be kept more localized and controlled. Keep gaming, you’re helping save the world!