Your secret life as a lab rat

Yes, I remember this. The higher level guys with healers would map back to a major city and infect npc's and pc's alike. I remember that the carriers would be healed by their clerics and get out of town as the plague killed everyone of low level quickly. It was a real mess.
Blizzard had to take that disease out of play for a while until they made it less potent if I remember correctly.

 

Why would it be disturbing?

 

"These patterns threaten my core belief in free will and undermine my deepest hope that people/society/culture have the ability to break free -evolve into a more enlightened, emotionally healthier, supportive, virtuous and flexible entity equally capable of functioning harmoniously as a whole or as autonomous single entities with unlimited potential."

sky, I love your hopes, as I share a similiar desire, however, I must admit, I didnt know wether to laugh or cry when i read your comment above. Mainly becuase I feel so much the opposite is currently occuring. More Enlightened? I think our culture is getting more naive and ignorant, Emotionally healthier? from what i see, more antidepressants are used then ever. Supportive and virtous? try the opposite from the best i can see. Autonomous? doesnt seem that way to me. and finally, unlimited potential? I think we all have that, sadly, I think peoples worst enemy in this category is...... Themselves.

I'll keep dreaming with you though sky. A few John Lennon songs come to mind here.

Peace to you all as we enter fall

 

We do.

 

You must remember, they were studying people's actions in a GAME.

How many have I afflicted with curses, rooted in water left to drown, hacked to bits with sharp objects? I don't remember. Do I care? Nope.

It is a game.

Does this type of "research" happen in real life? You bet. Do we allow it? Yep. "'Cause the government is here to protect us."

THAT disturbes me.

 

Heh heh. People are just now realizing that humans display predictable behavior? This concept has been capitalized upon for centuries. Religion is another branch in which this aspect can be (and is) exploited. But I regress. Public behavior can be worked out as if it were a math problem, and some have become exceedingly good at solving the equations. Social manipulation. I daresay the public is just a puppet. Very much like the matrix without all the sci-fi stuff. Keep the masses happy and unaware as "other" agendas are carried out without their knowledge. It happens every day. Thats why I give some credit to things others disregard as conspiracy. Somebody has to, otherwise these people will continue to get away with it.

9/11 being an inside job is a scary possibility. But if it was, what did it accomplish? Well, it started a war against a very general enemy, "terrorists". Not the taliban, not al-qaeda, not Osama bin laden, not Saddam, terrorists. How broadly can that term be stretched? Who will be considered a "terrorist" 10 years from now? How easily could the media slap a "terrorist" logo on Iran (as Bush is already hinting at) and convince the American public that we must "act against terror by invading Iran"? The term "terrorist" has become the magic public manipulation word. Simply bring up the fact that the war in the middle east is a "war on terror" and you have no right to question it without criticism. Who are we really fighting? Fundamentalist Islam? I admit such a militant mindset coupled with the dangers of religion should be dealt with, but good luck snuffing out a major religion without some hard feelings. The "terrorists" we are fighting in the middle east are simply fanatical believers of their faith. A faith that calls them to kill non-believers. (Originally Christianity was the exact same, but cultural influence coupled with the appauling nature of the crusades snuffed that idea out.) They are freedom fighters for their God, not the Xian one, terrorists. Though I believe the war is more economically oriented rather than some crazy jihad with Christianity vs Islam.

"Terrorists" is becoming a word that twists and contorts itself however the speaker wishes to convey justification for war against these "enemies of freedom".

I need to watch the matrix again. I feel it is a great metaphor (as far as sci-fi movies go) regarding subtle (or not so much) social manipulation.

 

Online games are a good example of human interaction. I mean you can make some observations and make comparisons. But do they accurately relfect human interaction? Generally, yes.
Take UO when it first started up. pvp was unrestricted upon release. Being in the early days of MMO's, many folks were still playing it as a single player game. They'd step out of the guard zones, and find themselves confronted by 3 or 4 pk's while logging. Toast.
Being a game though, the consequences are negligible. So you see some pretty outrageous behavior online. I think it just makes for some off centre results. No matter how entertaining they are.