Members of the U.S. intelligence community are soon to be on the hunt for dangerous terrorist boogey-men inhabiting online games like World of Warcraft. At least, that's what what we assume they'll tell their superiors, when conducting a four-hour plus raid on taxpayer time. According to fun speculation from Wired, WoW might not just tell us who is going to blow up national treasure X or spread communicable disease Y, it may tell us how.

Wired's David Thier contends that in-game plagues like Corrupted Blood provide real-world insight into terrorist tactics that traditional computer sims can't. Why? Artificial intelligence is little match for genuine human intelligence, which may (or may not) be better at exploiting holes and vulnerabilities.

MMOs may also give better insight into "civilian" behavior, but fails in the sense that real world death and in-game death don't quite have the same impact.

Watch out, sexless griefers. Someone may be keeping an eye on you. Now back to less fear-mongering...

World of Warcraft Shines Light on Terror Tactics [Wired]

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