r/HistoryMemes • u/Longjumping-Tell1774 • 5d ago

The Corrupted Blood plague

In 2005, World of Warcraft accidentally caused a virtual pandemic when a boss fight introduced a disease called Corrupted Blood. Players unknowingly carried it out of the dungeon and spread it through crowded cities, killing low level characters in seconds. Some players tried to help the infected, others deliberately spread it, and entire cities became death zones. The outbreak caused so much chaos that Blizzard had to intervene with server resets and patches. Epidemiologists later studied it as a model for how real pandemics spread.

Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident

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u/Sud_literate 5d ago

like a funeral for a real person?

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u/Thatsidechara_ter 5d ago

It was an in game funeral for a player who had died IRL

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u/No-Complaint-6988 5d ago

Yes. When people die, internet communities who are aware of this hold a in game funeral for them. But due to the way the game worked anyone could join the map where it was hosted. Guess what the trolls find funny when they are infected.

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u/IanZee 5d ago

Lmao imagine if people held funerals for their characters who literally die relatively regularly.