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When a virus broke out in a popular role-playing game, researchers used it as a model for studying a real-world pandemic.

Video games aren’t just a way to kill time; they may well help kill a real-world virus one day. In 2007, researchers studied the spread and containment of a deadly virus in the multi-player role playing game World of Warcraft.

The researchers studied the spread of a virus introduced into the game by design, to limit the power of very advanced characters (perhaps the Sword of a Thousand Truths was unavailable at the time?). Eventually, the virus spread out of control, infecting high- and low-level characters alike.

The game designers tried to quarantine infected players, but many characters broke the quarantine, eventually leading to the “death” of millions.

The virtual virus caused many realistic effects. “Some virtual characters spontaneously developed immunity but were still carriers — just as would happen in the real world. Some characters’ virtual pets became carriers, just as could happen in the real world.”

The researchers believe they can apply what they learned from the study to the organization of actual quarantines in the event of a pandemic. However, it seems their discoveries about the immune systems of flying unicorns may be of less help with swine flu.