World of Warcraft = Terrorism?

When I sit down to play World of Warcraft with my friends, the last thought that comes to my head is the possibility of a terrorist attack.

However, according to Dr. Dwight Tovas, a professor at National Defense University, a school funded by the Pentagon, such an attack is possible, and he went into great detail explaining just how it might happen.

Once he explained the ins and outs of virtual worlds, a presentation that was probably regarded with more bordeom than intent, he then detailed a plot where avatars talked about a raid on “White Keep” inside the “Stonetalon Mountains.” The goal? Set off a “Dragon Fire” spell and make off with “110 gold and 234 Silver.”

The originator of this plot was Dan Arey, who made it for the Director of National Intelligence’s Summer Hard Problems workshop. While the plot and details could have some basis in reality, I doubt that “White Keeps” exist in World of Warcraft. In fact, I will also add that “Dragon Fire” is not even a spell in said game; however, I hear that it is VERY popular in another MMO game found on Playstation 2 that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI.

Steven Aftergood, the Federation of American Scientists analyst who follows the intelligence community, admits that such possiblities could exist, but cautioned that the situation had to be taken in context.

At the moment though, there is no real proof of terrorists actually using virtual worlds for this purpose. However, should this scenario prove possible, it might actually force our elected officials to respect video games rather than demonize them.