Pentagon Researcher Conjures Warcraft Terror Plot
The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House.
There's been no public proof to date of terrorists hatching plots in virtual worlds. But online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they're so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans.
In a presentation late last week at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington, Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University, gave a bit of a primer on virtual worlds to an audience largely ignorant about what happens in these online spaces. Then he launched into a scenario, to demonstrate how a meatspace plot might be hidden by in-game chatter.
In it, two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.
Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's map with one of Washington, D.C.
The fictional plot was originally developed by Dan Arey, for the Director of National Intelligence's Summer Hard Problems workshop, or SHARP. And its details are a little fuzzy. The terminology doesn't match World of Warcraft lingo, all that precisely. There is no "White Keep" in World of Warcraft; "Dragon Fire" is a spell in EverQuest, the old-school role-playing game, not WoW. But the banter is reminiscent enough of World of Warcraft talk, to give outsiders an idea of how such a conversation might go down -- and how hard it would be to identify.
Steven Aftergood, the Federation of the American Scientists analyst who's been following the intelligence community for years, wonders how realistic these sorts of scenarios are, really. "This concern is out there. But it has to be viewed in context. It's the job of intelligence agencies to anticipate threats and counter them. With that orientation, they're always going to give more weight to a particular scenario than an objective analysis would allow," he tells Danger Room. "Could terrorists use Second Life? Sure, they can use anything. But is it a significant augmentation? That's not obvious. It's a scenario that an intelligence officer is duty-bound to consider. That's all."
Toavs, for one, believes that spies will have to spend more time in virtual worlds like WoW, if they want to have a hope of keeping tabs on what goes on inside 'em. Which means, some day soon, we might find secret agents in World of Warcraft, along with the druids and orcs and night elves.
ALSO:
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- Spies Want a Second Life of Their Own
- Spooks Eye Second Life
- Iran's Nuclear Scientist Game: The Details
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- Game Controllers Driving Drones, Nukes
- Army Demos Video Game-Controlled Robot
- 'Casual Games' to School Airmen on Cyber Threats
Really? Do we have to be afraid of everything? Are there threats everywhere? Are people really paid to think up this complete drivel?
What happened to my country?
This makes me want to stab people with pencils.
In the 1970s & 80s, I played correspondence chess internationally. Games with Soviet players would take forever, as both CIA & KGB would intercept the postcards looking for the secret message behind "3.Lf1-b5." It was pointless then, too.
Plus ça change....
Even if real attackers are using WOW to plan, likely they would use private voice servers as opposed to text chat. This is the only way effective groups are able to coordinate multiple team members for real-time group strategies.
I hereby cast a spell and eliminate all funding for useless government research.....
Dr. Dwight Toavs should be transferred immediately to fielding phone calls for FEMA.
fuck WASP
South Park said it best - "We believe they are planning to attack our imagination."
Based on this level of logic I may need to buy Godzilla insurance. Perpetual analysis of ' What If's ' missed the real world threat of Box Cutters on airplanes. Not nukes, box cutters. A cold shower of reality is desperately required if any of this drivel is being taken with any degree of seriousness.
more important than private voice servers, i can have my own private WOW hacked server running in about 3 hours, most of that being the torrent download. OpenSim and i can skip the whole replace Washington with WhiteTalon. Or pay some third world programer 30 bucks to create a nice ap on top of GoogleEarth
Ya know what the really said part about all this is. This is so completely off the wall, that I thought I might take a second and post something like "Wahahahah, infidels, you have underestimated our level 70s, and now will pay"
But after thinking about it... I really don't feel like having Homeland Security show up at my office....
Seriously though, it's like they've just stopped trying.
This is waaaaay beyond retarded and paranoid. I love this quote "It's the job of intelligence agencies to anticipate threats and counter them. " Your doing a bangup job rtards!
Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!!!!!
(sound of black helicopters)
I'm giving up and going back to hoping for another ice age or an asteroid strike. My species is too stupid to live.
Sounds like some CIA guys want to get paid to play WOW all day.
>Welcome to Pentaburger, may I take your order please?
>Yeah, I'd like a rational, effective, well-priced security strategy that won't invade my privacy.
>Oh sorry, we're just fresh out of those. We can offer you a lackluster JPEG with less-than-n00b jargon to make you let us bug every multiplayer game an lobby on Earth. Would you like an overpriced vaporware sheke with that?
>Gee, I think I'll pass on that.
Indy Jones said it, not me: "They've got us seeing Communists in our soup."
Well didn't you know that every time somebody kills a terrorist in a game, it happens in real life? So naturally when a Middle Eastern nerd plans to slay a dragon, terrorists are about to hatch a plan to bring down a important monument of an international super power.
...Give me a break.
What has likely occurred here is that someone in the Pentagon got busted playing WoW on duty and stayed out of trouble by brushing the whole thing off as "research". I'm sure he's laughing his Orcish butt off on WoW right now, telling his buddies how he actually briefed this nonsense to Congressmen.
As I said at the conference, Dr. Toavs' presentation made a good case for how much the IC doesn't have a handle on in terms of the online world. The WoW example is a particularly sensational way to frame it, but so, to the general public, was the idea of planes being flown into buildings until September, 2001.
However, until Dr. Toavs can suggest something more proactive than sitting on a panel to tell a packed amphitheater just how much it doesn't know... what's the point?
Wow, getting a little desperate to find Bin Laden, are we?
It continues to terrify me that an animated TV show filled with toilet humor seems to impart more wisdom than those whose job it is to protect our national security.
I believe I can sum up their millions of dollars in research in a sentance: "Covert channels allow terrorists to plan covertly."
Its been known for literally hundreds of years that an effective form of covert communication is to make the communication look like innocuous data.
This is just like the stenographic "threat" in ebay images.
I really need to become a high ranking member of DHS. I could make a killing inventing new things to research on par with these report, do the research on my own time (all 45 seconds of it), and get enough man-hours to buy a house!
@ FJennings
I believe the idea is that the US could spend their money better strengthening the US so that we can weather the damages of the terrorists than we can trying to prevent the terrorists from doing damage.
Sounds like some Homeland Security people want an excuse to play WOW at the taxpayer's expense.
"So, like REALLY Boss, it's a THREAT! And we need to be in there MONITORING it!"
Someone's got a case of the stupids. Honestly? This shows one thing only: the disconnect that decision makers at these places have with the real world. I'm not even going to list the ways in which such a scenario is redundant, stupid, and unnecessary. Let me just point out that any two terrorists can send RSA encrypted mails back and forth for as long as they want to and there is fuck all counter-terrorists can do.
I'm sorry, I wasn't going to go into detail. My mind is still reeling from the sheer compressed amount of stupid.
Doesn't WoW require a constant flow of money from a trackable credit card?
Threat sounds feasible to me, people setting up a real attack and practice on WoW? Ok, I'll buy that one. But detecting an attack in a virtual world where people (or some sort of ancient species) are attacking everyone, all day and all night long, that seems too much of an investment for too few of a result. No way anyone will differentiate a genuine WoW raid from a practice of a real attack.
or..
we could just forbid all communication in all forms. because someone might draw a map on a napkin or use toilet bowl colored water codes to send messeges between cells. Its an excuse.
The Government perpetuates the paranoia in the name of freedom to place more restrictions and keep us consuming, docile, and ignorant. Banks fold because of people's lack of willingness to change with the needs of society.
This is a prank, right? The Onion is running this in Wired just to get a rise out of people, and hopefully find a wingnut out there who will post comments taking the whole thing REALLY seriously? Please, please, PLEASE tell me the Pentagon isn't actually thinking about this.
When I think of someone giving a presentation on this, it reminds of the scene in Fear and Loathing, where the speaking cop is trying to explain what a roach is to the rest of the cops. Classic!
I actually think that this must be a plant from the terrorists to distract us with its utter banality and pointlessness. All I can say is that if the government wants to start hiring spooks to monitor WoW they can sign me up and let me at least put a tiny portion of my tax dollars to good effect!
What do you think Obama and McCain would say to this?!?
@fjennings
Actually the commercial airlines angle isn't that novel. There was this nice little cold war movie in the 80's called red dawn where they talked about "coming across the borders disguised as commercial planes". Also flying planes into buildings, is also not novel. I believe the Japanese in WWII had quite a bit of experience in that arena. The novelty is that while we worried about it back then, there wasn't the mass public hysteria, the media vultures, or a government that all americans are latent terrorists waiting for their subliminal code word to "awaken the beast".
Be afraid, be very afraid. The only ones who can save you is a strong anti-terrorist government.
Vote Republican.
Be afraid, be very afraid. The only ones who can save you is a strong anti-terrorist government.
Vote Republican.
How many resumes will they get for a job description of being paid to play WoW all day? "Qualification: level 70 wizard"
You have got to be kidding me. You know if terrorists start playing World of Warcraft they will never get anything done. They will eventually never sleep, most likely get divorced, you know the drill. I think this is just a way that some Pentagon employees to try and play WOW all day on our buck. LOL. Play records backwards, that's where they are planning things.
Wouldn't it be easier for the terrorists to just look at a google map of DC and plan over encrypted gchat?
What we've got here is a demonstrative piece for presentation at a conference as a general proof-of-concept. Bear in mind it's a spook conference, not a gamer or computer scientist conference, and the majority of the participants are probably sitting on the "Digital Immigrant" side of the fence rather than being the "Digital Natives" that gamers tend to be. It's sad to say, but a completely realistic example wouldn't be as accessible to the stated audience. Having recently been in the situation of having to severely ramp down the level of my technical research for a nonspecialist conference myself, I wouldn't be cancelling his funding just yet, guys.
In terms of virtual world usage, there are more of them springing up all over the place, more people using them and more efforts towards interconnectivity (e.g. Linden Labs' Open Grid Protocol draft). People are starting to look towards the possibility that virtual environment offerings may form part of our next-generation online infrastructure. It makes sense to give the intel community at least some idea of what could be out there, and start thinking transmedially.
It's possible to have a relatively seamless conversation over several channels of communication that would be difficult to follow for someone who could not observe all of them at the same time (you might be able to get Second Life servers monitored in the interests of national security, but how about China's HiPiHi?). It's kind of like the internet equivalent of frequency-hopping radio. In a world where people can have five different instant messaging clients, in-game chat, in-game and out-of-game voice channels, email, IRC, SMS messaging, social networking sites and so forth, the intelligence community at large needs to be at least as savvy with this kind of reality as, say, your average 12-year-old girl.
"Attack on the White House" might be an extreme example, but there are a whole bunch of other ways in which religiously or politically-motivated groups could leverage virtual worlds too - one of the most obvious being laundering funds using virtual currency.
Wow. I never thought I'd see the day when our "intelligence" analysts were seriously giving their bosses such a flimsy excuse for playing WoW all day...
It's interesting to see all of the "but the bad guys would never do anything silly like this" posts here, when it's really just a general case that has been used many times in the past and will be used many times in the future. Find a channel of communication that's used by a lot of random people, figure out a way to pass info over that channel without easy detection, and make your plans. Similar tactics used in the past include newspaper ads and postings on public bulletin boards. Even graffiti, when you get own to it...
With the current effort being put into intercepting "normal" electronic communications, a small amount of thought toward the nonstandard ones is pretty important - and no, they didn't spend "millions of dollars" on the WoW case (as shown by the example above - more like dozens of dollars, if you include the donuts).
You can get online on WoW without confirmed ID (trial editions are free and downloadable anywhere, and prepaid credit cards and game cards are pretty anonymous). Ditto for a lot of other games, with even less possibility of a trace or interception.
90% or more of the comments above just go to show how stupid American's and their retarted brethern on Earth really are (I am an American, so you can save your rednecking for another day).
What honestly makes anybody with a sane and rational mind think that the only terrorists out there are ones who live in caves and don't have internet access? That terrorist don't play computer games, or own computers. Whatever makes people think these things is doing a good job at fraking up our future "out-of-the-box" thinkers.
First off terrorists can be of any age, rationally speaking anyone in high school or some associated institution around the world is capable of a terrorist attack. That being said any person of mostly any backround in the "Western" world of mostly any faith, or lack thereof, is capable of a terrorist attack.
It does not take a Muslim living in a hole in the middle of nowhere to launch a terrorist attack. For an IC official to believe it is improbable for a well-off Muslim (or of any faith to be fair) teen in Britain to commit a terrorist attack is doing a diservice to themselves and their country.
As for your gtalk conversations, and what not, don't think that the NSA hasn't already taken care of that at your nearest internet exchange server.
What a fucking waste of PowerPoint slides. Is this what the government fucks are creating and showing themselves? What a clusterfuck. No wonder we're spending billions per month, losing our stature, and creating enemies. What a bunch of throbs. If this were in a movie no one would believe it.
...
Formula to get funding/promoted: find a modern cultural entity/trend (preferably one that the generals have seen their grandkids talk about), combine with scary weapon, valued target, and vague enemy. Create 40-80 slides with nice graphics. Add nice catered lunch. Prevailing belief in deity or similar mass mental disorder is a plus.
KILL THE GRAND POOBAH
ELIMINATE EVEN THE TOUGHEST STAINS
HURRY, HURRY, HURRY
SALE ENDS QUICKLY
FULL SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
OR YOUR MONEY BACK
War Monger; lets invade Iraq
Talon 238; Why?
War Monger; WMDs
Talon 238; really?
War Monger; No, KBRs i.e. Haliburton, Blackwater, Raytheon, Boeing, and of course War Profits, etc., etc.
Talon 238; I Love you W.
War monger; I love you too smirky!
lol, looks like these spooks have figured out how to get payed for playing world of warcraft in the office.
There are teams of military, intelligence, and private sector individuals (authors and the like) who are connected by cell phone networks. Their sole job is to come up with ways sin which terrorists might strike.
Keep in mind that films and novels proposed the use of commercial aircraft as tactical weapons years before 9/11. The French even raided an aircraft on the ground back in the 1990s because terrorists demanded far more fuel than needed for the hop across the water to North Africa.
Is this improbable? Maybe. So was 9/11.
Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer, the bad news is Chuck Norris never cries.
First thing I did when I got the drift of this article was check the date to see if it was April 1.
.
Between "lipstick on a pig" outpulling the same-day Federal bailout of Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac, and John McThuseleh re-packaging himself and his staff of big-money lobbyists as the "Change" campaign, I've been doing that a lot lately.
No one will dance their for a hundred years after the dragon fire spell is cast!
Damn terrorist haxx
This is excellent, it will cause debate and create attention. Keep on Keeping on I say, we are all in this together.
This is complete bullshit! Please getta fucking life!!!!!! We are not going to trade our freedoms in order to get security...because where it ends is an FBI agent knocking on my door saying my wife has a bomb hidden in her crotch and the detective's penis is the probe.
NO THANK YOU!!!!!!
I stopped reading after a few paragraphs. This article is ridiculous.
Dr. Dwight Toavs... that's an anagram for... Vast Odd Wright!! oh my god.. He's the mole! What.. Who's there- huh!? aauuuuggghhhhhh!!!!
I reported something like this I've come across in real life.
Funny as this presentation sounds, I've observed crude workings that appeared to be the real deal, staged in Africa.
The "spam" for it came to an Iranian physics yahoo group.
I'm not laughing or checking my calendar for April Fools Day.
One step back from the main-stream video games, there is something else going on, I've seen it.
The Cold War is over. The paranoid and humorless needed something to do.
If not 9/11, then something else would have happened. There are simply too many dollars chasing too few defense contractors.
So we have WOW paranoia now, *sigh*. I'm disgusted, but not surprised.
@Dr. Curiosity: Thanks, you bring up a few very good points that many of the commenters are not even considering.
The long and short of it is this: communications media are becoming increasingly complex; this means monitoring, deciphering, and acting on bits of intelligence information is becoming harder than ever due to new technologies, not easier. Most people do not realize how difficult that task is for our intelligence community, and how safe most of their communications actually are right now because the complexities of monitoring them have outstripped spending on both domestic and international intelligence.
Information is warfare (and has been since the early 1990s); and its a terrifying thing to not see quite enough being done to prepare for it or to educate the public about it. It was much easier to find a spy in the 50s than would be today.
If they find a game that attacks White House or a White Castle, then it is a game. On the other hand, if the attack is a city...then that could be something worth monitoring.
@instamattic: "There are simply too many dollars chasing too few defense contractors."
Nothing could be farther from the truth... its too few dollars that is the whole point of the research discussed here, not too many. The research was not done because money needed to be spent, but to show how more needs to be spent. Educate yourself on the per capita and GDP ratio spending of our military today versus 1945, 1956, 1968, 1992, and today... less being spent, not too much.
"Thought crime does not entail death: thought crime is death."
George Orwell, 1984
Worst article ever. There's only like 500 million viable online chat arenas, 499,999 of which do *not* include the word "War," and which wouldn't be the first choice for an actual terrorist to hang out and chat their plans.
Why pick on World of Warcraft? Why use "WAR_MONGER" as a pseudonym for your scenario? Anyone else notice the first paragraph uses the word "might" three times, as in "we might just be trying to stir up some traffic for our website?"
Come on, Wired, post some real news.
Well keep making fun of the idiots who use any excuse to remove your righs to access the net and enlsave you every day more and more instead of actually doing somethign about it . What really happen to all of you americans I guess too much clorine and aluminium in the water you drink not to mention the grugs forced on you in school that must also become a habit after that. Dont any of you feel a little shame of what you become? Smart remarks do not save the day you know.
Well keep making fun of the idiots who use any excuse to remove your righs to access the net and enlsave you every day more and more instead of actually doing somethign about it . What really happen to all of you americans I guess too much clorine and aluminium in the water you drink not to mention the grugs forced on you in school that must also become a habit after that. Dont any of you feel a little shame of what you become? Smart remarks do not save the day you know.
Is World of Warcraft training your child to be a Terrorist? Next on Fox News!
Clearly this fucking idiot was a government employee. What's next, a paper about how people could form a terrorist plot while they're waiting at the bus stop? What about 5th graders planning an attack during recess? NO ONE WOULD EVER SUSPECT...
I'm sorry, but it's just fucking ridiculous to think people who had fissionable material, or a working bomb, would be talking about this stuff on WOW. We can only hope that if there's a serious attempt to detonate a nuclear device in our country, it's done by a bunch of retards like this. Come on, Wired, I expect better.
These videogames are scary. For the first time, terrorists have a covert method for communicating!
It's not like they couldn't just buy pre-paid cell phones or something. It's way easier to get your shaman to level 60 for planning the attack.
Nate said:
"lol, looks like these spooks have figured out how to get payed for playing world of warcraft in the office."
**
haha, good point, maybe they're smarter than we thought!
"Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!!!!!
(sound of black helicopters)
"
LMAO!!
This is what happens when bible thumping, authoritarian conservatives run the country. Intellectual meltdown [not to mention the demise of science, education, economy etc.]. Next, these assholes with be using Ouija boards to decrypt messages and add 'terrorist' names to the no fly list.
Seriously? It would take ONE experienced World of Warcraft player to distinguish that this is complete shit. you have ANYONE talking about "white fire" or "the dragon fire spell" or even "the oracle" in WoW people are going to be laughing you out of the world.
Ummm... Paranoid much?
I plan on calling a bunch of random numbers with my dialup modem and hopefully get into contact with a CIA computer that can't tell the difference between a game and reality and have it "play" thermonuclear war. I'll be the bestest terrorist evar! Then I'll go on to star in a post-apocalypse Ferris Bueller movie and then disappear or let my career take a dive, which ever comes first.
The pentagon should keep an eye out for me as well.
just more wasted money and fear-spreading propaganda from the bush administration. i didn't vote for this! it's time for a total revamp of our government. and if you think McCain or any other republican can or will change anything, think again. i'm moving to canada
I want this job. I want to get pad by the government to come up with absolutely incredulous scenarios to scare the pants off of right wing soccer moms. Then I might actually get some play instead of going to my second life furry parties.
Yes, fear everything. Be so afraid that you hand over your every single human right in exchange for extreme protection..Wake up people the terrorist are winning. .and the gov loves it.
Ok. I tried to make the simple, "Terrorist are smarter than this and use encrypted chat or voice over a google map/sketchup or custom written app" approach. Then we have people making the loverly argument that while the EXACT situation above is silly, its a way of drawing attention to a methodology. Yes, but its the wrong way, drawing unneeded attention and more importantly lots of people seem to miss the bigger picture. Treason, Terrorist Acts, blowing up your government are fundemental rights, at least according to some guys back in the 1770s. Freedom has a very high price. Its not just the lives of the soldiers who stand up for us, is having to hear, witness and sometimes die for freedom even when its NOT your choice. not saying its ok to go kill people to make a point by any means. But Freedom is the greater goal between Freedom and Security, and the judgement call must allways come down on the side of Freedom. excuse any typo's its late
This reminds me of a report I saw from the Navy where Bin Laden was using dolly tea parties to plan the assassinations of heads of state. Apparently the "crumpets" were referring to mortar attacks, and the code signal "would dolly like some more tea" set off the trigger. It only cost a few hundred million to run the study, but I think this really might be the ticket to get Bin Laden once and for all!
I feel bad for the poor spook who has to sit around and listen to Barrens and trade chat for the rest of his career after this report.
Perhaps all these responses are from the same person. This could be one long coded message, or just a bunch of anonymous people thinking. Either way, it MUST STOP!!
What? another "games-are-the-cause-of-crimes" scheme?
Man, it may not be long before the government bans every single games, either violent or not violent.
Time to throw away my 360 for my own protection.
FTW!!!
Im in no way paranoind, but why couldnt this be real? Why wouldnt terrorist try this, they would try anything else. I think that rather than complain about what our government is doing, why dont we give it time, and see what develops.
The govt had one point, they can't keep looking for terrorist communication in the same place, there are just too many ways to encrypt a conversation. It would be very easy to have people on the game talking, while on a conference call, also using a 3rd party chat software, and some other program.
That being said, WTF are they doing? I want my tax money back. Any moron with half a brain could see that this is one of the dumbest things ever spoken about. It will be a sad day when some govt idiot uses the fear of terrorists to put sanctions on online gaming.
If I was going to plan a cyber plot. why use WoW, which doesn't actually align with the streets. why not set up a private UT3 server, build a custom MAP, invite only my friends and use the integrated voice chat to plan the attack? It would be much more effective/realistic.
"just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games." The US military uses commercial shoot-em-up games as recruiting tools, and to teach soldiers how to communicate through a headset when they cannot see each other. That's it. In fact the military has a real problem with over-confident soldiers thinking they are bullet proof, that freak out when the bullets start flying.
I wonder if terrorist are meeting in a cafe somewhere plotting on napkins how they are going to totally mess up WoW.
The amount of false flags (and probably false arrests) that could result from something like this are ridiculous.
My Guild Wars elementalist pvp spec was designed to kill 2 enemy players really quickly, then die from fatigue preventing me from casting anything after that. I referred to this as the suicide bomber build.
I've seen guilds declare "jihad" on each other.
Of course, many fantasy worlds have their own religions, and in many cases at least one holy war exists in game, plays a major role in the plot, and is discussed by players often - especially in ones were actual role play is common, and someone may very well be a psychotic zealot... but only in character, and only in the game world. Combine this with the fact that death isn't permanent in a game, and blowing each other up for fun is generally a part of the game, and good luck distinguishing someone roleplaying a well-designed villian from someone actually planning something in real life.
Nuking is the standard term for heavy offensive spellcasting, in just about every RPG ever made. In shooters, there's often superweapons, and yeah, 'nuke' tends to be the quickest term for them. Of course, in RTS games, nuclear weapons are common.
Several military terms (line of sight, area of effect / splash radius, etc) are used regularly in all kinds of games, and particularly in the case of ones that are set in modern day with more or less realistic weapons, they're often used to mean exactly what they would in real life.
Of course, I haven't even mentioned the games that are actually built around terrorism yet... Counterstrike in particular, where one team plays terrorists and the other tries to stop them.
Chances are, if someone actually wanted to plan an attack, they'd use FAR less flag words than someone just playing the game normally - because they're trying to hide their plans, while normal players aren't hiding (or planning) anything outside of the game.
Could a terrorist group potentially use an online game to plan an attack? I don't think it's terribly likely, but sure, it's possible. Why WoW though? Wouldn't something like Unreal Tournament 2004 make more sense, where the map editor could be used to model a target, a "mission" could be built in Assault mode, and as long as you disable the really futuristic weapons, you can fight a semi-realistic battle?
Here's the thing: let's assume for the sake of argument, that somewhere, some group of nutjobs actually does take the UT route to plan some sort of terrorist attack. They're probably going to be playing on a locked, privately run server that requires a password to connect, not a publicly open server where any random player could figure out what's going on and report it. They're also probably using voice chat... also via a privately run, passworded server running either Ventrillo or Teamspeak.
Can I have my taxes back please?
Wow this is just absurd. Come on gov, you can do a lot better than this. Why wouldn't these video game playing 'terrorists' just use a voice chat program/private server? Next thing you can check out is terrorist plots on Madden 09. I have a hunch the ringleader of the operation with play as the Packers to signify the "Big Cheese" and if they line up in the shotgun formation with 5 wide receivers that means the plan is go in 5 major cities!!! Give me a break.
really? radical islamists who hate our way of life play WOW. that's interesting. basic flaw here guys, WOW players are far to busy leveling up their characters to bother extinguishing real life infidels.
Dr. Dwight Toavs, you're doing a heckuva job!
"I'm giving up and going back to hoping for another ice age or an asteroid strike. My species is too stupid to live."
I second that
You know, the communication over WoW could not be spontaneous. It would have to be agreed upon in another online environment or IRL. And I really don't think that terrorists would lack the imagination to come up with something completely innocuous that no code cracker in the world could decipher. For instance, why not disguise a terrorist plan online as a "cyber" (sex) conversation? Or instead of using WoW why not use some My Cute Pony MMORPG that 8 year old girls play?
This whole idea of online games being monitored by DHS is nothing new, there have been "rumors" about it for as long as I can remember playing MMOs post 9/11, but I honestly don't believe it is feasible in any real way.
I wonder how much they are REALLY monitoring online/phone communication and how much of it is that they want you to BELIEVE they are monitoring it?
Basically I think you guys over in America are getting screwed out of your money and freedom.
The righteous indignation of the mentally enfeebled makes my cry a little.
While I'm laughing.
The same crowd - the disaffected and poorly educated - that thinks this issue and the supporting research are legit are the same whackjobs who think the 11 September terror attacks were perpetrated by a global conspiracy.
Seriously guys, they have .jpgs, chat logs, and PROOF.
Bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
Bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, Bloodninja.
Bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
Bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
Bloodninja: I cast Lvl 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey...
Bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl 8 Penis of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.
Bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
Bloodninja: Don't f**k with me biznitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
Bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece.
Bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
Bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
Bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
Bloodninja: Baby?
This convinces that there is no point in voting anymore.
Before you know it your going to need a Homeland Security ID number to log on to your own computer.
Stoners just got a cool Million to play warcraft.
G
This thread made me laugh and cry it changed me in so many ways.
I can just see it now... CIA operatives roll on a PvP server and get ganked .. ten minutes later you're dragged out of your house with a bag over your head never to be seen again. Seriously, WTF, do they really have nothing better to do...
One good thing will be coming out of this: Instead of killing innocent people with garbage information, intelligence operatives will be killing gargoyles and monstrous ogres - and the entire time they'll be saying it's necessary for our national security.
Thumbs up.
One good thing will be coming out of this: Instead of killing innocent people with garbage information, intelligence operatives will be killing gargoyles and monstrous ogres - and the entire time they'll be saying it's necessary for our national security.
Thumbs up.
One good thing will be coming out of this: Instead of killing innocent people with garbage information, intelligence operatives will be killing gargoyles and monstrous ogres - and the entire time they'll be saying it's necessary for our national security.
Thumbs up.
What about the decoder rings in our cereal boxes!? What about the decoder rings?! It's too late! We didn't think fast enough!
It was the decoder rings!!! NOOOOOOO!!
-- Big Mushroom Cloud --
End of Story.
I wonder how these guys get paid, to make up completely asinine scenarios. Now I'm assuming the would be terrorists are alliance, as why would horde be raiding their own outpost. The big red square is actually the side of a mountain and is completely meaningless. The Zoram Strand is in Ashenville not Stonetalon Mountains.
Obviously, we are dealing with a bunch of noobs.
vector to the giant breadbox--beware the roaches--use zapgun on full or trance setting. Do not talk to any women in lace underwear wearing high-heels. Once in breadbox wear disco outfit and scream "woot woot"
why would anyone use wow to conspire?
i know nothing about being circumspect, and if i were planning some secret thing via the net, i'd use mixminion or something, and pgp encrypted messages.
wouldn't that be safer and simpler?
Well, ehm... I'm not sure if I should be shocked or just laughing. Isn't this "oh-no-terrorists-might-get-us-so-let's-take-away-every-bit-of-freedom-people-have-left"-thing getting a bit out of hand?
As a lvl 70 rogue maybe I should be worried the CIA will come and arrest me next time I pick the lock of a dungeon called "the arcatraz" because it would mean i'm planning to break everyone out of guantanamo bay or when I pickpocket some ogre it would mean I'm planning to steal the government plans from Bush himself.
Get real my dear people at the pentagon, if u want to play WOW and want to know what they are saying I'd say lvl yourself a character to 70 or 80 once Wrath of the Lich King is out. (you'd better hurry if u don't want to go through the trouble of having to lvl to 80)
Raids... yes, lots of people planning an attack on a blood elf or a demon really seems very frightening for homeland security.
You're already trying to get anonymity off the internet, don't you think it's disturbing that China has been trying to do this all along?
Yes, there may be terrorists threats somewhere. I still don't think this justifies some CIA guys playing WOW 24/7 because they're desperate and probably bored if they think this really is the biggest threat around.
But oh well, I guess as a CIA officer you already don't really have a life, more chances of succeeding in WOW.
Once you're tired of that you might want to start thinking about more realistic threats than some raid group attacking a dragon or even Orgrimmar.
"The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans"
- Actually, they are. So are many terrorists. And, apparanently, some reporters as well. Rest assured, real CT work does not look like this.
This terrorist strategy would be much more effective using the game BATTLESHIP (non-electronic version). This would be for sea-based plots only.
For land-based plots, the game STRATEGO should be used.
Enjoy your police state.
I'm going to the SHOPS in 30 mins to BUY SOME BREAD, I'm going to ask lots of my friends if they'd like some BREAD too and maybe if I fancy it later we'll have some TOAST. I wonder if they have any CHEESE.
Random comment chat or a plan to destory the world!!! I'll let your tax dollars go towards the funding of a research team who will, bit by bit pull messages like these appart until the come to the expensive conclusion that.....
ANY tool that allows people to communicate across continents COULD be used to plan the buying of bread or the attacking of something.
Paranoia... sweet paranoia.
Why the negative spin? This aids the terrorists goal, ie to scare us! Look at it this way, WoW is a useful tool for secretly communicating orders, for us or them. It's hosted by the civilians we are protecting so we have an edge if we need to investigate enemy activity.
First of all they wouldn't be that fluent in English, secondly WoW takes up way too much time - being a hardcore WoW player and a terrorist don't mix, and thirdly terrorists play StarCraft.
This is so colossally stupid that it blows my mind. Imagine you're a terrorist and consider your options:
(1) Spend countless hours and money playing WoW so that you can develop a code using WoW lingo. Then conduct your communications using YOUR OWN computer, on YOUR OWN internet connection (or else spend even MORE time and money trying to find a WiFi hotspot that will support a WoW connection).
(2) Spend 20 mins and NO money developing a code that looks like two people making plans to go drinking. Then conduct your communications from any public computer/hotspot using MSN.
Which do you choose?
Anyone freaking out over scenario number 1 needs to go back to grade school.
the people who made this up are complete morons.
Can't wait for the bible-thumper phamlet comes out.
"Is your son a potential terrorist?
1: Does he play WoW
2: Is he using strange/uncommon words?
lol, this is soo short yellow bus
That monthly fee is terrorism enough... :-P
If the NSA and DOD are seriously considering online MMORPG’s as breeding grounds for terrorism, why is gold farming/selling still allowed? And why are accounts constantly hacked by third party programs and sold off? This is a classic example of "on your feet thinking" when being caught playing WOW on your Laptop at work.
And although it is the DOD's & the NSA’s job to think up crazy scenarios in order to stop potential attacks on the USA, they seemed to drop the ball when it came to KNIVES used to HIJACK PLANES and then crashing them into THE PENTAGON or just plain WALKING OVER THE MEXICAN BOARDER. I understand the necessity to think outside the box, but perhaps we should focus on more realistic and feasible methods of inflicting terror, like things that cut the box open! Instead of mucking around in Stonetalon Peak, maybe we could use some of these “free thinkers” to stop the hundreds of people pouring over our boarders illegally a day! Good chance a few of them are terrorists with nuclear or biological weapons in hand.
Instead of all this stupidity, the United States needs to truly flex its military muscles and simply turn the Mideast into a nice glass parking lot. Then China can come in and buy up all the oil contracts, thus getting all the spoils of war at the expense of American lives...oh wait, they already did that...just not the glass parking lot thing.
People like this in charge and I have to have a 3 hour job interview for $13.00/hr......christ............
I saw a bunch of Muslim extremists learning to fly Gyrocoppters around Stormwind. Who do I notify?
Anyone remember the good old days when Wired featured real journalism?
Yeah I don't either.
This illustrates what the "war on terror" is really about - thinking up the most crack-pot ideas that can be used to strike fear into the unknowing law makers. Thus in turn fucking up "normal" day-to-day life for all...
What strikes terror into me is that the people who make decisions for the majority rely on advice from so-called "professionals" who are just trying to justify their 6 and 7 figure sallaries. Infact basically put they're looking for funding to allow several agents to have unlimited access to playing online games 24/7. What a waste of your tax payers money.
ZOMG terrorists ninja'd my epic lootz!!!
I just want to know what these guys are smoking....
Chess is also a threat to national security.
I believe that checkers is not an immediate threat.
What a bunch of paranoid tin-foil hats.
Why does the US military think "terrorists" would use online games for
planning and executing attacks ?
Because that's what they themselves use the Internets for ?
I guess there are those in the intelligency community that wants find ways to defend why they play comupter games on paid hours as well...
IF the terrorists each had a computer, a legit copy of WoW, and a steady income to pay the monthly fee, they'd stop being terrorists.
They'd be geeky yahoos with pale skin who spend their fee time looking for epics, like me.
Oh no. I think I may have joined their guild in error. It's run by a gnome warlock with a long beard living in a cave behind Iron Forge.
Tw@ts! and to think they got paid for thinking of that.
In the land of the free and the home of the....well, not quite so brave after all.
This is so funny...
As usual the masses are unaware that spooks are everywhere, in all areas of your lives. People of interest are paid to report what they hear however innocent it might be. This is no different than the Soviet Russia and US of A of the 60's. So if you think that our "Jargon" on online games, Blogs and IRC channels aren't already heavily monitored, you're living in a dream. This trash piece of journalism is just propaganda. Terrorists and nature lovers will always find a way to communicate. We will never be able to control everyone, everywhere at all times, and if we ever came close life would not be worth living, you bunch of fascists !
The damn sad truth of it is, we are all terrorists. Under an oppressive fascist regime every person who is not (and some that are) members of the "inner-sphere" are potential enemies. This is simply due to the fact that every person has a limit on the amount of crap they will put up with before taking matters into their own hands.
Someone got PAID to come up with this bullshit? And Wired PAID someone to write this drivel?
These guys should consider seeing a psychiatrist, they are seriously in need of one.
Terrorists have succesfully attacked our imagination!
Completely absurd. Sure they (the always nondescript terrorists) might use such a space to talk, but the very idea they use it to simulate an attack? Even our war games don't teach you how to load, fire, and clean a gun properly. For that, you need actual training.
On the other hand, it would be hilarious if this was correct, but then all the terrorists got addicted to WoW, missing important information because they had a "sweet raid group" till 2 AM in the morning. Thus Blizzard would have saved the western world by making terrorists into WoWaholics....
This entire post is like an April Fool's joke. People using 'WoW jargon' to plot a terrorist attack... over the actual game chat channels!
Can't they do it over msn and use other code? It's just bloody ridiculous.
Why don't they look at something a little more realisitic like "America's Army." That game is made by our own government, and it is so realisitc that our troops use it to train. What I don't understand is why they go off and look at something as far-off as WOW. They need to get their heads out of the clouds.
You know what this sounds like to me? Some jagoff in the pentagon got busted for playing computer games at work and came up with this bs to cover his @ss.
OH SHI!.... there onto us, fuck tariq log out
I have to comment on this....
In anticipation of such a huge threat to global security, we Azerothians will gladly undertake the responsibility of ensuring our national security is not at risk. Our guild is stocked up on Pots, Blackened Basilisk, and Golden Fishsticks and we are ready to raid at a moments notice (though we prefer Tues and Thurs nights @7pm server time).
Pwnage: Hey, you got mats for that Crusader enchant?
Minimage: Your momma's a crusader
Pwnage: STFU, im gonna get chuck norris to Pwn your momma.
Minimage: Whatever, yeah I got em. You owe me though, the mats are hella expensive on the AH right now.
Pwnage: I'll send you the new weapon in the mail, just return it with a COD for the cost of the mats.
Holyraider: You guys ready for the raid on Tues?
Pwnage: yeah we r gonna rally at 66,61 before heading out though.
Holyraider: 66,61 got it.
Minimage: WTH, Nagrand? Why are we meeting in Nagrand.
Holyraider: Cool, I will be there. This is gonna be epic!
Minimage: Wait, why are we meeting in nagrand?
Pwnage: My Merciless Gladiators Waraxe is gonna Pwn with the Crusader enchant I am getting.
Minimage: what are you guys talking about? Who meets in nagrand before a raid on Stormwind castle?
Holyraider: Awesome.. /dance
Brought to you by NotANoob. These guys are ID10Ts.
Hey Homeland Security, and CIA hire me... I have a degree in Political Science and a Lvl 70 Paladin
Bleedin idiots ,, get a life .. get a minicall
Listen, you think the al-quida, qida, idiot terrorists would be stupid enough to do the chat in /1 general - get real.
They'd have a guild - "WE BOMBERS" "HATEZ U S" or some other innocent sounding name. Plus look at all the servers. There is no way that the CIA or who ever would have the man power to have high lvl toons on every server on both sides and have them geared. Face it - if the bad boys were in WoW they wouldn't catch them - no one wants to run annoying gov. spooks thru VC and SM.
Don't you guys see? It's just a ploy for intelligence operatives to justify playing WoW at work, since they do it anyway, but get busted for it.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever read. I can't believe our taxes pay for nonsense like this when the country's got a thousand real problems.
That settles it, President Bush should ban World of Warcraft. This game represents a threat to national security and our ability to reproduce. I say ban it.
Wow, so terrorists might use code names and stuff. That's an important insight! I'm glad to see the Pentagon is still recruiting the best and the brightest.
one thing they didnt realise if said terrorist bought WoW in say Iraq wouldnt they be buying the EU version???
This sounds like a leaked story designed to build up a media hype around the use of the internet as mechanism of terrorist activities. This goes on for a bit, with more and more stories surfacing (you're already seeing it), then suddenly the government has a case for developing an internet "FCC" which is there "for your protection". Next thing you know you have to have a government certified ID to post information to the internet, and only government approved sites and servers are allowed to transmit data.
I don't know that the government will ever truly be able to control the internet, but this just becomes another hurdle, another way of developing social momentum toward the idea. Its called Manufactured Consent.
If they are that worried about it, why doesn't the government just hire some high-level players to monitor WoW? This is so dumb...
thats a 50 dkp minus! moar dots!
I'z in ur raidgroup sharding ur WMDz.
for some reason, i'm reminded of the time i saw "ID4" at a theater here in san francisco, and when the aliens blew up the white house, everyone applauded!
OR.......OR........OOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR..... they are really just playing the game!
Naturally they'd plan in a virtual world. Why not? Any tool that's useful will be used in all pursuits: embroidery, basket weaving, terrorism.
But it's amazing how the spooks pick on the fringe stuff and miss out on what's staring them in the face. I'll bet hey already get together at Starbucks! Starbucks make good cappuccinos and espressos. Add to that that Starbucks often offers free Wi-Fi which would allow the bad guys to chat on-line, even do video chat and Starbucks is a problem.
While nuking all Starbucks is a little drastic I think, just to be on the safe side, we should shut them all down.
But I know they'll never do this. The backlash from Washington's political wonks (and lawyers) will be too huge. After all, where will they buy their extra-large-grandé-no-fat-cap's?
The U.S needs to invest in not being assholes
"What has likely occurred here is that someone in the Pentagon got busted playing WoW on duty and stayed out of trouble by brushing the whole thing off as "research". I'm sure he's laughing his Orcish butt off on WoW right now, telling his buddies how he actually briefed this nonsense to Congressmen."
Absolutely. Except everyone knows Spooks play Alliance.
But honestly - this is something valid for a researcher to look at, and say "Huh - here's how something could happen." I do disaster planning at work. We have a plan for a nuclear strike. Odds of happening? 1 in 50 million (cf odds of black hole from Hadron).
But yeah, WoW is *so* not the venue. Private SL/OpenSim/HL2 mods will be the route.
ugh.. this goes to show that normal "adults" don't have a clue about how these games work, but want to try to somehow make them look bad for some unknown reason.. or maybe they want to seem like they are "in the know" by trying to make this crap up.
For starters, even if a spy did play WoW, they can't see people's party chat or private whispers so that makes it absolutely pointless, and goes to show the author has no clue what he's talking about.
that was horrible wow lingo, so i'm guessing whoever would be easy to catch.
Yeah, because encrypted VOIP over Tor is way less secure than codebooking over WoW.
*facepalm*
I agree with commenters above: somebody got caught playing WoW at work and BSed their way out of it.
I did a better presentation on the addictive effects of MMORPGs. I know commone sense is lacking in all societies these days but would a terrorist REALLY spend the cost of the game and the cost to play per month just to make a plan to destroy the White House or the Pentagon? I mean we don't listen to our own people half the time so why would we listen to you(terrorists) just because you blew something up. We'd just blow you up back without getting the message anyway.
Its not that you couldn't plan an attack in WoW. Its that there are so many myriad ways to communicate online that if you wanted to be sure to catch the bad guys you'd need to make sure that there wasn't a chatroom, forum, game, teamspeak server, message board, irc channel, p2p application, auction posting, flickr photo, shared video, or sourceforge project that wasn't being monitored and analyzaed by the spooks. Or banned, if that gets too expensive. Basically its an impossible mission.
The only reasonable approach it to figure out what the terrorists are actually using to communicate FIRST, and then snoop that.
If the terrorists are stupid enough to use an MMO, then that's terrific. You send an agent over to Blizzard and have a GM monitor any number of character's actions. In order to moderate character disputes and police their TOS, there's already a tremendous amount of logging being done. They could probably just pull complete logs of character's words and actions. Probably woithout a search warrent, tho you may want to pick one of those up just in case.
AC needs to invest in not being what he purports the US to be.
This is f'ing RETARDED. It's just beyond stupid. Is this how US spooks spend their time? Then I'm surprised 9/11 doesn't happen more often! I'm facepalming so hard right now, my forehead is red.
I think the CIA needs to get off their asses and actually do some real field work, instead of justifying their reasons for being lazy and sit around doing nothing but creating imaginary terror threats hiding inside of an MMORG.
See... I think this could be part of the plan. Show something so STUPID as to suggest WoW, and then watch the comments for faster, more efficient means:
"why not set up a private UT3 server, build a custom MAP, invite only my friends and use the integrated voice chat to plan the attack?"
"why not disguise a terrorist plan online as a "cyber" (sex) conversation? Or instead of using WoW why not use some My Cute Pony MMORPG that 8 year old girls play?"
... among others.
Sounds like someone has read Halting State (Charles Stross ISBN 0-441-01498-4).
"They're tunelling TCP/IP over AD&D!"
FOR THE HORDE!!
Here's what I'm worried about. Suppose I overhear people in real life planning to blow up the white house. How do I know it isn't just code and they're really a bunch of alliance planning a raid on Orgrimmar?
What a misleading headline, Wired. Regardless of the validity of the research (which I personally think is a silly way of framing the discussion - secret plans can be discussed through code in any medium, WoW is no different), the headline tries to grab extra attention by insinuating there was actually a terror plot in an MMORPG. Shame on the editor for putting that headline up.
FOR THE HORDE!!
a) I'm offended that they think of the capitol of the US as equivilant of a poorly itemized zone for level 17-25.
b) let me rephrase the point of the presentation in actual wow lingo: "ZOMG Terrorists are OP. Plz Nerf. Buff CIA plzkthx. QQ ACLU"
c) everyone knows terrorists play rogues and hunters, so they couldn't even "equip" their dragon fire spell
d) newbs.
Thank you for changing the headline. Literally in the time it took to post my last comment, the headline was altered from "Pentagon Researcher Unveils Warcraft Terror Plot" to "Pentagon Researcher Conjures Warcraft Terror Plot". I'm glad someone caught it and made the appropriate correction.
Jack: You win the internet.
Nick: The use of the word "Conjure" suggests a fanciful creation, or an illusion of some sort. Discovers would say "There was one." Conjures says "created one from thin air."
Nick: Ah ha!
Snarkiness retracted.
....and given the fact that most of the players are from China and the EU, what then? Could it also be a red herring? Seriously Stonetalon for DC? Not Stormwind or Darnassus? What a bunch of noobs.
Like they needed WoW to plot 9-11.
what about Age of Conan or Spore? It COULD happen, so it MUST be true!
They could easily do this over a private server, which is not affiliate with Blizzard and do so more discreetly.
DEBUNKED- WIRED is now NERFED!
IM IN UR GAMEZ CREATING CHARZ WIT NUMBERZ IN THE NAME!1!!
ZOMG!11!! NURF NUCLEAR WPOWNZ!11!!1
If this is where they are really looking we have bigger problems then getting blown up by some idiots... We have the problem of being surrounded and living with them. And BTW, If you re-configure all the letters I've used in this post, it could spell out a attack? OMG! it could...
This is a perfect example why those stupid kids back in school shouldn't be given and grant money to conduct a study, Nor should they be given internet access.
I tend to believe just a regular email with the information of a attack would go unnoticed and be far more direct. Why pay for a wow account?
Well now that that we all know this, nothing is going to happen LOL
Must be an RP server. Thats some kinky ERP. Probably walk into the white keep and see seven guys standing around a naked blood elf.
THAT my friends, is true terrorism.
This is an excellent way for bored spies to justify levelling their alts to 70 in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. Smart.
Noah, you don't, have, to use, so many commas!
Retarded, retarded, retarded. I don't think they'll stop until they turn the US into China or something.
Let's get these old hags out of the white house eh?
How about we don't vote for these idiots next election, eh?
you can't use numbers or underscore in W.O.W. names
so they think that they hide messages in there conversations I don't think they have ever listened to trade chat in shat omg people will talk about blowing up the white house in plain text but there all 9 year old little kiddies they also have talked about having sex with pandas and chickens and what would there children look like so I'd get on that one also Panicken or Chicndas what do you think? honestly if I was a terrorist and all us Americans are I'd just use a piece of paper and a envelope to inform my terrorist hooligan buddies of such large scale tactical info its untraceable that way and no one can spy on your plans to mate various animals or even terrorize the US government retards I bet they dont even have one T5 geared lv 70 =P
Oh this is just fantastic; better than this week's Onion.
So is this some new faction? I was still deciding whether it was best to be Aldor or Scryer. Seriously.
All you idiots who have been voting republican are responsible for this type of foolishness. Dont vote! a republican will just buy his way into office anyway. dont make it any easier
Can someone pleaseeee pay attention to the economy???!
This is the most ridiculous load of nonsense I've heard for a while.
People are perfectly capable of planning attacks and communicating covertly with more sophisticated methods, like public key encryption and steganography. In any case, people were using metaphors and lingo to talk with a little extra secrecy for hundreds of years (at least). The possibility didn't just arrive simultaneously with WoW.
"Possibly nuclear or radiation weapon"? Idiotic!
This was thought up by a rouge.
I am impressed by the brilliance of this, assuming this is what happened.
"Wait a minute, I know how I can get away with farming at work...."
I'll put you away soon enough, and find ways to keep you in check through fear. So do what i say.
Instead of calling you communist I'll call you a terriorist.
YOUR ALL STUPID.. OF course this is real. Just last week I used wow to plan a raid on a bar in RL. We must have killed several dozen "Beers". Be afarid....
I kid I kid. I could see why they would look at wow but you must draw a line somewhere. Can you imagine the lag if the NSA scanned all the chat logs in wow.
Of for the love of crap. That’s retarded. They’re just making excuses to start monitoring everything that goes on there like everything else.
This donkey sees a scenario where "no-one will dance for a hundred
years" as nuclear. From what I have seen planning is not too complex
for such devices. Go to area, go boom, virgins galore. The reference
invalidates the entire premise. The governmental reaction to terror
has already killed the America I grew up in.
What are they waiting for?
Ban videogames, internet, cell phones an any comunication devices in the market.
Let's go back to a goberment owned horse postal service.
DO IT FOR THE KIDS!!
PolSci Grad.
10 years in gov.
LvL 70 BM Hunter T5 & S4 Equipped.
Hire me !
Where do I sign up to be a WoW spook? If the gov't is going to waste money on this, they might as well give some of it to me.
Strype McClaine | Sep 16, 2008 9:51:12 AM said :
"This was thought up by a rouge.
I am impressed by the brilliance of this, assuming this is what happened."
A ROUGE ? You mean a commie spy ??!!
Oh wait..he meant rogue....
oh
em
gee
sew ghey
You know, it's easier and cheaper to just send messages on some random server using ssh.
Why don't they use Mario Kart DS though? At least you don't need to pay a subscription.
Vehicle motions could be encoded messages. Yyyeaahhhh
Someone in security definitely wants to be paid to play WoW all day :D
LOL
A country that sacrifices a little freedom in order to get a little security will deserve neither, and lose both.
Umm, wouldn't there be about 500 better ways of doing this off the top of my head that were maybe encrypted, more p2p, or less p2p, more private and could use the same or different code as the above example?
I mean conference calling in skype is p2p and encrypted and you can use the same type of script.
Heck even IRC server and a warez or hacking conversation would do, at least you have an idea who is listening.
They are just annoyed that somewhere there is some digital bits that they are not privy too.
They (and by they I mean the government) thinks it has a right to anything said anywhere "just in case" it might be terrorists.
Here's a clue: Wall St. has done more damage than the terrorists did - maybe you should pay a bit more attention to WTF THEY are doing.
"And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans." I should hope not! Everyone knows that level 70 rogues make the best spies. With maybe a druid or two for emergency heals.
The government is going overboard with Murphy's Law. If I ran for president I would make Murphy's Law illegal.
Arabic speaking players chat openly (in Arabic) in Trade Chat on the Bleeding Hollow server in World of Warcraft daily. They mainly request certain characters/classes to meet them. From there, who knows what they talk about in private chats, or whether or not they're just people playing, or communicating about real world terrorism, or a combination of both.
I do find it a bit odd that they are looking specifically for other Arabs (in English, this is what they've called themselves when others give them a hard time about being terrorists), because the rest of us of many nationalities looking for a good group to run a dungeon don't care who a person is, just that they can heal, damage, protect, etc.
I don't know the answer to patrolling MMOs, but I know the possibility, and in my opinion, from what I've seen, the probability of terrorists meeting in MMOs, is very, very real.
runescape is secretly being used to monitor your movements... Everquest is a keylogger... and that lightswithcin your kitchen monitors all your conversations!!! I shit you not!! MMORPG's and lightswitches all need CIA monitoring!
ROFl
Go do a real job
Basically, this is just a pretext for the government subpeona-ing chat logs (and making it a felony crime not to retain them!)
"And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans."
I thought CIA didn't want to hire people who played WoW?
blah blah blah blah ... it sickens and disgusts me to read the defenses of this idiocy. Will someone please tell me why repukes are such chicken-plop coward terrorists? When did this happen anyway? What happened to loving America instead of trying to destroy it from the inside out with criminal contempt and terrorism?
.
Remember who the true terrorists are folks. No, it's not some monkey brained towel headed camel lover in the middle east, it's the war monger in the White House that has apparently done everything in his power to destroy us from within. Bin laden is just a puppet to the true terrorist, fuhrer bushit.
.
Remember voting republican is a treasonous act against America!
They could meet in a quilting chat room. They could meet in a coffee shop. They can meet anywhere. And is WOW really the best place to train? Wouldn't buying a couple Xbox 360's and a first person shooter game be better training? Or that strategy game the Army puts online?
I understand that they have to 'think of everything', but stop running around screaming the sky is falling.
...uh so we can keep them scattered and not have to
fight too many. Um, when his is done, Rushd of course will need to
run in and do the same thing, I
mean, we’ll be in trouble if we don’t take them down quick. Uhh I
think this is a pretty good plan, we should be able to pull it off
this time. Uhh, what do you think Abduhl? Can you give me a number
crunch real quick?
Abduhl: Uhhh.. yeah gimme a sec… I’m coming up with thirty-two
point three three, repeating of course, percentage, of survival.
Player 1: That’s a lot better than we usually do, uhh, alright, you
think we’re ready guys? [interrupted]
Leeroy: All right chums, I’m (back)! Let’s do this! LEEROOOOOOOY
JEEENKIIIIIINSSS!!! [runs into cave]
-Short pause-
Player 2: [incredulous] … Oh my God he just ran in.
Congratulations homeland security, you've just publicly announced a great way for terrorists to communicate and relay information, that they probably had never thought of, and you've displayed that its a difficult situation to monitor.
Or
Your overreacting, like usual.
Oh my GOD!!!! Shut down the internets! Someone might use them for something bad! No phnoes, no computers, no meetings in groups, no games, no using words the CIA hasn't heard before.
WTF?
At least we know how Bin Laden got away. Bubblehearth!!
Wasn't this article originally headlined "Pentagon Researcher Reveals Warcraft Terror Plot"? Was I dreaming, because I distinctly remember reading that headline and then the article and realizing the headline was utterly false? Good that you fixed it, but isn't it usually considered good journalistic practice to do so openly?
It's awesome. I love that this probably wasn't happening before our tax money paid that guy to give a speech on how to do it.
My new thought it that they don't use the internet. Our gov't simply tells them how, where and what to do. But they use this secret code, that only the Taliban can decipher.
Before you state a command you begin with "the terrorist could (insert horrible massacre scenario here) and all they would have to do is (insert step by step plans showing the best way to accomplish this). It's fool proof. Yay gov't I can't wait to hear what they're up to next.
This was already covered in Charles Stross' book "Halting State" (which I highly recommend) where the bad guys communicate via MMORPG (among other things). So essentially we have someone who is finally learning to read and regurgitate.
I would have figured spy agency people to have rogues, not shamans.
@SomeGuy: That's right, "Halting State" did describe something similar (if more futuristic). It's a hell of a novel.
@Rebuilder: One of the advantages of the online medium is the ability to revise and re-revise. I often try out 4 or 5 different headlines, before I hit on the right one. In other words: It's a feature, not a bug.
@SoGnomely: Bwahahahah!!!!
nms
If the CIA is really looking to get into the World of Warcraft, I am looking for a job. I know the lingo fairly well, and have, in fact, ran into a couple shady characters during my travels through Darkshire. I have slain many beasts, and snuck through many enemy fortresses to gather information.
I'm pretty sure this article is a sign: I can save the world.
To the CIA: When you read this, you know how to contact me, I'll be waiting.
Sounds like some intelligence guys are trying to think of an excuse to play World of Warcraft at work. Sounds like it's working.
Guess we have to outlaw all maps next. Welcome to the Nanny State.
WOW. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS ONE OF THE STUPIDEST FUCKING COUNTRIES IN THE FUCKING WORLD. ONLY THEY COULD THINK OF SOMETHING THIS FUCKING RETARDED.
So are we going to have a rash of Pentagon sponsored False Flag Terror Attacks in WOW now?
wow. this stirred up a shit storm..
that would be a GREAT name for a new
online game:
A.S.S. A Shit Storm.
I myself have witnessed an act of terrorism in world of warcraft. You see, I was in the molten core when it happened. Just an innocent level 60 priest dressed in devout. We were fighting Baron Geddon, when I noticed that a player named xXReAlLiFeTeRoRrIsTXx from the guild had just turned into the bomb. In a rapid display of what I can only describe as merciless terrorism, he charged the unsuspecting group one leaving none alive. When the Raid leader realized what had happened he immediately began to report it to the game authorities, but it was too late. The Terrorist went link dead before the entire raid could backslash ignore him and report him.
Dear CIA,
It's worse than you think. The evil-doers are using Warcraft also to learn skills in first-aid and jewel crafting.
I can help for only $5,000/hour. pst Gustavo
Osama Bin Laden Laughing HIS ASS off in some remote cave... PS: he is a lvl 80 dEATH KNIGHT ALREADY
LF2M WH, have tank and DPS, no heals needed
This is why no WoW killer has emerged. The Pentagon has thrown its weight behind Bliz in an effort to keep it to one primary MMORPG in order to narrow the window of opportunity for terrorists to attack. After all, no self respecting terrorist is going to plan an attack in Lineage II or some free kids MMO (Allah wouldn't approve).
Next season's 24 could feature Jack Bauer as a level 70 Rogue with his CTU guild attempting to stop a terrorist plot in the Outlands.
THIS JUST IN....TERRORISTS MAY USE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS CELL PHONES TO PLOT ATTACKS ON THE USA!!!
OMFG!!1!!1!!
I agree with the other posters - this sounds like one big fear-mongering plot, more than a serious threat. Instead sitting in the shadows, watching a potential terrorist, or infiltrating a terrorist group, hey let's give an example what could possibly happen. My question is, why is this any more of a threat than, say, people using IMs or exchanging emails.....or posting to a bulletin board? Seriously this is the dumbest story I have seen yet. Frankly, Im more concerned over terrorist using an old Sega Dreamcast to communicate than WoW, since there probably isn't anyone monitoring that system. You know,I am more worried about terrorists putting on headsets and talking to each other in Halo, where they can test out shooting Marines.....
This has been the funniest shitz I have read in a while keep the comments coming.
DEAR FBI
PLEASE CHECK OUT CLUB PENGUIN NEXT
I BELIEVE IT IS A FRONT FOR CRYSTAL METH OPERATIONS
THOSE PENGUINS ARENT THAT HAPPY JUST FROM SKATING ON NORMAL ICE
What's everyone talking about? I think this is a great article!
--------------------
PorterGoss - MT of , Tichondrius
Stop stealing my ideas.
Clearly this person has not played enough WoW if he thinks that's real dialog.
Legolaz> RIaDING XROODS!!!1! PM 4 iNviTSE!!!!
ThickPwner> I raided ur mom last night!
Timmay> OMG Alliance Suks.
Legolaz> RIaDING XROODS!!!1! PM 4 iNviTSE!!!!
Legolaz> RIaDING XROODS!!!1! PM 4 iNviTSE!!!!
Greydude> Quit spamming you noob!
Hidden in that carefully orchestrated exchange there was the hex encoded address of where some explosives were to be placed.
Two questions:
1) how is this any different from people using codes over POTS? This is not a new problem and dressing up an old idea for a new medium smacks of scaremongering plain and simple.
2) does the author of the presentation not know what the word "vector" means? It would seem from the third image that the answer is "no."
I doubt the CIA or MI5 or anyone similar has trolls in Wired to float silly articles like this to see who'll bite, but maybe they read the comments. In fact, maybe they're reading this now. I'm not bothered--hi! If you want to do a background check, be my guest. As Morrisey once said: "all men have secrets and here is mine". I once visited an explosives factory back in Japan. "So what difference does it make? It makes none."
Hey Maybe Bin Laden is hidding out in WOW...thats the only reason I could think of for not finding him
"Class call: Rogues. rotate! rotate!"
"...wait, wait are we still killing Nef or is this part of the plot?"
Sounds more like the pentagon wants to play warcraft at work. LawL
Why would anyone bother with WoW for this sort of planning when you can run IRC and a web-based whiteboard app on an OLPC or other cheap laptop... and except for the OLPC part, have been able to do so for a decade now?
You powerdorks are all snark, and no sense.
One of the NY Times stories in recent years revealed classified intel info, that terrorists were using hotmail to pass msgs back and forth, by simply sharing the login. Once that article hit the papers, all those hotmail leads dried up.
Im glad we have pointy headed scientists doing things like this. Will we catch em all? no. Will we hit a home run? eventually.
Its money and resources well spent. Better than a "Bridge to Nowhere", or a Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac any day.
This has got to be one of the most absurd things I've seen in a while.
It's simply another thing to get the American public and Congress scared "about the terrorists that are now using video games to plan attacks! Oh no!" Give me a fucking break.
I have never seen a conversation even remotely like that any time in WOW.
So...We are paying taxes so that ppl in government can play a video game that my 2 year old plays
so that they can find make believe terrorist attacks?
And, so... I ... I am so confused.
Even if, in some far off form of reality they did come across a guild that was a
terrorist hive or whatever, what exactly do they think that they could do about it?
You can buy 30 day game cards with cash and use fake names.
And beyond that why?
Why would anyone think that you could possibly do this?
There is nothing in Azeroth or Outlands that even remotely resembles the United States, or any country that I am familiar with.
This is more retarded fear-mongering bull shit that America has become experts at.
L2stop bein a tard nub
WTB a more intelligent government
Wow. I hope this guy got Blizz's blessing to use an image from their game before publishing this propaganda. kek
Looks like the author should have consulted Glurg for actual WoW lingo and convo.
Oh, come on. Everyone knows the terrorists are playing Hello Kitty! Island Adventure. N00bs!
[2. Trade][Leetterrorist]: WTB [Nuclear Weapon]. PST with price.
OK let me start off by saying I've played this game for three years and like many of you I stopped reading after the 2nd paragraph. This is complete garbage!
"[2. Trade][Leetterrorist]: WTB [Nuclear Weapon]. PST with price."
rofL!
WTB Primal Mooncloth CD, my mats and tip! Camouflage gear 4 war dawg.
Forgot to add - with warcraft being as addictive as ever, the military will have nothing to worry about:
"u guys rdy 4 dectution 2marrow?!"
"yeah man, we bee thurr yah.....oh epix drop!@1!"
~next day~
"Where the #$%^ are you guys?! Time for boom boom"
"Aww man can't come, Black Temple raid starts in like 45mins man, tonight's my night for the glaive dawg, u have fun tho man"
You have to give the morons who work for the government something to do. Why not have them playing video games all day, instead of looking for imaginary WMD?
The reason we cant find Osama is because he is stealthed
I am SO HAPPY to see this story. As the wife of a man who plays WOW all the time (and has several level 70 characters I am told), I can now bring this story home to him and tell him he now has a top-level job waiting for him at the CIA. Woohoo!
Well if they didn't have that idea before they have it now. Once again idiot americans prove you can just hand over terrorist training. A* to the DoD
Can I have whatever the author of this article was smoking? He's so far from planet earth he qualifies as a space cadet.
like they need anouther reason to blow our money on needles shit...let them monitor WoW...it keeps them from spending Billions on crap like $2000 toilet seat covers...maybe they can actually accomplish something...like helping me cap 4 towers in Eots...cause we could sure use some millitary training on my server...
L2PLAY TERRORIST.
I bet they would lay lolret.
"Well if they didn't have that idea before they have it now. Once again idiot americans prove you can just hand over terrorist training. A* to the DoD"
Yeah I'm sure all those towels are rushing out to buy WoW. Dumbass.
Noone will dance for 100 years after the Dragon Fire Spell eh??
Ever hear of the [Piccolo of the Flaming Fire] didn't think so nubs
Seriously folks, these threats are real. I'm sure bin Laden has a high speed internet connection and is planning the next attack via WoW or better yet SL. (in fact, I called the FBI tip line about a suspicious avatar in SL that looked very much like bin Laden--aside from the gigantic boobs and the half-dragon/half-unicorn ride he was sporting)
If your avatars are not for us, they are against us.
I suspect any would be terrorists would get sucked into WoW anyway. They'd get too fat to do anything in the real world. If they were really hard core they might end up as griefers.
Condaleeza Rice sat in front of Congress and said "I believe the report was titled 'Bin Laden determined to attack inside U.S. using commercial aircraft.'."
Even this was TOO SUBTLE for the intelligence community to pick up on. What makes anyone think they could find a plot in WoW when they couldn't find their asses with both hands?
Well crap. This is gonna suck for them to monitor, as Blizzard has added titles and mounts for raiding the opposing faction's leaders/cities. Everyone and their mom is going to be hitting up city raids.
Are cia and Fbi agents any good at raiding?
Makes you want to see what classes at "National Defense University" are like if this is the quality of the professors research. I bet even the spooks laugh at these military pukes.
I find it interesting the number of people commenting along the lines of: "This is stupid! Anyone who plays WoW would know that dialogue was bullshit!"
Congratulations, you've just discovered that you're potential virtual HUMINT resources - or at least that domain knowledge is useful to discern what could be usable intel from run-of-the-mill in-world trash talk.
And for those complaining about researcher getting paid to play WoW, I suggest you RTFPP and find out what Dan Arey gets paid to do for a living.
Sorry but has no one drawn the link between this article and the fact Blizzard have announced the release date for Wrath of the Lich King.
Coincidence I think not... Blizzard marketing must be pissing themselves laughing, you cant buy this publicity
The lengths some nerds will go to to get someone to pay for their WoW addiction...
This is the best laugh I've had in weeks.
Seriously. Should the nervous nellies at the Pentagon investigate the myriad ways in which terrorists could communicate? SURE! Should they look for plots in crazy places? Knock yourselves out! I understand why the internet and technology makes the intel agencies nervous...but doods...stop demonizing everything! You can't control human communications. I know that's deeply disappointing - but true. Let it go and move on to more important things - like...formulating a more positive foreign policy, or taking care of your citizens health and homes. They need that more than they need you to look for bogey-men in video games. Keep your fear to yourselves, that's what we pay you for. Life is hard enough without being told that evil could hide under every stone, on every corner, and now - every gamer is a potential terrorist. Give me a break. The more you look for it - the more you will find.
It all just reminds me why I escape to WoW in the first place.
Umm, anyone ever read Halting State by Charles Stross? Its like they stole the plot.
OK,I know WoW, I play WoW I'm good at WoW, and this is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard concerning WoW. Whoever wrote this ovbiously understands nothing about online gaming, and it sickens me that people actually belive this crap. Maybe if people would think before they type, we online gamers wouldn't have to deal with this stuff. I for one can say right now: THIS IS CRAP WRITTEN BY IDIOTS WHO KNOW NOTHING.
But you know, in the end, this is more funny than offensive, and while I am angry about this, I have to admit it is not only hilarious but good publicity. So if people actually belive this stuff, all the funnier to the rest of us.
If they want the White House they are welcome to it. They'd be doing us a favor.
...you guys are idiots.
Man if I'm this stupid when I get old, I hope someone shoots me.
NSA Office:
Bill sneaks a copy of WoW onto his PC. Takes a bong hit and starts playing. Boss comes in, finds him.
Bill:"But boss, these guys are so trying to steal our epics, I'm gonna bust em, don't you worry"
Boss: "Great work Bill, way to think outside the box, I'll see to it funding gets increased 30% for your project"
*Door Slams Shut*
Bill: "Stupid ass", ....bong hit, goes back to playing.
1)Pentagon Researchers are prolly desperate to get epix and T6 before teh expansion hits so they form a project to play WoW at work using tax payers dollars.
2). . .
3) PROFIT!
GG Pentagon
and
FFS Wired! - I cant believe you guys are reporting this with a straight face. SRSLY
Horray for giving them ideas.
I can only conclude some of my fellow commentors ae right that some goverment people are desperate for epic drops and want to get payed for playing WoW.
Im a terrorist and im going to use wow to destroy America
Ok, this shows just how much the american military and government are grabbing at straws to show the people of america that they do, actually do there jobs and just to try and say, Hey it's happened before but with our new security in place, no one will kill Kil'Jaeden, Fucking america is SHIT.
Some1 need to inform secret service that is called RP servers. So, nothing to worry, for few bucks guys can transfer to PVP server.
this is just another marketing hype for blizzard to gain more subscribers. LOL. now you get terrorists and agents playing wow because they think the war is going to go down on WOW. and to counter any war or terrorist activity you MUST play WOW. LOL.
Spies needed an excuse to devote SO MUCH time to World of Warcraft...
i can just see it now... the next major terrorist strike being planned out amidst chuck norris jokes in barrens chat.
no one will ever see it coming
dumb yanks whats next
heard on general channel on a server near you...
Ok wait so what addon do I need for co-ordinating the strike?
ROFLMAO! I are the IMBA LOLOLOLOLLLZZZZALLYOURBASEAREBELONGTOUS STFU you No0B goldseller LOLOLOLOL!
Actually, this is an EU server, so ALLYOURBASEAREBELONGTOEU!
oh shit mischan crap abort abort!
LFG (Teron Gorefiend)
CRAP TURBAN U N3WB that was Pr!v4t3 informatioN! we could be comprimised!
yes cos now you wouldn't be. nice one. just shut up you noobs i am grinding for rep and dont want to hear your crap!
Sorry LF1M tank preferably, ir not imba no aggro...
oh i have a tank it's parked, wait, IRL or ingame?
oh sod off you lev1 go level!
IGn0R3d!!! Y33333SH!
R3p0rt3d....
shit i did it again! forgive me!
AAA! That's it! Raid cancelled, reschedule for next week!
:( Sorry Rash, i can't, I have exams next week :((
S'ok I couldn't raid anyway, I missed my epic drop today and now mum is kicking me off the PC cos it's bed time and she's hacking the Pentagon again...
HAHAHA ROFL! you noobs! And I thought you were real terrorists you nothing but a bunch of school kids! Too bad I misunderstood you. Sorry about the F18's btw, you may wish to move I already allerted NSA...
What?! This is blatant something_ism!
lol something_ism?
er... yes! I am offended. Just can't find the term...
haha you wont be able to find anything after the F18's hit you back first!
ROFL that works I never really liked Rashbanjee anyway...
Help! Help! I am being repressed! See the violence inherent in the system! NOOOOOOOO!
R4shB4nj33 has gone offline.
...etc etc.
...The real real reason I yell, "Death 2 the INFIDEL!!" before every boss pull...
this thread is relevant to my interests
Wait, no. The government fails cause despite all their technologies, they can't find any terrorists. OH, THEY MUST BE ON THE INTERWEBS! ZOMFG time to troll the forums...
This is SO sad.
All hope is gone.
I´m goin' emo. -.-
WTF do you american government guys smoke?
WTB some of that.
But the comments tell me that "keeping the low ones dumb" doesn´t work for all americans. You should re-think your strategy, George.
Obama, you got a shitload of work to do.
Lets see - its not stonetalon mountains, but ASHENVALE.
Also:
"But the banter is reminiscent enough of World of Warcraft talk,"
No, its nowhere near what would be said in this game. Unlike how it might be pictured in movies this isn't the way people speak inside these games - and 100% not these words. ooh and you wouldn't see any of this in a public channel - any terrorist with any kind of iq would do it in a guild, raid or party chat (or private made channel for that matter).
/sad
/sosad
This idea is so totally retarded, I can't find any words for it.
Well, I'm from the European Realms and I haven't seen something anywhere near this dialog since I started playing three years ago. That's totally theoretical bullshit... IF there where terrorists somewhere ingame, then for god's sake anybody who played long enough would recognize that they aren't talking about WOW. The problem is probably the knowledge of the terms and the game experience the so called "spies" have. I believe that they simply cannot tell that these locations aren't somewhere in WOW.
Well it's just my opinion but could it be that the US secret services see terrorists everywhere these days? I don't live there so I can't really tell your daily news but nearly every news from the US we in Europe hear, has something to do with terrorists. -.-
OHHHH what about Vent?.. MUST MONITOR ALL CRAPPY VOICE SOFTWARE NOW NSA.. IM SCARED..
thats the funniest thing ive read in ALONG time you yanks crack me up your ALL paranoid.
Basically, this is just a pretext for the government subpeona-ing chat logs (and making it a felony crime not to retain them!)
Posted by: DensityDuck | Sep 16, 2008 11:23:09 AM
So Glad someone's paying attention !
You win 1K Internets ! Good Show dude.
Seriously? Are you kidding? I've been an avid WoW player for almost 5 years now. And now this?
Get over yourselves, and go eliminate the entire country over there if you're worried about terrorists. Can't we all just be happy? Jesus.
Leave games alone.
I can see it now. terrorists gathering around the cozy fire, dancing in Stormwind. The Government is looking for stuff to complain about. That's what they do. They hide stuff, and with the shit they do allow us to see, and use they bitch about.
All of you(if you haven't already) should check out Ron Paul. Vote for him after you see what he's about. He still has a chance.
Believe me, this country doesn't need anymore uneducated, ignorant, rednecks.
This is a stretch even for the most pliable imaginations. A raid is a raid. Plus since when do you get money from raiding in PVP? Did these guys even really play WoW to get this because the article makes it sound like they didn't.
Also, "...just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games."
Haha, America's Army has only succeeded in wasting taxpayer money an another "trendy" and "cool" way to drum up interest in enlisting. A lot of kids play counterstrike but I can guarantee you they are absolutely terrible shots with any kind of firearm.
Seriously if someone was going to do this it would happen. Thanks to our wonderful reporter types if these people didn't think about this inthe past you definitely planted the idea in their head ... gg... even if this were true you don't want to advertise ideas....
"Planted ideas"? Seriously people, an article saying terrorists could communicate in an ingame chat is not breaking any big secrets. It's the same as any other chat system on the internet.
Heck, they could have a code to transfer information by reading piss drops on the floor below a urinal, no one would read that.
OMG, I just gave terrorists ideas! The governemnt better start monitoring urine splatters in all men's rooms now!
yeah, because this works SO MUCH better then I don't know, meeting together and just talking...
you wanna see real terrorist try and take away Mmos from the american people i believe they will tear apart your country from the inside.
and maybe you should research :p spells that are used in the game and how game names are before you start throwing in retarded lingo. dumb shits cant believe we pay taxes for this.
Yeah, you really need to monitor trade chat. That's where all the major arms deals go down.
Oh Noes! The terrorists could use, say, the game 'America's Army' to plot attacks.
Better shut it down.
Yup, I've seen all kinds of guns just sold on the open market in Trade, no kind of background checks what-so-ver. Even formulas for bombs and high-explosive triggers, just blithely passed about.
...
And this whole example premise is bad. 110g 234s doesn't exist in 1 loot, psh. It'd be 133g 4s.
They expect to be able to monitor ALL communications. Total information awareness. That means that even conversations as asinine as those taking place on WOW are not safe from the prying eyes of the government.
One really wonders who they're really trying to protect, and from whom.
All I can say to these dim bulbs in our military intelligence is:
ARE YOU FUCKING HIGH?
Good lord. At least let my play my escapist video games without you needing to spy on me.
What's next?
One more thing: wouldn't a multiplayer FPS like, say, the Rainbow Six games be a more tempting way to plan this kinda crap?
First of all, unlike WoW, you can build a custom map/world that mimics your real target.
Second, you can program the AI to act like real Secret Service agents would.
Finally, IIRC, the servers for these things can be private, eliminating the spies complete.
I know it's their job to anticipate threats, but this is just absurd. I think that the real motive is: we want to be able to spy on everything, everywhere, for any reason. Because if we don't know everything you do and say to everyone, you MIGHT be a "terr'rist."
Scary -- the government, that is, not some clueless "terrorists" trying to plan an attack using Night Elf druids and Dwarf paladins.
I wonder if I can get a very high five figure gig searching for terrorists on WOW? How sweet would that be.
Typical Americans, Afraid of everything and what happens to them.
Look a bee, ahhhh call the Counter terrorist guys here.
LOL
USA is not the whole world, remember that!
Sounds to me like our tax dollars are being used to buy WarCraft subscriptions.
Why would a terrorist be so dumb as to plan something in a game where everything is logged and recorded including their IP address.
Oh, I get it! Vote Republican we will save the virtual world!
and let me guess the whole operation needs to be privatized and no-bidded to Halliburton or Raytheon or blah blah... so we need 20,000 nerds playing online games at the tax payers expense, while real human beings are making real movements with their real bodies and speaking real words with their real mouths... YOU CAN'T MONITOR EVERYTHING... maybe you just need a new strategy that isn't based on greed and ignorance.
while New Rome burns and financially collapses, the rulers' secret police continue to create strawman terrorist plots to distract people from the real terror:
the current administration and their policies coming home to roost...
Terrorists have come up with a new communication code that consists entirely of bad Chuck Norris jokes.
How absurd. The lingo isn't even W0W standard. This professor should get an account before scanning in a map file and crafting the new "fear" scenario to get some bucks from the government. If he knew wtf he was talking about, there's be 2 misspellings, 1 use of "n00b", 3 "wtf" and various random murloc jokes in trade channel interrupting the plot. Before the government has us register our accounts and scanning our slippers before we log, maybe it should get a clue.
Yes, I have a lvl 70 druid.
This is a miserable failure.
-There is no "dragon fire" spell.
-There is no keep in Stonetalon Mountains.
-It's incredibly hard to get to the Stonetalon Mountains from the Zoram Strand, so that would be unfeasible.
-Noone goes to oracles in WoW.
-Blizzard workers monitor in-game chatter. I know because I have been banned for saying things, and have had GMs randomly talk to me about things I've said.
-It's actually rather easy to track someone down on the internet. People have IP addresses, which can be traced to modems, and thus traced to houses. People have said shit on /b/ and have gotten arrested for it.
-Why spend $15 to talk about this stuff when they can just use IIRC? And don't give me the whole "they can practice the attack" bullshit. They can't. The game physics and mechanics do not work the way things work in the real world. Thinking you can practice anything but being an asshole in WoW is stupid, Just like thinking that FPS games help US soldiers is stupid. Just like thinking that violent video games cause violent behavior is stupid.
So I'm guessing that tax dollars paid for this? *eye roll*
Clever of those CIA employees, to figure out a way to play WoW on the government's dime.
Well, if anyone here has any idea whatsoever as to what Real Life intelligence professionals do, then they know it's to - duh - gather intelligence. All kinds. Everywhere.
Wouldn't you be interested in WoW and any other virtual worlds if you were such a person? The example incident portrayed in the article is an extreme one, but an example nonetheless. It bears scrutiny, IMHO.
One more thing- That isn't how people in World of Warcraft talk. They use the word "anal" a lot and every other line is a Chuck Norris joke. The professor is an idiot.
Best excuse to play WoW at work EVAH!!!!!
This is the MOST IDIOTIC thing i eve heard of..
WTF..
This is what those retards get paid for?
ANAL [Devastate]
Ha... nosepickers on Deathwing can't organize a dang Warsong Gulch BG. No threat here, seriously.
Apart from anything else, can anyone else see the logic here?
FBI#1: "Ok, so we've devised a strategy for terrorists to use World of Warcraft to plan strategic strikes, up to the point of step-by-step instructions - just to prove this is possible and the threat is real. What do you think we should do with it now?"
FBI#2: "Post it to the internet!!!1! LOLZ"
Anyone else feel slightly less nationally secure knowing that idiots with this extremely fucked up thought process are supposedly protecting our life and liberty?
Are u all Fu**ing kidding me? "Oh hey. we are terrorist and lets lvl some wow caracter so we can plan some Super master bombing plan"
Ofc it can b done. but what Game/Program can u not plan something?? I do never post anything but after have read this shows how stupid peps are and need a comment. "Hope they dont find a town in Sweden that looks like the wow map -.-" U.S.A = unbelievable.Stupid.Animals
It makes no sense to even mention it: 10 million people play WoW. How many millions of dollars would have to be spent in order to provide "security" for such a thing?
Lets see.... Form the WoW Investigation department (maybe other games as well), hire on 10 administrators/managers, 100 monitors, and a bunch of equipment.
Now will all that, you would have what, 1 person per 2 servers? with 2 sides on each server?
Now wait a sec, thats not going to work. We need at least 2 ppl per side per server. So that brings us around 800 monitors, with 30-50 managers.
Lets see costs... im guessing around $10 mil for just the facilities, and hiring people would cost another $50,000, then paying people (say 2500 a month) would cost 24 mil a year, then the utilities which run prolly another $100,000 a year.
So, would cost us roughly $40,000,000 for such a project. And what service does this provide to the people? Where is the end product?
Besides, if WoW is watched, hundreds of other people would have to be hired to watch other games.
In the end, its a fruitless endeavor. Its just another way to seize 4th amendment rights (which there is no justifible reason).
Its like the TSA at the airport. How many "terrorists" have they caught here in the states? What about the shoe-bomb guy who go through just fine but the flight attendant caught him tring to light his shoe on fire?
Security is an illusion, and intelligence gathering by such manners are preposterous.
This is good enough reason for me to shut down WOW and Everquest. Those games are for F*cktards anyways... hahaha
omfg....This country's gonna blow itself up with the power of it's own PARANOIA!
So how many more years until we see another holocaust because of this crap?
The professor who drew this little project proposal up shouldn't even be allowed to have a degree. Where's the research?
I bet you paranoid bastards still sleep with a night-lite.
I think the black coats should stop trying their new tin hats they got the wrong game. I think you guys should be looking at the new game World of War III or Call of Duty 5 or Grand thef USA IRAQ edition.
lol, you can litteriately convert any game lingo to any USA vs Boogyman strategy war game senario. Probably because they don't have Ed..umacation.
How hard is it to convert one form of volience strategy rpg or mmorpg to any other form of volience fantatsy genre IRAQ, Terror, USA pimping the mass sheeps.
It the same GENRE
1 = 1
apples = apples.
brainless = usa spooks.
ZOMFG LMFO! As soon as I read this post, I thought, "What a crock of shit." IF ANYTHING theyd be planning attacks via playing an illegal private server, not exposing themselves upfront. Another thing - remember - start looking for players who go around asking questsions or ask "what does that mean?" (when they refer to u talking in the lingo)...and to add one more thing to that - if they happen to be Rogues asking you that, they fo' sho' would have to be the "Spooks". :-\
And by the way G-Men who are gonna be using or tax dollars at this: While playing on a PvP server, be sure that once you start out in the game - as in before level 10 - you head to Stonetalon Mountains.
"Boomkin FTW" = Launch the warheads
"PWNED!" = Mission Accomplished (Ru-ba-du-ba-du-ba)!
One more thing to add.... I bet these Spooks will be going AFK in in bg's as soon as they realize that they're gettin pwned by some 12-13 yr old uber-l33t twink =P
indeed this example is fictional, just like the idea
What a poor excuse to play WOW!!! X_x;;
I think terrorist will eventually use dating services (such as eHarmony/match.com) to communicate and coordinate attacks on the US in the nearby future.
War_Monger: I like LONG walks at SUNSET (7:30pm EST to be exact) in Washington DC.
Talon238: Got it! I too will WALK with you and I will bring my MAKEUP.
War_Monger: Great! No one will walk after us for 100 YEARS!!!!
I think terrorist will use Phone Sex conversations to coordinate attacks in the nearby future:
Talon238: Do you have your PENIS?
War_Monger: Yes, it was DELIVERED yesturday.
Talon238: Great! I want you to insert it at the south ENTERANCE.
War_Monger: Understood. I will insert my PENIS at the DESIGNATED location.
Talon238: Make sure to ELIMINATE all CRABS in the way. Do not RELEASE your PENIS until I tell you to.
War_Monger: No problem. I will make sure the saftey ACTIVATES on my PENIS so I don't release PREMATURELY.
Talon238: No one will insert for 100 years after this penis EXPLODES.
rofl, just rofl...
Well, well, well, this article definitely tickled my fancy. I don't know about this, to be honest with you. It seems pretty far into the spectrum of paranoia and being "overly careful." If there is another terrorist attack on the U.S., likely it is not going to be coming from this game. I mean, I suppose it COULD be a possibility. I mean heck, maybe the terrorists are laughing at our doubts as they continue to plot our destruction over World of Warcraft. Or maybe not. In fact, probably not.
So here's the question: when is too far? When do we reach the point where we just stop counting all the possiblities that terrorists could plan stuff. It sure seems quite a bit easier just to get a map of DC and map out an attack rather than doing it on some public video game realm. Of course, it is possible, as is nearly anything. Who knows.
Are you seriously this fucking stupid?
I think now is a good time to use real-world terrorist activity words to describe in-game activities.
For example, "Bomb the Pentagon" means "Let's do an Illidan raid", "Mustard Gas" is an epic purple, and "Nuke" is what a mage does.. oh wait, we already have that. :D
Triple bonus points if Blizzard picks up on it and starts making items based on this.
SILENCE, I KILL YOU! (all this is bu;ll;sh;it)
I honestly can't see how any intelligent person can come in here and actually defend this travesty. If you honestly think for a minute that you're going to catch a terrorist through WoW, Muslim or otherwise, then feel free to waste years doing it. But do it independently of our Tax dollars.
Secondly, they have no right to continue to barge into people's personal lives. The governments already being sued for illegal phone tapping, you'd think that would be enough for these people to get the hint that their intrusion is unwanted. We don't want you watching our every conversation, it's an invasion of our privacy and "national security" is just an excuse to get into the pants of America. You don't belong there, and the only WoMD you're going to find is an angry and distressed public population, and that's bigger than any nuke or supply of Anthrax.
And if the government gets sued (again), where do you think the money is going to come from? Yep, that's right. We're paying both for funding for fiascoes like this, and fronting the bill when the government catches a lawsuit. It's not worth pursuing an imaginary threat, and you'd be better off monitoring bathrooms for encrypted messages written on stall doors. At least there you'd be able to actually smell the BS.
Do you really want to prevent terrorism? Then let go, stunts like this are more prone to encourage in-country radical protesters (terrorists) than it is to discourage them. You're turning the screws on the people, and eventually it's going to lead to a violent and destructive reaction if it continues to get worse. Maybe a slap in the face like that would actually get the government thinking rationally, but it's pathetic to think it would need to come to that for people in political power to get a hold of their senses.
I can't even laugh at how stupid this is. I am embarrassed to have read it. Seriously, hire an editor to keep garbage like this of your site.
It's just a way to put more reasons/pressure on spying on people even more (Beyond what is said in this).
This CAN'T be there for any other reason.
This is counter-productive as you're more likely to create terrorists on your own soil if you destroy their privacy. If I can see that, why can't these guys who're raking in the big bucks see it?
A far fetched idea: maybe they want more 'home' terrorists, so they have a reason to enforce a more forceful influence on the people?
LFM WHITE KEEP NEED HEALER AND TANK
Why do so many people talk about what "their" tax dollar is spent on? do they ever really care? okay say you complain about the cost of programs that do research into the possible activities of terrorist. okay so is this not important? sure there are a lot of ridiculous sounding ideas out there, but if you can stop even one attack then its worth it. even if you think the ideas they look at would never be used, that is the whole point. if you think it will never happen, you don't expect it. i'm sure in 1998 if anyone said, hey what if these guys used jetliners as weapons? oh that would be too hard to organize and actually do. what do we know know? anyway, why do you care what your tax money is used for? i know I'd rather 2.3 cents of my $200 in taxes a months go to some 23 year-old computer nerd in DC playing WoW all day looking for terror plots than it going into the pocket of some rich old-oil-bastard like the f'ers that own Halliburton.
Now what everyone needs to do is go buy themselves a copy of World of Warcraft and counter act against these vicious Gnome rogue terrorist.
OMG Orgrimmar auction house is the world trade center... now it all makes sense.
You can't use underscores or numbers in your character name nor can you use capital letters for your complete name in World of Warcraft.
So much for their research skills.
When it comes to terms of fear you are just wasting your life, actually anybody advocating fear is wasting your life. And thus, anybody advocating fear is a terrorist. Because a terrorist can't make the world change unless they make you fear of some change. Because terrorists are always a minority. Get it? Terrorists such as Pentagons, warlovers and certain religious people are therefore not my problem. They are just doing business in fear. SO, I just live my life because I don't give a shit about your warcampaigns. This WoW article just made me laugh and realise again how infantile and incorrect the American system is. Not that I care :).
It's not the research that's bothering people, it's the fact that they might actually go through with an idiotic program such as this. An obvious waste of investment. Hijacking two airplanes to slam into an American monument and trade center is feasible, logging into WoW (or any other MMO) to plan and "practice" a terrorist plan is ridiculous, ludicrous, and impractical on every level.
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At least if the money was going into the pocket of some "rich old-oil-bastard" it would be leading to gas in your tank, and not an exercise in futility, paranoia, and overall continuation of the bed-night spook story titled "Threat of Terrorism."
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You're not going to catch a terrorist plotting to harm someone on WoW. Ever. Not unless you count socially deprived nerds that have nothing better to do than to boast false threats to people because they stole his Cloud Song, but that would probably be the same government endorsed nerds that are playing WoW to seek out these "threats."
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Think of it like this. Do you remember that physical wall Republicans had put up to try to block drug traffic and illegal immigrants? Was it really worth all the money spent putting up a completely worthless barrier, with hundreds of gaps and openings because they thought a drug runner was braindead enough to think "oh, well there's a wall here. I guess I'll just go back."?
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If there are people out there willing to harm the US, they'll find a way; and there are several better ways than running scenarios through an MMO. People should care regardless if tax dollars are spent or not, considering how many man hours people would also be spending in this, when they could be spending time doing more constructive things. Like polishing door nobs, or organizing their sock drawers. Maybe even checking under their bed for the Boogie Monster, he does qualify as a terrorist, you know.
According to their logic, ANYTHING could be used this way. Their problem is not so much with WoW as it is with analogies. You could make a terrorist attack sound like a football play, baseball, olympic weightlifting, it doesn't matter. "Wayne Gretzky is going to score a hat trick against Detroit," to them could mean "Set off three nuclear devices in Michigan." According to their thought processes, the problem is that people can speak freely in videogames and can use linguistic mannerisms to avoid detection by all the "secret" wiretapping equipment at AT&T and such.
And why on earth would you use WoW? You can ACTUALLY perform terrorism in EVE online for both fun and profit. My old team used to have a "Jihadswarm" where we would compete to see who could suicide bomb the most unarmed commercial mining ships in "protected" newbie space, then paste random arabic text in the chat box copied from the front page of aljazeera.com to make it look like we were rambling about jihad in arabic.
تكون لإيران أي نية لإنتاج أسلحة نووية. بدوره قال سفير إيران لدى الوكالة الدولية إن بلاده يمكن أن تعيد النظر في تخصيبها اليورانيوم مقابل ضمانات بحصولها على الوقود النووي. Allah hu ackbar!
lol...
i think every polition in world they r complitly lairs becous in world there is no treorisum besec trest are these negitive polititions think about these ivels....
somebody got paid to make that. A lot. Other people got paid for writing about it.
Who's paying for this? You are. Congrats US!
I hope these federal terrorsts get on my pvp server so i can pwn their asses and camp them till they cancel their subscription
This is absurd. Strategy and planning came well before computers. Can computers now be used to coordinate attacks? YES. So can a lot of other technologies. They're much more likely to discover a terror plot other ways, than this. MAYBE some terrorists would try and blend in, but this really is extreme. How would they gain the ability to differentiate anyhow? The plotters would have had to agree off-line or in another forum on-line, what the "codewords" meant ahead of time any how, or they would have a record on-line (the "blue gem" actually means X weapon for example). So, I don't see any usefulness here, except as a conceptual model to investigate, a thought-process, to help think about HOW this might be done (coordinate an attack on-line).Possible? YES. Useful to explore? Limited at best.