Ah, the folly of youth. I wasted many an afternoon wandering the virtual plains of Durator or the misty jungles of Stranglethorn Vale. Did I enjoy it? Certainly! Until I started to noticed the futility inherent in the game. I prided myself that my little chap was better than his little chap, or his little chap, and that one day he'd be better than his little chap, cause that chap is a real bastard of a chap. But why? What did I gain from all of this? Once I tired of the grinding, I gave up. Or more specifically, I went to a variety of semi-legal private servers where my little chap could make a meteroric rise though the varied and ecclectic numbers to the dragon slaying, city storming heights of the number 80.
However, a far more serious abuse of Blizzard's property exists. On the periphery throughout my time in the legit servers were strange, naked men who would jump around shouting about how their gold was cheaper than the gold of the next naked jumper, and how, for a small price, they would give you all the gold you could ever want. Who were these folk, I sometimes wondered, that they make their living from this faux world of orcs and magic? Well, now I know, and it's fucking shocking:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam
...take a moment to process that. Imagine it, if you will. Rows of filthy, forsaken chinese political prisoners, fresh from breaking rocks, logging in and industriously abusing the lands of Azeroth for the profit of the glorious People's Republic of China. I don't think I need to elaborate on how absurb that is.
This is certainly one of those times when the virtual, if you can really use that word anymore, and the very real cross over. It's happening more and more. After a cyber attack on Iran that left the security at one of their nuclear reactors in turmoil the UK government has created a military branch dedicated to cyber warfare, and claimed that any aggresive online action would be considered an act of war. But that's only sensible. It's not as if an Iranian nuclear reactor was offlined by an Arcane Missile fired by a tiny man made of pixels.
The world never ceases to amaze, reader. Never.
Thanks for reading.
Onion Head Hat.
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