U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft

Originally posted by vox2442
Someone at the Pentagon got busted playing WoW at work... and managed not only to talk their way out of it, but managed to get funding to continue playing.

Hahah that was my first thought too =) But maybe, they suspect that some groups might of formed guilds online to share plots, posing as gamers but using it as a way to communicate globally. It is possible, but I find it hard to think of this as anything realistic.

Sounds like they got too much money at the moment and just finding anything that they can spend this money on. Because if they don't spend their initial budget, next term they won't get as much, but if they blow the budget, then they will claim they need more money next term. Classic governmental economics

I could see where they could get an idea of funding really. Take the gold farmers that sell the in game stuff for real life currency. I could see that actually being a valid concern to a degree. But overall, I think it's a total load of BS.

Surely it all comes down to profiling. How else can they judge from online play.

Just more profiling for all of us.

Originally posted by palehorse23

U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft

www.blacklistednews.com

Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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I'm a Gamer. ~avid gamer~. playing guild war's or tibia, not so much WoW but.....there is NO way they can catch potentian "terrorist's" unless there talking about monitoring chat-line's and veiwing people's IP to track them down.......but even then your only going to get "nerds" like me, talking about bringing down major sites in the U.S......but us "nerds" have NO intention to carry out the threat.

My speculation...is its all just a phishing scheme....made to distract the population.....once again.

Originally posted by Hypntick
I could see where they could get an idea of funding really. Take the gold farmers that sell the in game stuff for real life currency. I could see that actually being a valid concern to a degree. But overall, I think it's a total load of BS.

I could see them using the good old "drug trade" method.....o yea...it's called "out-sourcing to china" these days......

Look's like there already on there way to Gold-Farmers......

Yea.....never thought id say something about "U.S Spy's gold-farming WOW"....

reply to post by Infadel



Surely they can monitor your stats, maybe you go after american players only or something.

You never know what your actions in a game can tell people.

Fascinating.....I've been wondering if the 'overseas' traffic that online gaming involves would be a target of the Homeland security crowd.....

My Husband is an avid player of Burnout Paradise online......his 'friends list' includes a wide range of players from France, England, Germany, Australia.....and even several from Dubai, and India, at least before the cable cutting occurred.

Quite often he is asked about politics in the US, the upcoming election, Obama's chances, and Bush's war.....most seem to be curious, rather than negative or inflammatory. ( Perhaps the driving games don't attract as many 'merchants of death'.)

When those comments do occur, he loves to tell them that they'd better be careful, 'cause George Bush is listening!!

i don't see the point of watching WoW players. They're usually home all weekend playing/raiding/pvping so no real threat there

Originally posted by andy1033
reply to post by Infadel

 

Surely they can monitor your stats, maybe you go after american players only or something.

You never know what your actions in a game can tell people.

OK now that post is a bit worrying, as an Australian, I signed up to WoW like 3 or 4 years ago, and started on an American server, after the Oceanic ones were released, I never bothered to change over, so I guess my stats would be me fighting against American players all the time, but - I also fight WITH the American players, since WoW is a TEAM game.

Personally I think this is a load of crap, most people who play WoW are teenagers, I myself feel like a loser for playing and I'm only 23, I can't imagine what the 40 somethings that play must feel like. Really, I don't see the threat, the one thing that WoW players have in common is that we are all a bunch of geeks and nerds who like to run around a make believe world fighting against gnomes, orcs, wizards, giant spiders, dwarves, elves, trolls and dragons etc...

Really dangerous stuff there. Who would have thought it would be my Dwarven Warrior or my Gnome Warlock that would get me shipped to the labour camps.

I guess that my only crime is that I read too many Dragonlance Fantasy Novels when I was a kid...

reply to post by gb540


Quote from original article:

Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games

this line...IMO....is a remark of sarcasm. We all know they haven't eliminated all terrorism. When I read this, I think they are saying that the Intelligence community is at such a point now that they will do the most ridiculous things and say it is being used for anti-terrorism efforts.

I don't think WoW is the game they meant.

I've played (religiously I might add) Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 4. The things that I've seen on there, the things that I've heard in those games is just; it's just absurd what people will say.

I've heard so much that if any of the things were to be said out in the public streets, the people saying those things would be hunted down, beaten, and thrown into a hole by the CIA for fear of terrorism. There's a lot of Anti-American jargon and bomb threats that circulate in the online chat, however most of it is just 14 year old kids who are pissed off at nothing and have no where else to be, but waste their time playing the game when they should either be watching TV, doing their homework, or hanging out with friends.

I believe that games are alright, I love games because it allows me to relieve a certain amount of stress and at the same time gain a new frustration that helps get my mind off the real world for a few hours. But I know when to stop and what to say and not say.

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 24-2-2008 by ShatteredSkies]

I don't play online games much, but I do know if they want to look for terrorists they should check out CounterStrike. I've seen even ordinary kids in computer lounges turns into raving maniacs when they lose. Well, maybe they weren't too ordinary to begin with, but that is beside the point. If this story is true, I wonder who the clown is that released it. It is not like you are going to have authorities kicking in your door because of a game. If they do actually use the game, it would be to determine patterns in behavior that might indicate terrorists. It never hurts to try and determine patterns in behavior, because that is how we find all kinds of people, such as serial killers for example. There is already a checklist of proven behavioral characteristics related to potential serial killers, and following similar methodology to track terrorists is not a bad idea.

Now only if they followed my Flight Simulator Skills, I should get offered a chance at NFWS

[edit on 2-24-2008 by TheAgentNineteen]

this is perhaps the most mentally deficiant thing i've ever heard. I've played massive multiplayer games for a couple years. the only terrorists in the world of warcraft are the guys that are level 50 gnarly warriors that go around wasting lower level players on the PvP field. Are they gonna profile the different races??? are dark elves all israli terrorists and the dwarves pakistani??? this is stupid.... i'm at a loss for words to convey how sad this is.

*updates resume to include my several epic geared lvl 70 toons with years of high level raiding experience*

Then....

*updates resume to include thousends of hours played COD 3 & 4, CS, and R6LV*

This, is my dream job.

If the government wastes one lousy penny on this they deserve to be ganked.

And for the psoter who said he felt like a loser for being 23 and still playing WoW - I'm a 34 year old lady accountant by day and an AOE deathbringer by night ( In my current incarnation) , unless I am bringing death via my trusty P90 ( I know...But fir some weird reason I am aprtial to it).

This is just another way for Big Brother to be in YOUR business.

I use hack aim bots when i play counter strike.

Its funny to see them go nuts.

reply to post by NWOmaskedman


And it's also disgraceful that you would admit to that, as a clanner and gamer, there is no respect to be had for those who cheat in games, I mean, how sad must your life be that you have to turn to something that isn't real and cheat in it just to feel good, to feel as if you've excelled above the odds "fairly".

Shattered OUT...

reply to post by DrBones666


I don't play online games..I do something worse...I visit government sites most of which on are Echelon keyword lists. I research what the government is doing, so that when I finally start a career with the Air Force I'll be unsurprised by much. Aside from that, I would say that this is an unnecessary violation of privacy and the people being targeted don't have a choice in the matter...Innocent or not. Why does the government need to know EVERYTHING we do? Why do they have to eavesdrop on everything. It's a paranoid system.

Originally posted by WhiteWash
This is merely a ruse to give the powers that be another excuse to censor and monitor the internet. Coupled with the recent sabre-rattling on capital hill about
"the internet is a potential weapon" BS

That seems to be the only plausible explanation.

'They' must know how ridiculous this seems to actual internet users and gamers, but are counting on the fact that the majority of adults and older people in the country have no clue what goes on in WoW... so they are easy to fool.

"Kids are planning terrorist attacks on the internet, we need to get tough on this. Starting with WoW."

"WoW? Never heard of that. Go get those terrorists! USA! U S A!!!"

Maybe this will scare nerds worldwide into quiting.

Would the people who strap c4 to the jeeps and jump out then detonate be considered terrorists in battlefield 2? Lmfao! Those are the ones theyre prob looking for ahhahaha.