Oh good God, they're looking for terrorist activities on online games now

[ck4829]

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.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

* The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.

* If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.

Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual world environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html

[DS1]

1. Make everyone play as naked women

problem solved.

[Orrex]

6. That's a solution that's been in search of a problem for years!

Well done! :hi:

[MADem]

18. Why not naked men? NT

[DS1]

22. because the taliban types wouldn't mind that so much

[MADem]

27. If you mean REAL Taliban types, you never know. If you mean fundies, here in the US,

they might get a bit discombobulated. But they'd probably enjoy it too.

TALIBAN types would love any kind of nekkidness. Gender isn't as important as you might think.

They'd pretend they were "sacrificing" in playing the terrible game in the name of the cause....

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

2. Bush got his ass kicked one too many times in WoW

:rofl:

[jgraz]

4. Well, actually he let some poor guy go fight in Alterac while he got drunk in IronForge

[Hallie Burton]

12. Yeah, he was swilling Rumsey Rum Black Label

and snorting Dream Dust. Hey! Maybe a warlock hit him with Unstable Affliction, that would explain a lot.

[whatchamacallit]

16. Ha!

:freak:

[The Straight Story]

3. Let's hope they don't nail me while I am playing online chess

:)

[MADem]

5. They oughta look and figure out who blacked out Miami-Dade... NT

[valerief]

11. Son of Enron. Making buckos on trading energy again. nt

[MADem]

17. I'm waiting for Monkey to come on TV to address the nation (breaking into the debates, maybe??)

to announce that it was a

TERRA HACK

and for this reason, he needs to take away our INTERNETS and monitor EVERYTHING!

As Judy Tenuda says, "It could HAP-PEN!!!"

Oh, and Dick Cheney is resigning due to "ill health" and the name of nominee to replace him is being placed before the Congress even as he speaks--and of course, he demands a swift UP OR DOWN vote, because to do other than that is UNPATRIOTIC. The nominee? Popeye, himself...!

Who would be approved on a voice vote.


It's a recurring nightmare, that latter bit...

[valerief]

29. Ha! You know that's my fear, too. I keep thinking I should take my

retirement savings and move to Norway.

[Orrex]

7. For a while I played GTA3 with a GWB "skin"

Does that incriminate me?

[Javaman]

9. were you offing yourself as a target? nt

[Javaman]

8. So my lvl 56 human warrior is on the "trail" now of some terrorists...

I tracked them to the hellfire peninsular, but I can't get there yet because I'm not a 60 lvl toon. So I have to go grind some more so I can lvl up and go after the al qaeda blood elves.

It's been a bitch, but I got some really cool stuff and making kick ass gold in the AH!!! I just need a few more breaths of wind and I will have the ultimate sword. My toon has mining and blacksmithing.

the al qaeda really won't what hit them! This will be just soooooo coooool. oh and I'll be helping america!!!

:banghead:

[Hydra]

10. K&R

I used to play a lot of Starcraft, and I wondered how long they'd officially leave us alone.

People learning how to lead armies in a time of possible insurrection...not too bright if you're the tyrant.

[htuttle]

13. They are going to "begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors."

I suspect that any actual 'terrorists' would look sort of tame compared to your average violent, nihilistic teenager in WoW...

:rofl:

[Pogue.Mahone]

14. Osama plays WoW???

wtf? i'd figure he'd be more for quake or doom, lots more stuff to blow up!

you guys ever seen this? guild wars vs. wow :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcWXL8jpFGs

[Bonhomme Richard]

15. Probably has more to do with money laundering with.............

online virtual money.
Still.......It's not a good sign and I fear things are only going to get worse.

[fascisthunter]

19. Binka... they are on to us

level red

[LiberalAndProud]

20. It's an excuse play the games on the (taxpayers') clock.

you're not likely to convince my otherwise.

[Pogue.Mahone]

23. hahahahaha

like we need an excuse!!! i remember guys in our bldg played quake for hours! i'd leave work at 0300 and i swear the reticle of the weps was burned into my cornea! :D at one point we were playing tribes and we had a couple of helo drivers (majors) who LOVED flying transports and fighters...

[endarkenment]

21. Call of Duty - half the players are bad guys

They should just take a snapshot at peak usage time and send 50% of the players to gitmo for some of the special treatment they've got down there. That'll learn them punks.

[DS1]

28. No no no. Make a Gitmo map, and the first people out of it are obviously terrorists

witch trials - circa 2008

[Hatalles]

24. noobs. n/t.

[damntexdem]

25. Just salivating to be able to prosecute the ultiamte crime:

thought crime!

[Quantess]

26. I bet the lower level agents are hoping they get this assignment.

Maybe they can even sneak in a game or 2 while sniffing out terrorism!

[HuffleClaw]

30. seriously?

wow, what a waste of time. and just what the hell will count as 'suspicious behavior' i wonder.

[Quantess]

32. Sure! "suspicious behavior" is grounds for another game

on the taxpayer's dime.

[Occulus]

31. AP: Wright, EA: "We don't know what happened" - 9/11/08

"We don't know what happened," Will Wright told reporters today following reports of suicidal creatures appearing in his new simulation game, Spore. "We released the game on Sunday, and today we hear about suicide-bomber creatures.

"I guess it only shows even Osama appreciates playing God."

The incidents began mere hours after the game's release, much to the surprise of Wright's development team. The new game centers around evolution and places the player in the role of an intelligent designer who must guide his race to the stars.

Or, apparently, command them to strap on belts of bombs.

"This wasn't an out-of-box function," Wright stressed in a press conference early Wednesday. "These are- I hesitate to use the word- tools another player or player have already modded into our game."

The suicide-belt tool, which is added as an intrinsic part of a player's creature, has been downloaded via the game's content distribution system more than one million times since the game's release four days ago.

"We don't intend to stop it," Wright explained. "If terrorist creatures threaten your own, you'll just have to deal with them. Luckily, you're God in Spore, so throwing an asteroid at each of their cities is perfectly within your capability."

The ESRB, concerned with this latest development, has indicated they will act swiftly should an excretory or sexual image, such as a breast, appear in the game, but is otherwise unconcerned.

"Killing and maiming don't result in a 'Ao' rating, but sexual content does," ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi explained in an interview with AP reporters Tuesday. "We're prudes, and we like it that way."

Gamers, however, were ecstatic with the new addition to the game.

"When they go 'boom', it's like, arms, legs everywhere," one Spore fan chortled on the gaming message board Penny Arcade. "I'm waiting for an option to have another creature pick a severed limb up and use it as a weapon."

Neither Wright nor EA were answering requests for interviews as of late Wednesday, and directed all further inquiries to their press relations webpage.

:sarcasm: