World Of Warcraft: Top 5 Most Controversial Moments

World of Warcraft has been immensely successful. It's easy enough that a newbie to MMORPGs can jump right in, but so in-depth that it keeps players busy for years. The game has attracted upwards of 8 million players, so it's not surprising it has had a fair share of controversial moments. Most of these issues are not unique to Warcraft, but the did receive a lot of press coverage because they happened in Warcraft. Nevertheless, here are the top 5 most controversial moments in World Of Warcraft:


5. Gold Farmers Invade

People in developing countries are often payed measly sums to kill monsters over and over to generate gold. This gold is then sold by the company to players who are willing to spend cash instead of earning the gold within the game. Gold farming is not exclusive to Warcraft, but it was brought to the attention of many because of the game's popularity. For it's part, Blizzard forbids the practice, and bans any accounts caught farming. However, with the ease in creating a new account, it's really up to the players to stop buying gold in order to end the abusive practice.


4. The Warcraft Funeral Crash

A Warcraft gamer died in real life, and a bunch of friends decided to host a mock funeral for the gamer's avatar. They staged a event where everyone lined up and "viewed" the body. Unfortunately, they did this right in the middle of a a PVP zone where anything goes. Another guild (ironically named Serenity Now) crashed the funeral and blindsided the mourners. Some say the attackers have no respect for the dead and mourning, while others say it it's just a game. I say it makes for good video drama and a great video.




3. The Corrupted Blood Pandemic

When Warcraft introduced the Zul'Gurub instance, it came with a nasty boss that inflicted the Corrupted Blood debuff, which dealt hundreds of points of damage to characters every few seconds, while spreading to anyone nearby. Through a bug, this plague escaped from the dungeon, and suddenly everyone was catching the "disease". Low level characters died in seconds, and skeletons lined the floors of any area where a lot of people congregated (ie. cities). The bug was fixed, but experts have since used the incident to study just how people would react should a large scale epidemic occur.


2. Warcraft's Gay Rights Issue

Back in 2006, Sara Andrews was recruiting for her gay friendly guild Oz on the main chat channels. A blizzard employee issued her a warning to stop advertising sexual orientation or she would be banned. This one little incident soon exploded and was being covered by mainstream media like CNN and the BBC. Critics accusing Warcraft of being anti-gay. Blizzard defended its actions at first, but then eventually issued an apology to Ms. Andrews and provided sensitivity training to all its employees.


1. Death by Warcraft

Warcraft certainly isn't the first game to directly or indirectly be involved in a death, but it does receive a lot of attention when someone dies. Most deaths are a result of sheer exhaustion as people play for days in a row with no break or sleep. An especially tragic story was that of a 4-month old South Korean infant that died while her parents were away at an internet cafe playing the game. Warcraft can be addicting just like so many other vices in life, so it's important for players to exercise moderation and self-control.