Poll: Has blizzard gone a little too far?

[Iammatt]

Well for those of you who play WoW and have recently quested in borean tundra(in world of warcraft), a new debuff has been added that the boar monsters put on you.

Swine flu.This disease is putting mexico into lockdown and they put it in the game.Is that a little to far?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koRhrvfMe4c

 

[stormcaller]

It's not new, Blizzard did it first.

 

[Clashero]

Actually, one of the first swine flu outbreaks was in 1918, I think.

Also, it's not insensitive. OH MY GOD, 787 people could possibly, maybe be offended by something they most likely won't hear about!

 

[VoltySquirrel]

It wasn't just added. There was a article in the News Room stating that it had been there since the WOTLK beta. Besides, this "epidemic" is really just the best news since the election. Seriously, I don't care about what Michelle Obama is wearing! On a side note, WoW once had a quarentine worthy epidemic a long while back. Good stuff.

 

[XUnsafeNormalX]

This was long before the Swine Flu outbreak as a joke on the Bird Flu.

It's a massive and halarious coincidence.

 

[internutt]

Its just a coincidence. Its hilarious now that it is an IRL (in real life) issue rather than a WoW issue. People shouldn't be offended by this. Its nothing to get worked up over.

 

[iain62a]

It's funny, because 5000 people are killed every week worldwide by seasonal flu. So far there have been 15 confirmed deaths caused by swine flu, and 101 suspected deaths by swine flu. AIDS kills 38500 people every week. Spanish Flu killed 50 million people in 1919. This whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

Not really relevant to this particular discussion, but an interesting fact.

Enough of that particular tangent though, I don't see why this would cause any offence.

EDIT:

Actually, one of the first swine flu outbreaks was in 1918, I think.

I think that's a different strain of flu you're thinking of there - The Spanish Flu. I could be wrong though.

Another fun fact: There hasn't been a single pig that's tested positive for this strain of flu. There's hardly any evidence to suggest that it came from pigs.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Well for those of you who play WoW and have recently quested in borean tundra(in world of warcraft), a new debuff has been added that the boar monsters put on you.

Swine flu.This disease is putting mexico into lockdown and they put it in the game.Is that a little to far?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koRhrvfMe4c

Swine Flu on WoW dates back to pre Wrath of the Lich King. Hop in the wayback machine billy.

 

[messy]

they've had this for ages. It might fairly reasonable to call it insensitive if swine flu, in the grand scheme of things when compared to Malaria or HIV, was a dangerous disease. The majority of people outside of Mexico (no offence meant purely factual) develop mild forms of the disease and recover fairly quickly and in Mexico some of the deaths are due to a previous respitory(sp) infection.

 

[zahr]

I applaud their sense of humour

Why is it bad for them to put it ingame? I don't understand. Is it because of the political correctness scum?

 

[Zeraki]

You should probably do some research before you post a thread like this, that debuff has been in the game for a while now; long before this strain broke out of Mexico and the media blew it out of proportion.

 

[mkg]

I think it's pretty hilarious, I haven't played Lich King so I never saw this. I'm sure someone will be offended by this eventually though because they lost someone to the flu or some shit and everyone will bend over backwards to make sure their tears against the evils of videogames don't go shed in vain.

 

[TheTygerfire]

Swine Flu was in the game before the real swine flu

And who is it going to offend? The less than 500 people that have it? Get over it it's the freaking flu and everyone gets it.

 

[ZeroMachine]

It's not new, Blizzard did it first.

What he said, im pretty sure this was on WoW way before the outbreak. You know, they should just add all the diseases of the world on wow. Maleria, AIDS, Ebola, Hanta, small pox...well all the fun ones at least.

How the FUCK would you get AIDS in WoW?

Wait, don't answer that...

But yeah, it was in WoW WAY before the Swine Flu "pandemic". They must have just changed the name of it as a joke. I think it's pretty damn funny, actually.

 

[The DSM]

Servers are going to be full of idiots yelling " IM MEXICAN!" Arnt they?

 

[painfull2006]

I don't play but according to Kotaku its been around for ages

/end

 

[CoziestPigeon]

They didnt go too far, but with hundreds of people dying from it, they should really think of removing it.