The Pentagon, MMORPGs, and Catching Osama

MarkRH writes "I know, it looked like a troll to me too. But apparently a Pentagon-funded group, the Highlands Forum, is investigating the possibility of fighting terrorism by postulating that terrorist networks are similar to the online communities found in MMORPGs. By studying interaction within a community like Everquest, the military hopes to find hints on how to crack Al Qaeda." See also the "Uncloaking Terrorist Networks" post of several months back.

Comments

MMORPGs

[intermodal]

Personally, with the comments traded between gamers, i'm a little uncomfortable with anti-terrorist types studying gamers. Something that is commonly said in jest could easily be taken out of context by these government personnel and blown way out of proportion...

Re:MMORPGs

[helix400]

Something that is commonly said in jest could easily be taken out of context by these government personnel and blown way out of proportion...

Perhaps by studying jesting remarks in games, anti-terrorism investigators will better understanding real vs. joking threats in real life.

Besides, this is a study of social behavior, not an Everquest anti-terror crackdown. They're not looking for Osama bin Laden's online character.

Personally, I think it would be a blast if the feds EXPANDED their Everquest study, such as practicing their infiltrartion method by putting moles inside Everquest groups for intelligence, or secretly picking off key characters. It would add a whole new dimension to the game. =)

Re:MMORPGs

[aeronaut]

No, this is real stuff. One of the hot research topics in dynamical systems is network structures.
I think it was Stanley Milgram that did the famous "Six Degrees of Separation" experiment. People like Steve Strogatz and Duncan Watts have followed up on that with small world networks, scale free networks, etc. These network structures appear in places like the electrical power grid for southern California, the neural network of the flatworm C. Elegans, and the network of movie actors (the Kevin Bacon game.) See Duncan Watts's web site for more (and more accurate) information.

So I think studying the networks in games like Everquest is a great idea. I don't think that they think they will actually start to pick up coded messages from real terrorist cells, but rather they want to see how these people interact and connect in the network. And this is not the pentagon themselves, but a funded think tank doing the work. Big difference.

Anyway, if the Feds start busting Everquest players, I'll be laughing my ass off. But I don't expect it to happen. However, the rich structure of the networks formed in these MMORPGs has to be worth at least a look.

Regards,
Martin Melhus
(aeronaut)

Not that crazy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Al-Qaeda is a loosely affiliated network of nodes trying to acheive a similar goal across large distances and online MMORPG is pretty analagous(when speaking in terms of mathematical models). I'm sure there are a few insights to be had.

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Here's an *idea*

[swordboy]

Fight terrorism by addressing the reason *why* these people are driven a level of frustration that would cause them to commit such acts.

Ask the average Joe on the street (in the US) about why September 11th happened and you'll hear something like, "evil doer". This befuddles me. These people aren't driven by pure evil but rather extreme frustration. Until the root of their frustration is addressed, I wouldn't be surprised if this continues forever.

Re:Here's an *idea*

[spasm]

it's the 'war on terror' concept that really screws with my head - declaring war on a *technique*? way to make sure you never have to stop..

Re:Here's an *idea*

[ivan256]

Fight terrorism by addressing the reason *why* these people are driven a level of frustration that would cause them to commit such acts.

What do you do when one of the reasons these people are driven to frustration is that people of a certain gender are allowed freedoms that are offensive to said terrorists? Repeat that question to yourself and replace "gender" with "religion".

What do you think the reason is? What's your simple solution?

Re:Here's an *idea*

[Fyz]

Which probably is exactly what Bush wants... A never ending cold war on an enemy not only remote, but formless and without voice.

US citizens have an admirable quality of backing their leader in crisis situations, which he can exploit by basically doing whatever he wants...

Like making a war over oil..

Or calling anybody who disagrees with him a terrorist..

Or screwing the environmental issues(which are bad for business) by giving their much-needed funding to the military..

Re:Here's an *idea*

[daigu]

How about "war on Al Qaeda"? You can only "win" a war if you can identify the enemy and you can identify objectives - like kill or capture 80% of leadership, reduce cash flows of the network by 90%, eliminate all training facilities, etc. "War on terrorism" is a euphemism like "war on drugs" - which is effectively a war on the freedoms of the American people.

There was a fairly interesting interview with a group of foriegn policy experts that describe themselves as "realists" on NPR (with Ira Glass?) that make a pretty convincing argument that the very lack of definition of a "war on terror" is undermining the efforts. In the interview, these experts provided a number of interesting facts to support their position. For example, only 40% of the Al Qaeda leadership is in custody and that the network still has the capabilities to deliver devestating style attacks.

While I do not know if this is true, there seems to be every indication that the current approach is being bungled - part of that is because the objectives (and enemies) are not well-defined.

Re:Waste of time and money

[DeltaSigma]

You might read the article.

If you do, you'll find that they merely wish to observe the social interactions of players on a massive network, as they feel that such networks somewhat mirror the dispersal of Al Quida's terrorist group.

They're not "spying," so much as they are "spectating."

I doubt we'll see any "pirates" or "hackers" picked up off of this one... That's really not the Pentagon's job.

take arafat

[ArchieBunker]

He pockets a BILLION dollars in aide money to his many bank accounts and then tells his people they are poor because of the evil west. Since you seem to be in touch with all these extremists please enlighten us why you find joy in having your children exploding in an attempt to hurt others? Notice its nobody middle aged or even old, just young kids that have been tought all their lives to hate the US. Now thats fucked up, using your children as ammunition to fight your war.

Waiting for your reply.