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The Pentagon, MMORPGs, and Catching Osama

Posted by timothy on from the thinktank-lip-flapping dept.

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.

9 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. MMORPGs by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
    1. Re:MMORPGs by zaibutsu · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This warning is about 40 years too late.

      UK SF fans used to be quite involved in postal Diplomacy. One of them was late orgsanising his moves once and sent a telegram to a potential ally reading "suggest we join forces for an attack on Liverpool".

      He spent the following day deep in conversation with gentlemen wearing black raincoats.

  2. Riiiight by MattW · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally, the age-old question is answered:

    How can we play Everquest all day and get paid for it?

  3. I wonder.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If PKers will now be called terrorists.

  4. Here's an *idea* by swordboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
    1. Re:Here's an *idea* by spasm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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..

    2. Re:Here's an *idea* by Fyz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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..

    3. Re:Here's an *idea* by jfengel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The euphemism "war on terror" is necessary because calling it "war on Islamic terrorists" or "war on Islamic fundamentalists" would get the administration in deep, deep doodoo. Politically, it's necessary to avoid looking like they are opposed to Islam. Muslims around the world already half believe that the US really is out to war on them.

      There was some talk for a while that the War on Terror would apply to anybody using terror techniques, such as the Irish Republican Army, but that's an idea that went nowhere fast. Their opponents, therefore, are primarily Muslims, but not all Muslims.

      So America-bashing and Bush administration-bashing aside (and I'm not a big fan myself, having voted for the other guy), the administration is faced with the fact that a small subset of essentially very good people is committing despicable acts in the name of those good people. These people are afraid of being punished for the sins of a few. Their support is crucial, and the US in general prefers to make friends rather than enemies. This is an incredibly untenable position for the US government. I'm hard pressed to come up with a better name for the effort, even if it is an obvious euphemism.

  5. Re:Waste of time and money by DeltaSigma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.