One researcher is using her online gaming experience to structure predictive modeling for the novel coronavirus.

Epidemiologist and researcher Dr. Nina Fefferman believes scientists can benefit by examining an old plague in the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft that infected the characters of many players in 2005. The plague, referred to as "Corrupted Blood," originated from a boss character in the game called Hakkar the Soulflayer, who cast a "debuff" on players to temporarily steal their health. If one player came into close contact with another character, the "infection" would spread.

A programming glitch later allowed the "Corrupted Blood" plague to spread via animals in the game. Speaking to the Washington Post, Fefferman said the behavior of players in the online plague could mimic real-life interactions during the coronavirus pandemic.

“What I do is study all the aspects of infectious disease outbreaks that help us prepare for pandemics,” said Fefferman. “We really saw the full gamut of behaviors we see in the real world reflected in the players' characters during Corrupted Blood.”

In 2007, Fefferman published an academic report with her colleague Dr. Eric Lofgren on the "Corrupted Blood" plague. One part of the report's summary said, "We discuss this incident and how appropriate exploitation of these gaming systems could greatly advance the capabilities of applied simulation modeling in infectious disease research."

However, not all researchers agree. Dr. Dmitri Williams, an associate professor from the University of Southern California, said players' decisions in online games can vastly differ from real-life behavior.

“There are games where you are encouraged to behave in a way that you would never behave offline,” Williams said to the Washington Post. “You really have to know [the game], play it, and understand the culture so you can make these kind of determinations that, yeah, this is a pretty good proxy.”

Despite objections, Fefferman says her experience in the online game can provide valuable insight on the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. “It’s not just that people were role-playing. People were being themselves,” she said.