This video is made possible by Lou Maris, a better way to do college. Find out more at comm/brain food or follow the link in the description below. More about Lou Merritt later in this video. In mid-2005, players logging on to play the popular online multiplayer game World of Warcraft found themselves besieged by a virulent viral plague, and nobody knew how to cure or effectively combat it. For around a month, the plague spread unchecked through the Kingdom of Azeroth, killing tens of thousands of players as characters and intriguing experts who have since used the plague as a model for real-world bioterrorism and epidemics. This is known as the corrupted blood incident. The plague's genesis can be traced back to a September 13th update of World of Warcraft, which introduced a new dungeon and a super boss for high-level players to test their skills. This boss was an ancient blood God called Hakkar the Soulflayer. While defeating Hakkar, any player who got too close to him in the throes of death would be afflicted with a potent debuff called corrupted blood. This debuff caused initial damage and additional damage every two seconds for a total of 10 seconds. The debuff was extremely dangerous and could instantly kill low-level players. It was also highly contagious and could spread to nearby players who got too close while a player was still affected by it. Additionally, a player who survived an initial infection could be reinfected by an ally and pass the debuff onto others. This process could be repeated until the player either died or left the vicinity of Hakkar's corpse or another infected player. The original intention of Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, was for this debuff to be limited exclusively to the encounter with Hakkar and the high-level...