MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (5 page)

“This is impressive,” Rebecca said. “We have ourselves a serious player here. This is not your average recreational player.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s wearing high end stuff that you only get by raiding the most difficult instances in the game.”

She accessed another tab and browsed something called Achievements. She whistled. “Yes, it’s as I thought. Your Khalid spends a lot of time behind his computer. I expect that he’s also good at it.”

She hit another tab and started studying the results, scrolling down slowly. Robert saw it was called Reputation.

“He’s a real WoW veteran. I suspect he’s been playing the game for at least five years, even before the first expansion came out.” She pointed at the screen. “While playing and exploring the world, a player encounters all kinds of different peoples and tribes. Most are hostile, some are not. Some of those even allow you to raise your reputation with them by performing tasks or simply by killing huge numbers of their enemies for them. Gaining the highest reputation level with a certain group takes many weeks of hard and dull work. Now, our friend here has achieved exalted reputation with all the ancient factions in the game.”

Robert tried to digest this information. “Why does that mean he’s a veteran player?”

With a half smile that expressed her effort to simplify a complex matter, she explained, “Because nobody bothers with those antique factions anymore. For new players there’s absolutely no point in wasting countless days to gain exalted reputation with them. The rewards that were once fantastic and sought after are totally worthless and meaningless today. It would be like working your ass off washing dishes in some restaurant for months, then use the money to buy a fifteen year old desktop computer, while you could have had the newest and fastest laptop available for the same money.”

“So this means that he did all that while it still meant something?

Rebecca nodded. “Before 2007 I would say.” She hit another tab, and now a list of the members of the guild called The Hammer of Grimstone appeared. There were ten different characters. Rebecca opened a few of them, quickly scanning the results.

“He’s not the only one. They’re all more or less the same. Top notch players. This is a guild that can take on nearly anything by itself.”

She pushed herself away from the desk and looked at her watch. “I have to hurry. What are you going to do with this?”

He thought for a moment and shook his head. “I have no idea. Maybe we should think about it until tomorrow. Maybe you’re the one who should think really hard. After all, I know absolutely nothing about this game.”

She nodded. “I will.”

“Can you come back tomorrow morning? Then we can decide what to do. I have no classes until three o’clock.”

He walked her downstairs and let her out of the door. When she was gone, he slowly went back to his room, deep in thought. He was not only thinking about bombs, about Khalid and about World of Warcraft, but also about the pleasing prospect of seeing Rebecca again the next day.

~~~

CHAPTER V

“
I’ve
not only been thinking, but I’ve been doing some research as well,” Rebecca announced when she entered, wearing her black Barerra shirt again. With some disappointment Robert noticed she would have to go to work again.

“Could you get me a cup of tea?”

Robert closed the door behind her. “Sure. What have you been thinking? And doing?”

She grinned at him. “Patience, patience. I need some tea first!”

While Robert boiled water in the electrical heater, she toured his tiny room. She examined the photo of his parents on his desk and flipped through some of his books. When the tea was finished, Robert handed her his favorite mug. Sitting, he looked expectantly at her.

“Last night, after work, I searched the Internet. And I found some interesting things.” She opened the bag at her feet and retrieved a sheaf of paper. “I even printed some of it.”

Robert held out his hand, but she didn’t hand it over. Instead, she browsed the prints and pulled several out, scanning them.

“Right, let’s start here. On February fifteen of 2008, the CIA published a report about the dangers of MMORPG’s as a hideout for terrorists. I have it right here. I actually found the original report on the web and downloaded it.”

She held up a stack of paper.
UNCLASSIFIED, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Data Mining Report,
the title page read. She handed it over, and Robert quickly flipped through it.

He smiled broadly. “So I’m not stupid after all!” Checking the last page, he saw that the report was fifteen pages long. “Do I have to read this first?”

“No, you can do that later. Most of it is terribly boring anyway.”

She swirled the tea in her cup before continuing. “The report caught the attention of the press, and within a few days there were reactions and discussions on numerous websites and forums. Look, I’ll show you some.”

She gave Robert a printout of a website. The header read
U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft
. He started to read out loud:

“
Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence. The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of ‘automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.”

“So we really may be onto something,” he said. “Even the CIA is taking it seriously.’

She shrugged. “How seriously it’s being taken remains to be seen. Now please finish the article.”

“Yes, boss!” he said, before continuing.

“
The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual World. If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.”

“
Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual World environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.”

He was silent for a moment, digesting the information. “From what I read, it’s still going to take some time before something is really happening,” he finally said.

“Yes, that’s what I thought too,” she answered. “According to the gamers, there’s nothing to worry about. Thousands of people have commented on various forums and ninety-nine percent thinks it’s plain stupidity. A lot of flack about the waste of taxpayers’ money and how the virtual world has nothing to do with the real world. The same goes for the ‘official’ comments on gaming sites. They all say that it’s an unnecessary nuisance.”

She half raised from her chair to reach for the tea pot.

“And what do you think?” Robert asked.

“I think it’s really stupid to ignore the possibilities. Have you ever read an article or something about the surveillance that the intelligence community is supposed to impose on us?”

He nodded. “Yes, I have. Only last week, it was a big deal. It said that nearly all telephone calls in the world are automatically screened and that if you say something suspicious like ‘nuclear bomb’ on the phone, the call is recorded and checked by a human operator later on. The same goes for email. Specialized search engines scan all email, looking for suspicious word combinations. The newspaper was rather worried about privacy issues.”

“Big brother is watching you. He’s eavesdropping as well.”

He smiled at that. “So if a game like World of Warcraft isn’t under surveillance, it would be the perfect medium to exchange information. The perfect hideout.”

Enthusiastically, she sat forward, eyes glittering. “Exactly. That’s what I told myself last night. Regardless of whether it’s true or not, nearly everyone has been scared into believing that telephone and email are not secure. So what better way to communicate safely than through WoW?”

“But how easy is it to communicate in WoW? You both have to be online, haven’t you?”

“No, not at all!” She shook her head vigorously. “That’s the beauty of it. World of Warcraft has every communication facility you could possibly desire. For instance, you can send in-game emails that will wait in a mailbox for thirty days to be picked up. You can even send notes that you can store for later reference. Of course, when you’re both online, you can chat in secure channels, but you can also actually talk to each other. There are several options like Teamspeak that allow you to have a VOIP conversation much like a conference call.”

“So why are the reactions so negative on the Internet, do you think? Why do the gamers think it’s nonsense?”

“That’s exactly what surprised me so much. If you’re into this game, you simply
must
recognize the potential opportunities it offers for clandestine communication. It’s perfect. The accounts are anonymous. You can access it from any place on earth, it’s completely secure, and it’s untraceable on top of all that. What more could a criminal wish for?”

“So do you think that we should go to the police?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Robert came to a decision. “After all we’ve been discussing, do you actually think we can stop here? No, I think it’s our duty to report what we’ve found. Even if it all means nothing, I think I’ll feel better for having reported it.”

***

“I still feel a bit uncomfortable about this,” Andy said as they approached the police station. “There’s an Arab looking guy living opposite your room who’s playing an online computer game. People spam all kinds of idiocy in computer games. That doesn’t make them terrorists, you know!”

Last night, Robert had told his friend at length about what was bothering him. He had taken him step by step through everything he had seen and learned. Andy had been hesitant about believing that a terrorist might live right under his friend’s nose. He also admitted there were a lot of coincidences and, above all, that the decision wasn’t theirs to make, so he volunteered to go to the police with Robert.

This morning, he had made an appointment by telephone. He had explained shortly that they possibly had some information about the recent terrorist attack. At that, he was asked to come to the station in an hour. Even though they were right on time, they were told to wait by a rather grumpy receptionist.

After twenty minutes, they were approached by a female officer with broad shoulders and short hair. They followed her to a small chamber, where they were asked to sit on cheap plastic chairs. This time, they only had to wait a few minutes. A woman in civilian clothes entered the room and reached out her hand to them. Robert’s eyes were drawn to her nails that were painted the brightest color red he had ever seen. She was followed by an older man, who was wearing Nike Airs under his jeans and navy sports jacket.

“You’re English?” inquired the female officer, who had introduced herself as Astrid van der Bosch. “And you’re here to translate, is that right?” She nodded in the direction of Andy, who was wearing a remarkably presentable pullover for the occasion. She seemed to be insulted by the arrangement.

“Not exactly,” Robert interceded before Andy could respond. “Of course I realize that you speak English well. It’s just that I’ve been here for a short time, and I’m still unfamiliar with many things. So I asked Andy to help me.”

“Hm,” she said, somewhat mollified. “Maybe that’s a good idea. So who’s going to give me the information?”

Her colleague leaned back in his plastic chair, studying them. Robert hadn’t quite caught his name when the introductions were made. He was older than Astrid van der Bosch, maybe in his late fifties, early sixties. The man was looking at him with unblinking blue eyes, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable. He quickly looked back at Andy, who was just embarking on his narrative. He explained about Robert being an exchange student, how he’d met with his neighbour called Khalid, and how several things he’d observed had come together with what they had learned about the attack through the media.

They let him talk for more than five minutes. Only once did the female officer interrupt, to let him repeat and clarify something. Robert couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he got the feeling that Andy wasn’t impressing them. When Andy had finished, it remained silent for a few seconds. She scrawled something in her notebook.

Suddenly she looked at Robert and addressed him in English. “Do you play World of Warcraft yourself? I mean, do you know the game?”

“No,” he answered truthfully, taken aback by the direct question. “Nevertheless, I don’t need to play the game to be able to recognize suspicious coincidences.”

“My son plays World of Warcraft. In fact, he’s addicted to it. I have no choice but to take an interest in what he’s doing at the computer for so many hours each day.” She stopped there, looking at them one at a time. They simply looked back at her, not knowing what to say.

She shook her head. “If I took everything that he’s doing and saying online seriously, I’d have had to arrest my own son many times over. Not only him, but also all the people he’s playing with. I happen to know that his guild is called the Hammer of Thrall. Does that make him an accomplice in a terrorist bombing?”