The virtual city is under the threat of an ongoing pandemic, in the unofficial private server Elysium. Sounds quite familiar well of course it is, the idea is in fact, drawn from the very ongoing situations of the world. And just like the quick spread of corona, the virtual virus too was strategically launched over the weekend. All this was done by the admins as an effort to raise awareness about how quickly the real global pandemic is spreading and how quickly it can spread if we are not careful enough.

The plague was designed to spread in the Azeroth city within just 15 hours of being launched and affected over 2000 streamers just within a few hours. The next day the numbers rose to 7000, damaging 88% of all the active players who were online. This virus reduces the game achievement statistics and also causes a debuff in movement and speed. There are total of 3.5 million user ids on Elysium. It sees a login traffic of ten thousand to fifteen thousand on an average each week.

On being asked by Kotaku on why such a thing was done to innocent players, the admins mentioned that since their users consist largely of young kids who do not have access or interest in the everyday or even the important news, he felt that it was his responsibility to give the needed information to these kids in the best way possible. And although he knew the risks involved and the panic he would create, he felt it was important given the fact that thousands of people are succumbing to it regularly. It had to be a hundred percent education without taking the wrong road of perception by the users.

Once the lesson was imparted the players were given items such as virtual soaps and were tested on races as to who reaches home first, the virus was then removed when everybody learned the valuable lessons of hygiene and social distancing. The launch highlighted the impacts of the pandemic and the gigantic amounts of damage it can do if left unchecked.

We hope the lesson was well cognitivized by the players.

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