6. The End of the World... of Warcraft
Glitches are usually harmless. They might be annoying sure, but usually theres a work-around, or a fix, or an update which will eventually address the issue. But this one seemingly minor glitch in World of Warcraft caused a pandemic in the online world that actually had ramifications in the real world. Known as The Corrupted Blood Incident, this glitch started with the inclusion of a brand new dungeon; more specifically, a brand new dungeon boss. The boss cast a highly contagious debuff called Corrupted Blood; a high-level HP draining spell. This spell was only intended to function within the newly created are of ZulGurub, but players found that if they teleported while they had the affliction, they could take it out into the larger world with them. What ensued can only be described as the end of the World (of Warcraft). A pandemic spread across the map, killing lower level players to the point they could no longer play and harassing even top-level toons. Blizzard responded by quarantining populated areas and encouraging players to avoid cities in attempt to halt the spread. Check out the devastation it caused: http://youtu.be/sAEhyHiNdrA Most of the spread was accidental, but worryingly, some people were purposely passing along the disease in order to keep the pandemic alive. Basically, this particular glitch could be a considered a virtual biological attack on this particular server. So much so that the event is now studied by anti-terrorism officials as a potential simulation for an actual attack. Surely only World of Warcraft could accidentally create a glitch so moody and with such depressing implications about the basic nature of man, am I right?