We often talk about designing games and simulations for instruction, but NPR had an interesting story today on doing social research within a multiplayer game. A bug in World of Warcraft unleashed a deadly virtual "plague", and epidimologists and sociologists noted how game-player's reactions closely mimiced reactions to real-world disasters.

There may be a planned illness outbreak in World of Warcraft so that sociologists can study and document player's reactions from the start. This is the converse of how we often use games and simulations: instead of creating an environment to evoke a specific response, it's creating an environment and documenting participants' emergent behaviors.