It would seem that the anti terrorism authorities in the States are investigating running a data mining programme, to watch the popular role playing game “World of Warcraft”.
They currently regard this project as a seed, or pilot to see whether information gained from tracking behaviours of on line games can help identify risks to national security. With plans to investigate other forms of social networking and on-line behaviour if the project proves successful.
Known as “norming” there application would establish normal behaviour patterns of players and flag up players that deviate from those patterns.
It is not clear as to whether they are looking to identify the behaviour of the kind of person who may become a future terrorist or whether they are looking for people using these environments as a means of training or communication, but if it works it gets my vote.
Norms in online gaming what a joke there is only one norm at one point in time you are new to the game after that you grow
my guess would be that they are looking for people that are naturally good leaders with a bit of a cruel streak. Its nothing new though the armed forces have been watching online gamers for years in their recruitment programme (if you believe the urban myths).
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