A User-Friendly Computer Virus

It took Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine, California, company behind the game, nearly a week to stop the virtual plague. At that time the online Tolkienesque world of swords and sorcery boasted 4 million subscribers (it now has more than 9 million). The company's programmers had created Hakkar the Soulflayer--a monster so strong that players would have to band together to kill it--to enrich the game. They expected his blood curse to remain localized. But ... Full Story »