Tobold's Blog Thursday, April 20, 2006 The dark matter of WoW
My wife plays World of Warcraft too, since a year now. She took
a break recently, to play Dungeon Siege II, but now she is back
in WoW, with a brand new character, a gnome warlock, having lots
of fun. I sometimes like to watch her play, because she is
playing this game in a totally different way than I do: She
never chats, when somebody sends her a tell she has to ask me
what the key to reply was again. :) She never groups, except
sometimes with me when she needs help with something. If it
wasn't for the auction house, WoW might as well be a single-
player game for her.  So I'm wondering how many other players
are there like her. In cosmology there is a theory about dark
matter, a substance that can't be detected directly, but whose
presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible
matter. Players that don't interact with other players in WoW
are a the dark matter of this game.  The dark matter players can
explain some numbers, which a