A deadly and highly contagious plague has swept through a major city in which some of your colleagues and neighbours probably spend much of their time, writes David Fickling. So why haven't you heard about it?
Maybe it's because the affected city is the Orc capital of Orgrimmar, and the disease only exists in the alternative world of role-playing games.
Reports of the disaster in World of Warcraft have begun to filter out into the real world, and some of the accounts read eerily like dispatches from real-life disaster zones.
Virtual photojournalists have been documenting the devastation.
Even if you've got no interest in the whole cloak and sword, 20-sided dice world of role-playing games, there's something fascinating about the parallel universes that have been created.
The issue has started troubling lawyers and economists - and unfortunately even the police are sometimes having to get involved.
Earlier this year, an online gamer in China killed another player over the theft of a "dragon sabre" in the game Legends of Mir 3.
He had previously tried to resolve the dispute by going to the police, who were unable to act because there are no laws against the theft of imaginary items.
Police in South Korea have taken things one step further, and created a special unit dedicated to fighting virtual crime.
