As if video games didn't have enough bad press to deal with in mainstream media, the Pentagon has now claimed that MMORPGs can be used to help plan terrorist acts against the United States.

According to Wired.com, last week during a presentation at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington D.C., Dr. Dwight Toavs showed the audience how games like World of WarCraft could be used to plot a nefarious act against the U.S. Using several slides which showed a birds-eye view of a WarCraft-looking landscape (to clarify, they did not actually use the game), two fictional persons were conversing back and forth on using a "Dragon Fire" spell (which Wired's Danger Room pointed out as being an EverQuest spell) against a Keep, and how "no one will dance [in the Keep] for a hundred years after this spell is cast."

Dr. Toavs shows a similar-looking landscape, which happens to be Washington, D.C., with the Keep actually being the White House and the spell being a nuclear weapon. Dr. Toavs, a professor at the National Defense University (which receives funds from the Pentagon), also showed that the 110 gold and 234 silver referenced to in the fake conversation are coordinates for Washington D.C. for the alleged terrorists map.

According to Steven Aftergood, an analyst for the Federation of the American Scientists who follows the intelligence community, says the threat posed by MMO's and other environments like Second Life do not pose any real threat to national security. "This concern is out there. But it has to be viewed in context," Aftergood told Wired. "Could terrorists use Second Life? Sure, they can use anything. But is it a significant augmentation? That's not obvious."

With virtual worlds like World of WarCraft and Second Life becoming immensely popular, it's no wonder Big Brother is keeping a close eye on their evolution, even to the point of participation. With the military already expressing interest in video games (such as America's Army), as well as other programs like virtual world strategy training, the jump to MMO's is more of a step forward than a leap.

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