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Shadowbane Servers Hacked, Chaos Ensues
Vanguard(DC) writes "There was a major hacking incident last night on the servers of Shadowbane, a newly released MMORPG by UbiSoft/Wolfpack. The attackers wreaked havoc on at least one game server, with apparent god-like capabilities in-game. There's already an official statement on the forums - 'Ubi Soft and Wolfpack Studios are now working with law enforcement, and we promise all of you that these individuals will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.'" There's a little more information via a post on the SBCatacombs messageboard - apparently the carnage (including many less powerful players getting killed) involved "..teleporting people all over the world, teleporting hostile guards into the safe-holds, bringing in hordes of special event monsters, and teleporting everyone to a city at the bottom of the sea."
ok... this is getting ridiculous... why should anyone that found a way to compromise security for a game be prosecuted in real life?!
Why should computer game servers be exempt from the usual laws about hacking into peoples' systems? Those who break into banks are prosecuted, if caught.
This person or persons compromised security, broke in and disrupted business operations, causing damages. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
ASA
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Real simple, the in-game actions these people did caused real world finacial harm to the game developers. I saw at least one post stating that people canceled their subscriptions, in part, because of this.
Not to mention the tarnished reputation, which is also worth damages.
Not to mention that breaking a law is illegal, whether you hurt some one or not.
I think it's kind of ludicrous to make threats like the Ubi people have made, but the people who did this do deserve some comeuppance because what they did *was* in the real world--they hacked the game, destroyed a lot of people's expenditures of time, and most importantly to Ubi, trashed the hosting company's reputation. All of that is real-world, whether you think it's important or not.
That said, I think the whole thing was hilarious from descriptions, and I'd love to see the recording of the mess they made.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
They DID hack into a commercial system and disrupted business.
They DID interfere with paying customers.
Just because they are hacking into a game today and you're willing to let them get qaway with it, what will you say when they're hacking into your bank account tomorrow?
Non tam praeclarum est scire Latine, quam turpe nescire
-- Cicero
it's just a game
But imagine you're an aspiring artist who's spent several hours a day for the past two months on a painting and someone breaks into your studio and splatters paint all over it. Hey, It's just a piece of canvas after all. It's just your spare time and money down the drain, it's not like it's your job or anything.
Or, you're writing the great American novel and someone sits down at your laptop while you've stepped away to use the bathroom and someone does a search and replace and strips out all the vowels. Hey, it's just bits on a hard drive, right? It's just your time and effort wasted, it's not like it was *worth* anything.
A lot of people really get into these games and put a lot of time, effort (and money!) into building up their characters, and it absolutely sucks when through no fault of your own, all that hard work and effort (and money!) suddenly goes poof.
For those who have never played, it takes a lot of work to build up a character, collect the best equipment - usually by in-game trading which can take hours or days per item, etc.
I've played MMORPGs for years and usually when I quit playing a game it's because of something like this, I get killed by another player who steals all of my hard earned equipment, I suffer lag at the wrong moment and drop into a pit of acid causing me to die and lose all my best armor, etc. When stuff like that happens, I log out and usually never go back. I play for fun, and that stuff is not fun for me.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
This is informative? I'm not saying that the hackers ought to be sent to a labor camp over this, but letting it go is like not prosecuting the shoplifter 'cause they're murders in the world.
No one reasonable is asking for the cops to stop chasing terrorists to do this, but we as a society prosecute any crime (even stupid ones, to even stupider lengths) as a principle.
And just because other problems exist, doesn't mean you let the little ones slide. No one's time is that hard up.
I can understand players getting mad at this, but at the same time, it's just a game, and if individual users themselves are considering legal action, they really need to shut down the computer and go outside for a while.
Consider the reaction of thirty adults who rent a stadium to play a sport, and then have that stadium game interrupted.
Or consider the effect of disrupting the superbowl.
Or consider the result of walking up to folk playing chess in the park and overturning the board.
In each case, legal action is both warranted and acceptable. Same thing for hacking a game server which is being actively used; even moreso if it's a private server or a fee-to-play server.
You sir, are an idiot.
Do you ever complain if someone's cell phone rings in a theater? Or if they talk loudly through the whole film?
Basically, if you *ever* complain about anything that someone does to make your entertainment choices less fun, you're a hypocrite.
I bet if you were in the middle of an intense game of chess and I, a complete stranger, came by and intentionally knocked the board over, you might feel like throwing a punch in my direction. How is this any different, except that the jerks are safely far away from having their asses kicked right then and there, is beyond me.
Saying it's "just games" ignores just how important a certain amount of play is to a healthy life.
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