Slashdot Mirror
Sims 2 Hacks Spread Like Viruses
jowens writes "SecurityFocus reports that players sharing house designs through Electronic Arts' Sims 2 Exchange are finding their game behaving oddly: espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children. It turns out hacks were spreading invisibly with Sims 2 lots, infecting thousands of downloadable homes, and catching Electronic Arts by surprise. The hackers, who never intended their hacks to be viruses, have even written their own AV scanner to find and control the outbreak."
Maybe now I'll check the game out.
Where can I buy me one of these magic espresso machines?
Wife: Wow, I love what they did with their place.
Me: What?
Wife: Didn't you notice they redid their kitchen?!?
Me: I noticed the beer was in a different place...
Wife: (ignoring me) I loved their new countertop, and the wine cooler, and...
Me: This is bad, isn't it?
Wife: We need to do something like that.
Me: Yup, it's bad all right.
Wife: I'm sure we can put something together for under $25k...
Me: PWn3d.
wife: Goddamn right.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I'd call them upgrades! If only reality were just as hackable...
But can the coffee maker shoot Bobs?
Don't worry, a fix is coming. EA has a few employees working overtime this weekend.
Trolling is a art,
When the piss is released in sub zero weather it tends to be frosty.
if they where never designed as virii, then how come they are behaving like them?
How the hell do these things really get past Beta testing? And what the hell are the programmers/testers doing with the Golden Masters that are sent to the pressing company?
This signature was left intentionally blank.
All your Sims are belong to us!
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
catches a virus? Oh the irony.
A virus gets a life, and life gets a virus.
My head hurts.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
How do we know the Sims themselves haven't created these hacks? I mean, all of us here fantasize about being able to program the physics around us for a happier existence, right? right?
do() || do_not();
I know my Starbucks Barista Expresso Machine takes care of most of my needs.
NOTE: I said MOST
The article appears to be saying that the hacks are in downloadable components like pre-set-up homes with the magic espresso machines.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
I guess their software developers will have to work overtime to put together some patches.
I thought this was an EA game, not a Microsoft game...
Its user downloadable content.
It changes details of the game mechanics.
Those maybe wanted or not (perhaps people WANT a coffee machine that satisfies all theirs sims needs), but is it a hacK?
Then making a single player quake level without healthpacks and lots of big monsters would be a hack, too....
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Are they going to establish a security perimeter, put every virtual people in bubbles and then use radiation to remove the contamination?
Virtual CDAMC (Center for Disease and Appliance Malfunction Control) officer: Don't worry, we are from the government and we are here to help.
And how is this not EXACTLY like real life?
User based sites that create mods, such as http://www.modthesims2.com, have been warning about this for months now.
I want the magic toaster what eats lady sim shirts and skirts!
>
sounds like liberal revenge against the conservatives for winning the election! My god, my Sims have abandoned family values!
From Saeco of course! Saeco. Saeco, mm, mmm good magic espresso!
So, what will it take to get this virus ported to reality? :P
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.
Does this mean that EA will be releasing a Jerry Springer add-on for the Sims?
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
I interviewed for a position at SecurityFocus. Damn, I would have lied my ass off if I thought it would have led to this!
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant.
do.... do we see em do it?!?
virtual world plagued by virtual virus. Should we be virtually worried? Will the virtual police come and arrest the virtual hackers as they spread their virtual malware? Will it become a virtual catastrophe, or a comedy of virtual proportions?
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
What's the difference between watching your little Sims goto a coffee machine over and over, and watching them walk up to something else 20 over and over.
I've never seen the fun in Sims (yes I know it's a god game, but it's very very small scale). I just can't see a huge difference between this and well.. not this..
I like muppets.
He's secretly in Belaruse, designing new Sims2 malware objects. Infecting every Dishwasher, TV, and Social Worker in the Sims2 universe!
"Sim1, can't get it up? Get Simagra!"
"Don't worry about the problems you have in mathematics, I assure you mine are much greater." - Einstein c.1919
The game lets you share your acomplishments on EA's Sims 2 website. When you "check out" someone's house, the hacked objects get imported into your copy of the game. If you then export one of your houses, the hacked objects propigate.
Watch out. If they do it, they'll receive complaints and their solution will be to make a Dr Phil add-on and I don't think you want that, or do you ^^
Good grief some of you need to get out more.
Smallpox, Antrax, Ricin, HIV
Suicide Bombers
Snipers
IEDs
Tsunamis
are finding their game behaving oddly: espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.
And what's so odd about that? If the game didn't work that way before, maybe it's just a patch.
It sounds like when you make a custom subclass of an sims object, it's new properties propagate to other instances of the parent class of object. Sounds like the ability to create your own little sims world pollutes your neighbors, etc. Sounds like they have some work to do or this sims universe is going to be real boring (or more boring).
The matrix foreshadowed this. When Agent Smith is interrogating Morpheous, he said that the first Matrix was perfect and the system collapsed. Also Smith stated that Humans are like a virus that spreads. Whoa! that is deep.
Me too, sounds kinda neat now! Of course, I had fun finding the limits of my Furby (read: abusing) -- y'know, just to test the limits of the device.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Tank...?!
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
I remember getting hooked on Sims 1 untill I realised it was a totally retarded game, because the clock runs so fast it can take you several hours to just make coffee and walk to the front door in the morning.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Offtopic but I am hoping to start a new tradition in the likes of "Imagine a Beowolf Cluster..." and "In communist Russia".
Lisa:
You can't steal those supplies from that private school
Principal Skinner:
Welcome to Dick Chenney's new Simerica.
The ever raising amount of anti-social behavoir exhibited by the nations youth can be directly correlated to two things: TV and Games.
Can either of those two things be directly associated with poor grammar and spelling or the driving force that makes one post trolls on Slashdot? Huh? Huh?
You are t3h stupid. I am embarrassed for the both of us.
~ t_m_p
Indeed. Once there was a sim with the ability to re-make simsville as he saw fit. He freed...
And so on.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
I hope it's not because of the espresso machines that can satisfy all your needs .
Don't worry. We have nothing to worry about until the Virtual Umbrella Corp comes about and releases a virtual T-Virus
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
The question I have is, are these addins restricted to just the Sims universe or can they access hardware/files on the PC?
The two methods I would expect to be able to do this are:
1. Direct file/hardware manipulation. I would presume that the features are organized like DLLs, so placing code to execute a from within the addin should be possible.
2. Sub files that can be placed in specific locations (ie execute when the PC boots). If there is no access to the file system, what about the PC's registry? Commands to access specific files should be placeable on boot up from the registry.
I would expect that an addin written for Windows would upchuck in a Linux/OSX environment, but would this crash the game/system?
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I've played The Sims and tried out The Sims Online, and I have yet to understand why people play these games. There is no ending to it and eventually it just becomes boring.
Sims Online is basically a glorified chat server. If I feel like chatting with people, I'll go open up an irc client.
Guys really want something like this in real life.
Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant.Guys really want...no wait. Real life already has this.
At one point as many as three-quarters of the lots on the exchange contained hacks, estimates Suzanne Walshire, a 57-year-old Sims 2 player from Pflugerville, Texas
The Virtual FDA has approved a virtual antiviral that virtually cures the virtual virus. The only question is whether this has any virtue.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.
Sounds like Florida!
I'll stick to Wolfenstein. And Conquest. Subjugating the globe; now that's control! ;)
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
HELLO?!?!
What part of SIM-U-LATION is not understood, here? Spyware, adware, virui, BSOD's, Windows. The game is designed to be a simulation, and functions as a proper simulation.
The game works as designed.
You always get your ass kicked in Starcraft, and you just can't handle that, can you?
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.
SCNR...
"says a Sims 2 hacker who asked to be identified by his online moniker, Jfade."
How much respect does that guy get at school. Oh yeah...
Answer: you don't; instead you adopt the Slashdot style of code testing: Ship it!
503? Hacks spread like viruses? Oh, par for the course.
Yeah, right.
If this were a virus
You would be dead now
Fortunately it's not
The Metaverse is a dangerous place;
How's your security?
Call Hiro Protagonist Security Associates
For a free initial consultation.
...sounds more like a bunch of more-or-less benignly corrupted files which have been unwittingly user-propagated, rather than self-propagating virii. I guess the Sims cops need to be modded to keep the SimVille neighbourhood from going to the dogs, or else they'll be as useless as an Indian policeman enforcing cyber-law.
/* This sig is disabled. Press CTRL-W to enable. Thankyou */
Except Maxis released it themselves. The thing would bite your sim and there was a good chance the sim would become sick and die. The magic expresso machines seems pretty nice compared to that hehe. I personally can't stand the Sims games, can't get into it. My daughter loves them though.
I always thought it would be way fun to be able to insert a downloadable sim, who would act as somewhat of a virus, and murder other sims.
My GF's hooked on the Sims (and now Sim2), and even she thought it'd be kinda neat to download an innocent looking Sim, only to have them turn out to be a serial killer who begins killing off your other Sims at some point in time. Sort of a simulated "whodunnit" murder mystery.
Dubya told ya China is the new evil empire?
Nice.
Instead of teasing us about all these cool hacks, why don't people post the links to them please?
I always thought of brazil as a large source of virii(sp?).
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
I'm just waiting for a no-clothes hack that actually has anatomically correct models instead of those disturbing androgynes.
Uh, at least, that's what a friend of mine said at the Chinese Buffet last night.. er...
(I don't even own TheSims or TheSims2... I promise!)
hang on, i have to spank the donkey.
You mean you don't get your freedom fries served on a freedom plate?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
the exact kind of player who would cheat.
What I especially like is that instead of disabling functionality, blocking the users, C&Ding, DMCAing or plain old sueing the hackers, EA applauds their creativity, admits that EA didn't foresee the potential problem and works to fix it to everyone's satisfaction.
Nice corporate behaviour, folks. May be I will even buy one of the expansion packs eventually to compliment my pirated copy of Sims 2.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Blade Runner II - Hacked Replicants
Table-ized A.I.
Everytime my SIM would have (SIM) computer trouble and reboot his machine, my computer would reboot too!!
Damn Hackers.....
I know she'd like the first one, and I'd bet the computer at her house doesn't have the nicest graphics card, although its only a year or so old.
What do you think? She's bored at home and this would help alot.
Want to see every step I took to start my company? http://www.rowdylabs.com/blogs/pitchtothegods
Espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children...
I didn't know that game play had advanced to that level yet. It's almost real! Are we sure that these are hacks, or has the AI finally caught on?
Since you seem to be questioning your spelling, I'll let you know a little secret - virii isn't a word. I believe the word you're looking for is viruses.
Oh, and here is the correct spelling of hypothetically.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Thank Zoo uid 1000 is a guy named karl he's the lucky punk who owns karl.com...
Re your name: Am I going down the utterly wrong road, or would that rather be 'GWAPict'? Does anyone even have the slightest idea what I'm talking about? Do I?
Re your comment: You are a very lucky man. Take good care of her. Women like that do not come along very often. Take it from me.
-- someone too embarrassed to post this under an actual account
He is not. But his wife is.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
an Amityville Toaster hack!
There are two kinds of people: 1) those that need closure
EA management is run by Sims too.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
"Preview is your friend."
I believe EA has alot of developers in Austin TX ? Pflugerville is one of the yuppie suburbs.
This is not the Sim way! Why not create a new object for the game - like a Magic Amulet - that can detect these hacks?
Or even an Exorcist to call?
Lars Bo Wassini
my favourite line from the article:
"Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant. As the game is sold, they can't even have sex."
Oh my g0d yhis is SO...
I dunno, normal?
I hear they've hired Neal Stephenson to write a story based on this.
(Yes, I'm joking.)