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Sims 2 Hacks Spread Like Viruses

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the we-control-the-horizontal-and-the-vertical dept.

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."

13 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. but.. by sirgallihad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    if they where never designed as virii, then how come they are behaving like them?

    1. Re:but.. by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd be interested in seing a time bomb. An object which does nothing for a month, and then sets everything it can on fire. Just like with a real virus, if you want it to spread far and wide, you need an incubation period.

      --
      Seen on a Japanese food processor: "Not to be used for the other use."
    2. Re:but.. by pclminion · · Score: 2, Interesting
      To get technical about it, it's not really an incubation period because during incubation an organism isn't doing anything except growing and maturing. It isn't reproducing.

      This is more like the "lag period" after pitching yeast to make beer. There is a period of time (anywhere from 6 to 48 hours) where the yeast is not yet fermenting anything, but working as hard as possible to reproduce and grow its numbers. Then, once the resources start to get crowded, it switches into a new life mode and begins its "real" life function of fermenting sugar.

      A computer virus might work in the same way. It would "know" when to start activating when its "resources" start to diminish, i.e. when it starts getting difficult to find new uninfected hosts to spread to.

  2. Old news for those in the 'scene' by Richard+Frost · · Score: 5, Interesting

    User based sites that create mods, such as http://www.modthesims2.com, have been warning about this for months now.

  3. read the fracking article by hexfortyfive · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  4. Sims 2 is a virus by t_allardyce · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.
  5. Sounds eerily familiar. by kapella · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  6. Not really a virus by RandomBitFlipper · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...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.

  7. Re:Some of those hacks sound kind of cool! by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reasons for playing the sims are here (sims1) and here (sims2).

    --
    ^_^
  8. My idea by Mr.+Cancelled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  9. Re:It's The Sims! by Thuktun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sounds like a cool hack. Give the sims the ability to mess with the internals of objects around them, then see what happens over time.

  10. Re:57 Years Old? by necro2607 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Um, what I'm more curious about is why the hell they arbitrarily chose this "57-year-old Sims 2 player from Pflugerville, Texas".

    I mean, it doesn't get much more obscure than that. Does this woman happen to be a well-known member of a Sims 2 community site or something? Or did they just do a google search for "arbitrary Sims 2 player" and then interview one of the people randomly selected from the list of results?

  11. Re:so what? by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How do you know we're not Sims, who've finally created our own Sims? Oh God, when will the cycle ever end?

    That does explain the popularity of the Sims though. Our Player makes people play it until the urge to poop is overwhelming.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere