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...
Don't worry, a fix is coming. EA has a few employees working overtime this weekend.
Trolling is a art,
All your Sims are belong to us!
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
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();
User based sites that create mods, such as http://www.modthesims2.com, have been warning about this for months now.
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
Yeah, can you imagine the problems that would happen with self-aware Sims? You would have your own cult of Sims worshipping you. Everytime you would open the Sims, they would praise you and beg for your benevolence or beg that your menevolence would be adverted. That could be a fun, yet cruel game. It could be called Sim God. If only AI tech was that advanced. I would buy a game where I could tinker with the lives of a self-aware AI....muhahaha
The views expressed are mine own and do not express the views of my employer.
Essentially, everything behaves like viruses in the game, but people didn't realize this in advance. It makes sense that when you import a house, the things in it come along, but people didn't realize that a number of game mechanics were treated as things in houses. People also didn't realize that, if you modified "the espresso machine", the change would apply not just to one item, but to all items like that one, so importing the house with the weird espresso machine imports and applies the weirdness to your espresso machines, which you then pass on when you export your house.
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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."
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.