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Entire Cities In World of Warcraft Dead, Hack Suspected

hypnosec writes "Entire cities in the World of Warcraft have been destroyed with no one spared, not even the NPCs. About 13:00 GMT, forums on WOW started getting the first comments from users regarding players and NPCs dying on the Ragnaros-EU realm in Orgrimmar. Users of the online game started reporting that Draenor had a similar sight to offer. Some of the other realms where this was reported include Tarren Mill, and Twisting Nether." Also at Joystiq, and (with more screenshots) at WCCF Tech, which reports that "it appears the damage is most severe in World of Warcraft European servers."

48 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. #firstworldproblems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    sounds like a first world problem

    1. Re:#firstworldproblems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      More like a second life problem.

    2. Re:#firstworldproblems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      More like a no-life problem...

  2. Re:WoW news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And nothing of value was lost.

  3. Who would destroy entire worlds? by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 4, Funny

    G A L A C T U S ! ! !

    --
    I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    1. Re:Who would destroy entire worlds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude I'm in your cities deleting all your dudes.

    2. Re:Who would destroy entire worlds? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      G A L A C T U S ! ! !

      I don't think it was Galactus at all. More likely, it was this guy.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. nooooo! by dittbub · · Score: 5, Funny

    OH THE HORDEMANITY

  5. Oh no! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is horrible! Please tell us this won't affect Colleen Lachowicz's campaign for the Senate!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. It's the end of the World by Andrio · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...of Warcraft.

    --
    The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
    1. Re:It's the end of the World by dopaz · · Score: 5, Funny

      And I feel fine.

    2. Re:It's the end of the World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, your momma's clothes were laying around.

    3. Re:It's the end of the World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Too bad they couldn't wait to do this until December 21.

      CAPTCHA: Sedition

  7. Re:WoW news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    News for Nerds. Nothing that matters.

  8. What's happening to the World?! of Warcraft!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We must find the chosen one and deliver to him the Sword of a Thousand Truths.

  9. oblig by ryen · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I felt a great disturbance in the 'Craft, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were forced to come out of their parent's basement. I fear something productive has happend"

    1. Re:oblig by EdIII · · Score: 5, Funny

      If by productive you mean that Internet porn usage went up thousands upon thousands of percentage points in use... yes.

  10. virtual genocide by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  11. Re:What does it all mean? by Atzanteol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're on /. and don't know what NPC is, or how to find out, you're probably not the target audience here.

    --
    "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

    - Charles Darwin
  12. Hotfixed by _bug_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Blizzard reports the exploit being used has been hotfixed.

    1. Re:Hotfixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      The "exploit" in question being an unauthorized GM client.

  13. Re:WoW news? by cvtan · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not like they were alive to begin with,

    --
    Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
  14. Re:What does it all mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you're on /. and don't know what NPC is, or how to find out, you're probably not the target audience here.

    If you're on /. and don't like answering peoples' questions, even when it would have taken you less time to type than the snide remark you chose, you're probably the target audience here.

  15. Leeeroy Jeennkins!! by mcneely.mike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Goddamn you, Leroy!!!!! XD

    --
    soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
  16. Re:What does it all mean? by Teancum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was a troll reply to a troll question... thus very much deserved.

    Besides, I agree 100% that if you neither know what an NPC is nor how to look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the story is largely irrelevant to you. Then again I would even wonder why "news for nerds" is even interesting for somebody like that?

  17. More dakka! by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apparently someone discovered a way to do an instant "kill everything" attack and published it. Enough players then used it to kill everything in entire cities. Management has announced that they are doing "rolling restarts" on each realm today. It's not clear if characters will be re-animated, or what.

    Properly, once they fix the bug that allowed a "kill everything" attack, they should resolve the matter in-game. Send in disaster recovery crews with healers, security, carts to haul away the dead...

    1. Re:More dakka! by muphin · · Score: 4, Funny

      and then install millimeter wave scanners at every port so all users will be scanned upon entry :p

      --
      It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
  18. Re:What does it all mean? by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're on /. and don't know what NPC is, or how to find out, you're probably not the target audience here.

    If you're on /. and don't like answering peoples' questions, even when it would have taken you less time to type than the snide remark you chose, you're probably the target audience here.

    A little definition is in order. A stupid question is one you could easily answer yourself in less time than it would take to request hand-holding you don't really need. A stupid question is rude because it is effectively a claim that someone else's time is worth far less than your own, and therefore they should serve you (as if you are some kind of king) and do your own minor legwork for you. That is absurd. I notice you did not submit to it yourself -- you did not answer the question either -- so whether you like it or not, your actions are in agreement with me.

    Stupid questions from literate adults who obviously have Internet (thus Google) access ... they deserve the snide remarks they receive. When you consider he could have Googled "NPC" in less time than it took to ask a stupid question, the remark was actually rather polite.

    Sorry if you are too soft to recognize the good that comes from not lowering the standards to suit the intellectually lazy. Intellectual laziness and the choice to knowingly embrace helplessness are character flaws. They are not supposed to be validated. They don't deserve it.

    Now then, go ahead and launch your personal attacks and invective. That's what those of your emotionally-goverened, offense-driven mentality usually do when the following two conditions have been met: a) they cannot formulate an effective counter-point, and b) they are too haughty to admit when a good point has been made.

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  19. Must Be A Real Badass by Scarletdown · · Score: 5, Funny

    After speculating that the person responsible must be a real badass, police have released this composite sketch of what they think the culprit looks like...

    A Real Badass

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  20. Re:WoW news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A four digit Slashdot poster is probably quite the catch.

  21. Re:What does it all mean? by LMahesa · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Role Playing Game (RPG) parlance, an NPC is a Non-Player Character. Anything beyond the scenery and objects that is not directly controlled by a player, in other words. A 'city' is just that - an in-game hub of sorts, which, I think, is usually represented by a dedicated server in online games. Or the other way round. *shrug*.

    Whether or not there's any actual role-playing going on in these online games is a different matter.

    --
    Look, no SIG!
  22. Re:WoW news? by BluBrick · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'd better believe it!

    --
    Ahh - My eye!
    The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
  23. Re:Here's hoping... by jeffasselin · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're killing characters and npcs, not deleting them. Death is only a short-lived inconvenience in wow.

    Killing npcs is more annoying actually since some can take a while to respawn.

    The issue appears to be a combination of a teleport/wall-hack and the ability to kill any creature, npc or character with a single hit which obviously trivializes the whole game and enables griefing on this kind of epic scale. The hack was apparently found a couple weeks ago but only fixed today with a server restart.

    --
    If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
  24. Nude Bomb? by GumphMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Am I the only one thinking that a nude bomb would have been a better hack?

    --
    Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
  25. Re:WoW news? by hpa · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, I resemble that remark.

  26. Re:WoW news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Virtual people are dying. Have you virtually no shame?

  27. Re:What does it all mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've read arguments like yours for decades. I'll summarize what you are doing :

    - Some person is an asshole.

    - Being an asshole, they need to have their ego stroked as they believe they are God's gift to mankind and everyone should know about this.

    - This asshole has no family or friends or coworkers that can stand him, so he needs to find a way to stroke his own ego.

    - Said asshole lurks in a online forum until somebody asks a "stupid question". All humans ask stupid questions, some stupider than others. This provides him an opportunity to join the discussion and argue.

    - The asshole launches a lengthy rant about the impropriety of stupid questions, maybe even having the audacity to reinterpret the stupid question as a personal insult against himself.

    - The asshole can now feel smug and intellectually superior as people respond to his iron-clad argument and fail to make a compelling case against it. This is where the masturbatory ego-stroking takes place.

    Looking at your previous posts I can see you regularly do this, and chime in on discussions just to be a dick and add nothing of value to the conversation. It's entirely possible you have no interest in science or technology or "News for Nerds" at all; the actual topics at this site are largely irrelevant to you.

    Of course you wouldn't post as AC to do this kind of trolling, because your history of posts are akin to viewing an extensive porn collection, and it allows you to stroke your ego over and over. It's important that you have rich history of shitting on other people, because these little "victories" as a whole give your life meaning.

  28. Re:Stop playing that shit by myowntrueself · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's not a game, that's a job, a very shitty one.

    Thats the point; its a job. But unlike ones job in the real world, in your fantasy job you can actually feel important!

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  29. Dear roman_mir by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Funny

    Was your account hacked? This doesn't seem like something you would write, as it did not in any way praise ron paul or demonize barack obama.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  30. Dear Diary, by Tastecicles · · Score: 5, Funny

    I went outside today. Yes, the real, actual outside.

    The graphics were amazing.

    Storyline sucked, though.

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
  31. Re:What does it all mean? by TranquilVoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, as insightful as you appear to be, I have perused your posting history, Mr Anonymous Coward, and you have far more serious problems.

  32. Re:What does it all mean? by BradleyUffner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Compare to any other website where people hold your hand asking stupid questions, you have to wade through copious amounts of stupid questions that far outnumber any post with value.

    I've been on boards where the community happily answers stupid questions, and on other boards where they yell about "USE THE SEARCH NOOB!"
    I have seen no difference in the number of stupid questions at all. The only difference I have seen is that on the former there tends to be more useful information. Those boards are also much nicer places to "hang out".

  33. Re:What does it all mean? by Decameron81 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stupid questions from literate adults who obviously have Internet (thus Google) access ... they deserve the snide remarks they receive. When you consider he could have Googled "NPC" in less time than it took to ask a stupid question, the remark was actually rather polite.

    Interaction with other humans is greatly underrated by intolerant nerds who think we should replace it with Google searches. There's absolutely no reason why you should first look for things in Google instead of asking them in a forum, other than your personal opinion that it's the right thing to do.

    Ignoring the question, or replying to it would've been far more tolerant ways to react to the post.

    Now then, go ahead and launch your personal attacks and invective. That's what those of your emotionally-goverened, offense-driven mentality usually do when the following two conditions have been met: a) they cannot formulate an effective counter-point, and b) they are too haughty to admit when a good point has been made.

    You sound like a robot, man. Chill out.

    --
    diegoT
  34. Re:What does it all mean? by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    what the fuck does WTF mean?

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  35. Re:WoW news? by gmhowell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep. We were around pre-dot-bomb, building our bank roll when things were easy and now we get to sit back and smugly watch all you kids slit each other's throats for gigs we used to take for granted. :)

    Hey grandpa, at least us n00bs can remember our login information.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  36. Re:What does it all mean? by lxs · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a percussion instrument. You hit it with a hammer and it makes a booming sound.

  37. Re:To quote Triumph... by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While not "important" in terms of perhaps feeding and housing a population, WoW is probably "just as important" as the sports games you crave, or the concerts you go to, or the television channel you watch. None of which I give a shit about. Perhaps the point I am trying to make is that WoW is an activity that several million people participate in every day. While you or I might not, I'm quite sure that several million people do, actually, give a shit. If you argue that it's "not important", I can argue that it's as important as anything else is. Because at the end of the day, we're all dead, we're all specks of dust floating in an endless universe. There is nothing on this planet that is "important". It just depends on your perspective.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  38. Re:To quote Triumph... by CimmerianX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I agree. What if half of the football stadiums burned down from a serial arsonist. Almost the whole, freaking country would loose their minds. And I would be sitting comfortably telling them, "It's just a game. It doesn't matter and is not really important to life in general".