WoW cities wiped out by 'exploit'

World of Warcraft players in Europe experienced an unpleasant Sunday afternoon, after an "exploit" resulted in the death of every character in several cities. Within hours of the incident, the game's publisher Blizzard issued a statement declaring it an “exploit” that has “has ... been hotfixed, so it should not be repeatable …

[Anonymous Coward]

So that what it does

I found this amulet, labeled "Amulet of the Neutron Bomb", I didn't know what it did. Now I do. Sorry....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So that's what it does

A bit of advertising perhaps, a way to get into the news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Done before?

Didn't something like this happen before as an experiment to see how a virus would interact?

[Chris 3]

Re: Done before?

Well similar in effect, if not in cause: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident

[Andrew Moore]

Re: So that what it does

"How do you kill that which has no life?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @AM

Ooooo Mr Grumpy got out of the wrong side of bed this morning....maybe you should get a little more sleep at night instead of playing WoW...

[Greg J Preece]

Re: @AM

Oh do give it a fucking rest will you?

<snipped rant />

Um...I thought he was referring to the in-game sprites. Which died. But aren't actually alive.

Excuse me while I back away slowly from the rabid fanboy.

[Chris007]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

Oh do give it a fucking rest will you?

"Hurr hurr, WoW players are all shut ins with no social life."

it's that kind of tosh that marks you out for ridicule :)

[Dave 126]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

Curiously, the image of online gamers is being brought up by the US Republican party:

"Maine Republicans have created a webpage revealing that Democrat candidate Colleen Lachowicz plays an orc rogue in World of Warcraft (WoW)."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842704

[Psyx]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

"Curiously, the image of online gamers is being brought up by the US Republican party."

Which is pretty stupid, considering that an estimated 55% of the US is into gaming in some degree.

What a great strategy: Let's find something that the majority of the country like and then alienate that part of the electorate.

[JDX]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

Which is pretty stupid, considering that an estimated 55% of the US is into gaming in some degree.

What a great strategy: Let's find something that the majority of the country like and then alienate that part of the electorate.

Liking gaming and liking MMOs are very different. Liking gaming and wanting a politician to spend hours a day on WoW are very different.

[Dave 126]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

>Which is pretty stupid, considering that an estimated 55% of the US is into gaming in some degree.

That was more or less the candidate's response:

"Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games."

It would be a gross over-generalisation on my part to suggest that Republican's would prefer people to play 'America's Army': "the Official U.S. Army Game (AA), provides young Americans with a virtual web-based environment in which they can explore Army career ..."

[Psyx]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

"Liking gaming and liking MMOs are very different. Liking gaming and wanting a politician to spend hours a day on WoW are very different."

However, anyone who games isn't going to sympathise or swallow the "Anyone who games is living in a fantasy world and unfit for government" line of attack that is being used.

And who says the politician spends hours a day doing it? Subscribing to WoW doesn't make one a hardcore addict, nor does it mean that it will be placed ahead of work.

All politicians are people and have interests outside of work. I don't see a problem with that interest being on-line gaming, no more than it would be if it was judo or going to the theatre - both of which could also be portrayed [by idiots] as immersive violence or living in a fantasy world.

Hell; at least she'll be having more social contact with the unwashed masses than most politicians both to. That makes it a step up from polo for a start, in my eyes.

[Dana W]

Re: @AM @Thomas4

I've looked at her toon. She is barely spending hours a MONTH on it. He item level is in the low 300s

That's not a lot of time invested.

[DrXym]

Re: @AM

"Yes, there are people for whom WoW is a life devouring issue but sure it isn't the game that's at fault, it's the person playing it. "

The game is designed to be a Skinner box and time sink. It's a statistical certainty that a % of people will play it detrimentally and its in Blizzard's interest that they do so. People who invest real time in their characters and in the service through continuous play are likely to keep subscribing. If people began to play in moderation, more casually, they might stop playing completely and cancel their sub - it's not like there is any shortage of more casual free to play games.

Technically Blizzard could easily implement features to moderate use. For example they could add time quotas so that players could not play more than 30 hours in a week (still a very generous amount). They could add features which encouraged people to play for sensible durations, e.g. maybe characters get some kind of "refreshed" modifier if players go 20 hours between plays, or "fatigued" modifiers if they spend more than 3 hours online.

It wouldn't stop people from playing for marathon stretches but it would push them towards moderation. But that wouldn't do their subscriber base much good which I think is the reason that such measures are unlikely to implemented, or if they were would be done in such a watered down way that their impact would be negligible (e.g. making it opt-in and toggleable).

[Major N]

Re: @AM

Actually, they _did_ implement such a measure... but only for levelling content. Every 8 hours your character is left unplayed in an inn, you will gain double the XP from killing creatures for the next 5% of your level.

They were originally going to have a 'fatigued' status for your character, so that beyond a certain point, you would only gain 50% XP until you rested, but that caused such a fuss, they gave you 'rested' xp bonus, and then doubled the XP needed to gain each level, thus having the same net effect, but without the QQ.

Of course, the real hardcore spend all of their time at max level, and this does nothign to impact them..

[DrXym]

Re: @AM

"Actually, they _did_ implement such a measure... but only for levelling content. Every 8 hours your character is left unplayed in an inn, you will gain double the XP from killing creatures for the next 5% of your level."

I think that qualifies as watered down compared to what I was saying.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So that what it does

Hey, I found a scroll, it says

IDKFA

Does anybody know what it does?

(I should have named the amulet that....)

[Anonymous Coward]

Few people on one of the WoW exploit sites, OwnedCore, were taking credit for it.

[B-D]

Also known as "Ok, who farted?"

Isn't this the second time a virulent death has rained upon the realms?, I remember the first time there we two mains camps, the carebears and the griefers, the carebears tried their hardest to save their friends from certain death whilst the griefers ran around infecting anyone the could just for the sheer hell of it.

[B-D]

typos optional

after beer o'clock.

[tkioz]

All those dead bodies... brings a cackle to my cold dead heart.

[jake]

What's the issue?

Someone found out how to kill everybody, which is (from what I understand) the entire point of such nonsense, and instead of being applauded by the very people who provided the interface to figure out how to kill everybody, they are vilified?

Gamers. Go figure. Do they really expect a game to last forever? Poor bastards.

Want a "forever game"? Play count-the-license-plate.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What's the issue?

"Someone found out how to kill everybody, which is (from what I understand) the entire point of such nonsense"

Clearly then, you have made no attempts to understand it. Maybe you should spend at least 5 minutes trying to understand the hobby of such a large number of people, in the name of tolerance, understanding and sociology.

Even *I* know the off-side rule and the Five Pillars, and have no interest in either hobby. I find it helps me look like less of an ignorant, boorish A-hole to people that it matters to.

[Matt Bryant]

Re: Re: What's the issue?

".... I find it helps me look like less of an ignorant, boorish A-hole to people that it matters to." Oh dear, you may need a trip down to A&E to get that hook you swallowed removed.

[Alpha Tony]

Re: What's the issue?

"the Five Pillars"

LOL

Am not sure that Muslims would describe Islam as 'a hobby'

[Greg J Preece]

Re: What's the issue?

Am not sure that Muslims would describe Islam as 'a hobby'

Neither would I. Hobbies are generally productive in some fashion. Even levelling your shaman achieves more than praying all day.

[Psyx]

Re: What's the issue?

"Am not sure that Muslims would describe Islam as 'a hobby' "

Tomato/to-mato.

"Neither would I. Hobbies are generally productive in some fashion. Even levelling your shaman achieves more than praying all day."

But a hell of a lot less than Charity, of course...

[RICHTO]

Re: What's the issue?

Well they do seem to murder a lot of people. And cut off a lot of limbs, etc. That's certainly producing something.

They are also a bit sensitive to criticim, but that's only to be expected when your prophet did a 'Rob Hubbard' and invented his own religeon as cover for being a pedophile....

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: What's the issue?

jake [hog farmer], Matt Bryant [no particular ability except dissing, dislikes Sun] and RICHTO [unfinished Microsoft astroturf engine] in the same thread?

This is turning into a 4chan fest.

[spatulasnout]

Re: What's the issue?

Re: "instead of being applauded by the very people who provided the interface to figure out how to kill everybody, they are vilified"

Most exploits in online games circumvent the intended gameplay mechanics. If you're playing chess with someone at a club, and you arrange to have them paged during the game and then rearrange a few pieces to your advantage while your opponent is away, you've found an exploit of similar caliber to much of the cheating that takes place in online games.

(Disclaimer: I've not played WoW; but the cheating in DayZ lately has reached absurd levels: www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dayz+hackers )

[jon 72]

I suspect Chuck Norris

Genocide aside for moment.. what happened to all the gold?

[JDX]

Re: I suspect Chuck Norris

Maybe not shown in the screenshot is a single guy walking around picking it all up.

[Dana W]

Re: I suspect Chuck Norris

Dead players don't drop gold. This isn't Everquest.

[Martin Huizing]

Not a bug, hack or solar flare...

It was a flash mob organized by a popular social networking site.

Just kidding! WoW players don't socialize :)

[jake]

Re: Not a bug, hack or solar flare...

So-called "social networking" isn't socializing. It's gaming.

[Neoc]

Morgana, come out here right now. Aura wants to have a word with you.

[Martin 47]

AH, YES HMMM OOPS? I WOULD LIKE TO SAY SORRY BUT IT IS MY JOB

[Scott Pedigo]

The Dead Undead

Was any of the cities named "Racoon City" by any chance? They were all killed by the T-virus!!! This could be the beginning of a new tie-in: WoW vs. Resident Evil

[Steven Roper]

Been a while since I last played WoW

My brother and I used to be avid players for quite a few years there. We canceled our accounts earlier this year when Blizzard decided to take the game from Lord of the Rings-esque epic fantasy to fucking Kung-Fu Panda.

On Star Trek Online and LOTR Online (our current MMOs of choice), we've seen quite a few players, many of whom, like us, defected from WoW, are now calling it "the MMO that lost its way." I wonder how many people bought the MoP expansion compared to say Wrath or Cataclysm. I'd be willing to bet the numbers are down on the previous two expansions.

Shame really. I have many fond memories of WoW, before the hipster idiots destroyed it by demanding all that pathetic panda shit.

[Killraven]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

The Panda lore in WoW pre-dates Kung Fu Panda by several years.

But that won't stop the obvious association.

[Psyx]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"before the hipster idiots destroyed it by demanding all that pathetic panda shit."

Rather than pandering [hur-hur] to a tiny, temporary Western sub-culture, you don't think that maybe Blizzard did it to... y'know further open up the market in China et al, where a sizeable chunk of the world population lives?

Nah... nah, let's blame hipsters, because they have a well-known love for kung-fu panda bears.

[Steve the Cynic]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"y'know further open up the market in China"

No. If it can involve pandas (or panda-like critters, no doubt) being killed, it would close the Chinese market, since depicting pandas being killed is illegal there. Guild Wars had to remove content (giant panda ranger pet) because of this.

Of course, the law in question may have been changed since then, but I suspect not.

[Psyx]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"No. If it can involve pandas (or panda-like critters, no doubt) being killed, it would close the Chinese market."

No, it doesn't, I'm afraid. Plenty of people play there. Looking at Wiki (bad source, I know, but fukkit) the regional variations are based around replacing corpses with gravestones, filtering some language (like the words "freedom" and "passion" apparently), and a pay-model which is specifically designed to cater for those playing in internet cafes or shared PCs.

China/the Far East is big money, and although the giant panda people were always part of the Warcraft backstory, the expansion does seem to be aimed very much at appealing to Asian sensibilities and aesthetics.

[RyokuMas]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

Wasn't it already pretty much opened up to the Chinese market? Or were all those gold farmers/power levellers really bots?

I would get me coat, except I put it on and walked out of the door from WoW a long time ago.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

So the giant dogs and cattle which definitely were not in LoTR , and the foot long ears on the elves are OK with you, but not the pandas?

[nematoad]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"So the giant dogs and cattle which definitely were not in LoTR"

Not sure about the dogs but see: Wild Kine of Araw for giant cattle. Tolkien likened them to aurochs which were big.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs

[Colin Wilson 2]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"We canceled our accounts earlier this year when Blizzard decided to take the game from Lord of the Rings-esque epic fantasy to fucking Kung-Fu Panda"

Strange as it may seem, the new Panda expansion is turning out to be brilliantly done and a refreshing change from all that molten lava in the previous expansion.

"You'll be back!" mwhahaha

[Curtis]

Re: Been a while since I last played WoW

"My brother and I used to be avid players for quite a few years there. We canceled our accounts earlier this year when Blizzard decided to take the game from Lord of the Rings-esque epic fantasy to fucking Kung-Fu Panda."

Then I guess you know that Chen Stormstout, whose name appeared in a quest for the Horde in Vanilla was a Pandaren. And I guess you know that the Pandaren were supposed to be introduced in WotLK and was removed due to an issue with our Eastern friends (specifically that they could die, as mentioned previously).

One of the reason for the hemoraging subscriptions has been a content issue, specifically that they can't be bothered to fix problems in Beta.

[LaeMing]

A Wizard did it

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent!

Brings new meaning to "nuker" and raises the bar for damage-dealing eliteness.

[Cave Dweller]

If I recall...

There were two legendary weapons: a mace "The Unstoppable Force", and a shield "The Immovable Object". I think two players must have been duelling with them and were not aware of the potential for physics.

[TeeCee]

Re: If I recall...

Wasn't exactly that done in a recent film? Made quite a mess.......

[Psyx]

Re: If I recall...

"There were two legendary weapons: a mace "The Unstoppable Force", and a shield "The Immovable Object"."

By very definition, one of those items isn't what it says it is...

[Old Handle]

Re: If I recall...

"By very definition, one of those items isn't what it says it is..."

Not necessarily. Rather than being stopped, the force could be redirected... say into the populace of a large virtual city.

[Ramazan]

Re: a mace "The Unstoppable Force", and a shield "The Immovable Object"

Kind of Samurai Jack meets Scotsman on a rope bridge?

[Winkypop]

Bring out your dead!

For some inexplicable reason I find this hilarious!

[larokus]

This could be the end of the world...

of Warcraft!!

[historymaker118]

Re: This could be the end of the world...

Took far too many comments for this reference. I'm glad too see that I wasn't the only one who thought this the moment they saw the article.

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be

Sword of a Thousand Truths!

[mrfill]

Re: It must be

... on a 1Gb USB stick...

[mark 63]

spooky

There is something really post apocalyptic about that picture.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: spooky

Oh, I thought this was a story about climate change.

[James 36]

Re: spooky

is that because it was after an apocalypse ?

[mark 63]

trauma

I can imagine this would be quite traumatising for some of the deeper entrenched nerds.

[Crisp]

It's crashing terrible!

Oh the simulated humanity!

[Thecowking]

The word is

That someone found a way to get Martin Thunder ( http://www.wowwiki.com/Martin_Thunder ) on their character and used that to create the carnage.

@cave dweller

They were epic, not legendary. Quite fun though.

@mark 63, not really, it's not like it's a long way to run from the graveyard. Death in WoW, especially in PvP has next to no drawbacks, aside from a couple of minutes running back to your body.

[Matt Bryant]

Re: The word is

"That someone found a way to get Martin Thunder....." Nasty! And used it to wipe out Horde only? AAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

The chat amongst in some forums is that this was a gold-farming exploit (mob deaths don't get reported so the farmers could run scripts to get a party of bots into dungeons, type one command to kill everything in the dungeon including the bosses, loot them, then repeat) that got spread around a bit oo much, and some skiddie used the script to go on a God-like PVPfest. I'm sure the famers will not be too happy, but if it brings a farming exploit to the admins' attention then that's good.

[Flawless101]

Re: The word is

Also been speculated that some debugging commands were left accessible. It was apparently the same person jumping to server to server doing it. Either way, I think it was pretty funny.

[JS808]

Re: The word is

Huh. Definitely more exploity than the Geddon AH bombing or the ZG plague that occurred way way back when I was active; I was sorta hoping for "creative loopholes in game mechanics" more than "abusing a GameMaster-only weapon".

[Piro]

Re: The word is

Nah, as far as I know it's a script and not a weapon.

Martin Thunder, the actual item, was nerfed so it instantly kills YOU instead of the old use, where it hard a targetable insta-kill AOE.

[Greg J Preece]

So how much XP did the attacker get for that?

[Liam Proven]

It's the Torgai Foothills area, clearly

They were all going to hand over some gold...

[Anonymous Coward]

BRING OUT YA DEAD!

*bong*

BRING OUT YA DEAD!

[Bunker_Monkey]

HOW MUCH?

[DrXym]

I think it's a pretty funny exploit. Remember the plague bug that ended up everyone getting infected? This sort of thing is memorable and can be folded into the lore of the game.

[Matt Bryant]

Obviously....

..... the Orcs have been enhancing uranium beyond the level required for civillian nuke facilities and in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and crossed Arthas's red line.....

[Dr Insanity]

Looks like Richard struck again!

Excitement abounds

I almost can't wait

Relax, I don't want your baby

I already ate

Though I do tend to generally kill

Kill things that don't fight back

I see this village

What does it hold?

What shall I butcher them with

Fire or cold?

Running from me sure you'd think

'He's a pathological bloodthirsty homicidal maniac!'

I'd kill kittens and puppies and bunnies

I'd maim toddlers and teens and then more

You see a wife? I see a widow

But what then?

Can't you see?

I'd kill four!

I want to incinerate and decapitate

I want to melt

Want to melt some faces

Watching the peasants...what do they call it?

Ahh...grieve!

I suppose that being undead there's not much to life

A soul is needed for loving...feeling...

How does this all not make me...what's that word again?

Heave!

You've nowhere to hide

Nowhere to run

Your village will burn like the heart of the sun!

With infinite glee

It's going to be me

That slaughters the world!

How could I glare into these eyes

And then not stab them?

How could I stare at their loss

And then not laugh?

I'd cut him in half

Then I'd graft

His head back onto his shoulders

Or after I'd lop it

I'd make a puppet

On top of a staff!

I am a lord that is sometimes bored

Have some urges and need to fulfill them

After my mayhem I simply don't...what's the word?

Care!

The stench in the air

The smell of the gore

The carnage far greater than any war

My legacy

Death becomes...me!

I'll slaughter the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbazH6aE2g

[Andy 70]

That's quite funny,

must be a reg key on a server somewhere...

HKLM/Software/wow/everybodydead=1

[Arachnoid]

Dead pixels.........time to buy a new monitor

[adam payne]

That's a lot of bodies.

[C Yates]

Only one player remains...

... he says "DING" :)

[Anonymous Coward]

It was...

...Chuck Norris

[Jop]

Interesting

Hope this was done as a challenge rather than someone talented wasting those skills just on a game.

If it was something simple like directly editing ram/memory to increase the power of a spell/weapon then not so technical, although I would have thought Blizzard would have had some protection against that and dll injections stuff.

If they found an exploit that gave them some actual control over the server rather than a local hack, then kudos!

Only played the beta of WoW, recognised it as digital heroin and got out quick.

[Flawless101]

Re: Interesting

I did some "digging" (I looked at a forum), it appears that it was an exposed GM/Debugging tool that instantly killed people/NPCs in the area. It wasn't any normal interaction as combat logs were saying "You died" with no damage taken or indication what ability killed you.

[envmod]

lol

i haven't logged in since MOP came out, tried to the other day and realised my account was out of credit. thought about spending some money to top it up, then a bit more to download the latest expansion and then thought "what's the fucking point?".

[Jellied Eel]

Surveillance society!

Ok, so someone loaded Scorpion Stare into the CCTV and then broadcast Power Word, Kill over the PA. Tech and magic just don't mix.

[clocKwize]

This reminds me of exploits in online games when I used to write them...

In F.E.A.R MP I basically copied some code that was called when you were in a car and hit someone, it sent an event to the server like PLAYER_HIT(player_id, damage) I put the damage to 10000 and called it in a loop for everyone I could trace a ray to and hit from my current location, then run it every tick...

That had the effect of everyone who is in view of your character dying the second the come round the corner...

Maybe this is something similar? I know the anit-cheat in WoW is meant to be good but it can't be perfect and I be there must be some holes like this? Obviously FEAR was badly written in a way that let clients tell the server what had just happened, not the other way around, but there must be some?

[Destroy All Monsters]

Anyone who has looked at DayZ lately knows the drill.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

Silly Question...

Ok, I don't play WoW or any online games.

I was kind of curious... suppose you were in the city and you died from this exploit? (Ok your character died)

What happens to all of that online booty you bought or obtained from playing? Is it now lost?

Could this 'exploit' have been caused by WoW to help boost their numbers as people go out and spend more money on stuff to get an advantage over other players?

Just saying. Mines the jacket of invulnerability .

[Thecowking]

Re: Silly Question...

Nothing, you don't lose experience, gold or even get repair costs (beyond those you'd get for being in any fight and not dying) when you PvP in WoW.

All you need to do is run from the graveyard, back to your body and you're good to go again.

[foo_bar_baz]

I've Never played WoW

... but the number of piled up skeletons has me thinking. Is that the amount of players that are crowded into a public space at any given time?

[smallfry]

Re: I've Never played WoW

It probably has more to do with people resurrecting, then dying again. An individual can have multiple skeletons lying around.

[Spoonsinger]

I used to have a life,

but I took an arrow to the knee, (oops wrong time sink).

[SpitefulGOD]

Ele

The revenge of Leroy jenkins

[Spoonsinger]

Yeh, got down voted on a Skyrim/bog standard MMO observation, So...

Looking for down votes here people,

Diablo 3 is rubbish because of the boring grind nature/ corporate greed auction house mentality.

WOW Panda Armageddon is just so f**king idiotic and tarnishes an already dead franchises reputation.

Torchlight 2 - yeh!!!!!, you spent two years putting in some LAN code and additional art work on the original Fate/Torchlight 1 engine. Feel proud.

Eve-Online - change the rules at anytime, you know it makes sense.

Guild Wars 2 - you are beyond contempt.

Skyrim - big and boring is not better. Also soggy mountains only appeal to the mosquito ridden 'shotgun the mouth wielding' Nordic types. (Not a big market)

Knock yourselves out :-)

[Isendel Steel]

Was it...

anything to do with http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/05/world_of_warcraft_colleen_lachowicz_attacked_by_republicans/ ?

[chris lively]

I see dead people

Slightly new twist on the phrase.

[Anonymous Coward]

And nothing of value was lost.

[Ilsa Loving]

What blizzard needs to do...

Is to have a couple of NPCs travelling around pulling a cart of body while ringing a bell and shouting, "Bring out your dead!"

And occasionally another group of NPCs should run out from a building to negotiate with said prior NPCs, while one of them continually shouting, "But I'm not dead!"

[MJF]

Oh my. It's the End of the World of Warcraft?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVknVfIW-z0