Second Life was attacked over the weekend by a worm that created self-replicating rings, similar to the ones from Sonic games. When users touched them, the rings multiplied, clogging the game world with what Linden Labs called "grey goo." The service was closed briefly to clean up the rings and their nefarious code.While we don't play much Second Life, we're fascinated by its culture. We think that that a big part of general society will eventually meet in an MMO world; these interfaces may turn into the next generation of the internet. And the attack reminds us that pranksters -- or worse -- will always be present.
Second Life is still a miniscule scale of what MMOs could become. Will these sorts of hacks prevent MMOs from reaching the general population?
[Via Slashdot]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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SL'ers freaked out and accused them of setting off... (wait for it)... VWMD. Virtual Weapons of Mass Destruction.
http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=4186
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The creators have been hit with criminal charges, court docs at that link
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But that's probably just me, I'm a chaos junky.
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It was something where the problem could be solved with a bit better programming so it wasn't that big a deal, but I have two major objects I hope to market that do extensive, controlled object creation as part of their functioning. I hope they won't be affected by whatever measures they take.
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It’s hard to describe what SL is to someone’s that’s never played it so the best example I’ve seen is think the Matrix only where everyone knows they’re plugged in. Inside the Matrix you’re pretty much free to do what you want including causing a ruckus like this graygoo fiasco.
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