1/29/03

Cowardly slammer attack shakes but doesn’t break MMORPG world
By Michael Lafferty

Late Friday night/Saturday morning a worm invaded the Internet. This "slammer" worm caused a great deal of disruption, not only to businesses and ISPs, but also to some servers running online games.

Somewhere there is an individual, or individuals, responsible for this worm. He, she or they think themselves clever, and would like to bask in the glow of their self-absorbed intellect ­ though in all likelihood, few know who did it. The reason? If caught, that individual, or individuals, will face severe legal woes.

The cowards -  yes, any who maliciously disrupt or destroy on a wide spread basis from a hiding spot are little more than cowards and maladjusted smudges on the face of humanity - are criminals, pure and simple.

Bank of America customers were unable to electronically access accounts, information was lost and the Internet powers have spent days trying to rebuild defenses, or institute the defenses that should have been in place to begin with.

At the time, I was playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game ­ Asheron’s Call 2.  While the devastation was widespread and (let’s face it, we are only talking about a game here) the gaming world interruption is insignificant when compared to the greater harm caused, it was interesting to note the responses from those in the cyber world.

AC2 has several forums up where the problem and the solution options were discussed.

For those who don’t know, the worm attack was slightly ironic. In AC2, when players port from one area to another, they go through the "belly" of a twisting blue "worm," in essence "swallowed" by the worm. A worm almost swallowed the entire world.

When the worm first struck, lag ­ the dreaded beast of online gamers ­ thundered into the realm. Then little things started going wrong. Some players were unable to log in, others noted bugs developing in special attacks. It got worse, but only for a randomly select group of players. Inventory items disappeared, skills would not work, integral game elements were rendered useless, authorization to the game was denied ­ in short, it was a mess.

Players, without knowing what had really happened, began to gripe about Microsoft and Turbine ­ the powers behind the game. Some even blamed the recent monthly patch/chapter installment as precipitating the slow collapse of the world.

Most were able to slide through with minimal damage. As the weekend wore on, despite warnings that in-game characters could be affected by continued play, people continued to play, trying to overcome the loss. Once word of the worm spread, a few changed the focus of their rants ­ blaming instead the fact that safeguards were not in place to protect the system.

(The reminder that this is only a game is pertinent. However, it is something that people pay to play ­ they have invested a great deal of time, as well as money, for this experience and as consumers are entitled to grouse ­ even if the focus should instead be on the perpetrators of the crime, not those who were also victims.)

As the world was gradually reopened, Microsoft dropped another bomb ­ it was considering a server-wide rollback to the day before the worm struck. Basically, what that meant was that everything that had happened since the last saved point for the servers ­ as in items and experience gained, or quests accomplished ­ would cease to be. The world and its characters would be just as they were at the time of the last save, which in this case was the prior day.

The forums heated up, and mingled in amongst the debate, some true gamesmanship emerged. Many said the loss of "stuff" was inconsequential to the loss of the experience accrued during the time. (Experience points are needed to level a character up and to purchase increased skills.) Some would drop back several development levels. True, I was one of those. The ‘xp’ is a valued commodity. Take away all my inventory and I will go into the wilderness with bare hands and restock. Taking away the xp and the time spent ­ many, many hours ­ constitutes a complete waste (no need to comment that playing such a game is a waste in the first place ­ it is a choice I make, and it is eminently preferable to sitting mindless in front of the television).

One of the posts was from an allegiance member on the Leafcull server. It said that any who lost inventory items should seek them out and their allegiance would hunt to replace lost material. There were others who expressed the same sentiment.

A sense of order has since been returned to the world ­ which could be viewed as a microcosm of the world affected by the slammer worm. There are still bumps and burps, hiccups and coughs associated with the attack. But the world moves ahead. Hopefully a lesson has been learned and defensive measures will be taken.

As for the ones responsible ­ what a waste of intellect. In spite of their mental acuity, they have demonstrated a great deal of ignorance.

In the novel, A Christmas Carol, author Charles Dickens used an allegory to describe ignorance and its destiny. Scrooge is confronted by the Ghost of Christmas Present and shown two wretched children. The ghost tells Scrooge:

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

It would appear, in this case, that the ultimate doom awaits the author(s) of the slammer attack. Even worms can be drawn from their holes ­ and I’ll leave the rest of the analogy to you …

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