worm closes second life
[ welcome to the matrix, right? while the labs has yet to enter second life [hell, we struggle enough with the first one], did you know that reuters has opened a bureau in second life? ]
via GameSpot news:
At the end of March, Second Life had 165,000 "residents," and now it boasts more than 1 million. But just like in the real world, as the population grows, so do the crime statistics. There have been a series of phishing scams, last week a copybot threatened the intellectual property created for the game, and now a rapidly replicating worm has briefly closed the online world to visitors.
The malicious attack, called "the grey goo" by Linden Lab, the game's creators, appeared in-game as spinning gold rings floating in the air. When touched by an avatar, the gold rings replicated, meaning that the worm rapidly multiplied until the game experienced severe lag and the server connection was lost.
Linden Lab took the game offline briefly on Sunday as it "isolated the grey goo," and "cleaned up the grid."
…
Some users, including Karsha Yutani, spoke of the attack on the official Second Life blog as if they had been devastated by a real-life tragedy. … some complained they believed there were now too many users in the game, with an "unsustainable" growth in new sign-ups, and others wanted access restricted to those with a paid subscription—to keep out the "tourists."
thanks christina
