Economy Tanked, "Exchange" Skanked, H@ckz0rz Laugh All the Way to the Bank
Cnet reports that virtual coin "dupers" have hit Everquest 2's nascent Station Exchange program, causing 20% inflation in the 24 hours before they were caught. These hackers attempted to sell their plat for real-world money using the SOE out-of-game marketplace.
SOE proclaims its security mechanisms worked well to quickly catch the threat, though players on all EQ2 servers saw the player market grind to a halt for 48+ hours.
Sony claims that a group of hackers illegally created a huge amount of EverQuest II currency over the weekend, and it says the players caused the game's economy to suffer 20 percent inflation in just 24 hours before being caught.
According to Chris Kramer, director of public relations for EQ2 publisher Sony Online Entertainment, the players had, on Saturday, begun using their so-called "duping bug" to make large quantities of platinum, the game's currency. (A duping bug is a hack that exploits a weakness in online games' code to effectively create counterfeit currency or other goods.)
A gnomish replicator, numerous dyes, and a stamping machine were seized in raids late Friday and GMs lead the perpetrators (faces concealed by unfolded newspapers) away for the sentencing phase.
Anyway, read more facts about the Everquest 2 hacks here!
NewsSat, Aug 20, 2005Ethec
