Something strange is happening in the Sims 2 multiverse.
Players of Electronic Arts' enormously popular simulated life game are complaining that their artfully-crafted homes and mansions are beginning to resemble the Twilight Zone, thanks to an artifact of the game's design that causes hacks to spread like viruses from user to unwitting user.
Entire neighborhoods of Sims are being mysteriously graced with eternal youth, while some characters are finding all their needs fulfilled by a single shot of magic espresso. Others no longer need to empty the toilet after potty training their toddler. Some Sims are being abducted by aliens when they glance through their telescope -- every time, instead of just occasionally, which is normal.
All this mayhem is the work of a community of experimenters wielding hex editors, custom programs and reverse-engineering skills who began mastering their own Sims 2 worlds immediately after the game's release last September. The hackers share their weird science with one another through public websites and forums.
"Please dont confuse roleplaying with rollplaying. Thanks." -Shannow
"Just cuz most MMO use the leveling treadmill doesn't mean I have to lower my "fun standards" to the common acceptance. Simply put, I'm not gonna do that." -I flyin high
Not network security, but just bad encapsulation. The way it works is if you download a house from a website, friend, etc, items edited in that house are not only added to the game inside that house but change every item in every house in your game. So someone edits a coffee machine to make your sims immortal, now all the coffee machines everywhere make your sims immortal.
This is, of course, a huge security flaw and also a giant pain to anyone who wants to use modded content without messing up the whole game.
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