I'm just going to post this out in the open.

[slog]

I mean, at this point we've all realized that Twister's approach was absolutely fucking correct, right?

The main reason it wasn't so obvious at the time was perspective -- people were still under the spell that what happened in any given MMO really mattered, or that ranting against the void would help.  I enjoyed Lum's work immensely (And Mu's, if we're kickin it old-skoo), but Twister probably did more to actually impact MMOs for the better than Lum's rants did.  Lum's efforts, in effect, made MMOers feel slightly better about getting anally raped, whereas Twister at least spread it around a bit.  Twister's approach is the one that gets results.

I'd still like to see a picture of Lum and Twister meeting with a handshake, MLK-meets-Malcolm-X style.  If only to erase the image of him meeting SirBruce.

Twister knew then what (I'd hope) we all know now:  The only way devs make stopping exploits a priority is if you hold their feet to the fire by abusing the hell out of them.

I think the issue was more about his true motivations and red herrings and all that.

[Murgos]

I mean, at this point we've all realized that Twister's approach was absolutely fucking correct, right?

FOAD.

Publicizing the exploits so that the game devolves into poo-flinging asshatery is absolutely not the way to make anything better.

It was internet terrorism then and it's internet terrorism now.

[murdoc]

NVM.

I AM HE WHO MISUNDERSTOOD.

[tkinnun0]

Responsible Disclosure. That's about vulnerabilities in software general, but I think it applies to exploits in MMORPGs too. Bottom line: if a vendor is not making progress to fix the vulnerability then it's OK to publish it to warn their customers. (I don't know what guidelines the individual in question followed.)

[Lum]

The individual in question would wait until the coders were home on Friday night before posting exploits, specifically so people could have as much time as possible to exploit them before the coders would get called in on late Friday night to pull an all nighter to fix. Amazingly, this did not endear the individual in question to the development team, which broke his heart when they then failed to give his site proper respect and interviews and the like.

As opposed to, you know, simply letting the coders know they existed, when they could fix them during normal working hours. Contrary to popular belief dupe bugs are not just swept under the rug until someone FIGHTS TEH POWAH and posts them in public.

[Hoax]

Considering I've seen that happen in multiple games & that when bugs finally become well known you always have people claiming they reported them in betaX all the circumstantial evidence says they are totally swept under the rug until someone FIGHTS TEH POWAH.

Plus said fight usually leads to lulz which means its win-win in my book.


*run and rug mean different things to different people, FIXT*

[Slyfeind]

Yeah, he just liked to cheat, and fuck with people, pretty much. Well-publicized haxxor is all; what separated him from the rest was he could run a decent-looking website back then, and he formed a community out of sharing sploits.

And I still say "burglarized" sometimes.

[Soln]

[beard chat] 

I have been away too long.

[Triforcer]

I only remember Dr. Twister from that one time he linked to a picture of a bunch of EQ developers to mock them.  Only, through the magic of Internet wizardry, it was some sort of live direct link and the EQ guys changed it.  So Twister's own site had a picture on the front page mocking him.

[Draegan]

Ok I'm bored now.

I'm sitting at home trying to figure out how to spend my gaming time.  WOW is all about my "raid schedule" which I ignore 50% of the time.  Other than raiding the game is finished as far as I'm concerned. 

I have Call of Duty 4 and Mass Effect sitting there I don't feel like playing right now.

Should I feel dirty with the fact I feel like trying EVE again for the fifth time? 

Do I need help?  Is there a group for this?  Some sort of program?

[stray]

Eh, get some friends, go to a bar, play some pool, talk yourself into becoming infatuated with the cute bartender. Want your mind off of shitty games, then that usually works.

[Azaroth]

You also may shake the feeling that you're TOTALLY wasting your life, which is always a huge fucking plus in my book.

Raiding in WoW brings on manic depression for me. I have to make sure to clear my house of all sharpened or pointed objects before I go to a scheduled raid.