EVE Online Endures Downtime Due to Breached Security 69
Gamasutra is reporting that a serious security breach caused the closure of EVE Online this past weekend. A previously-unnoticed anomaly in a database prompted CCP, makers of the game, to close down the game world and their website while the issue was examined. The flaw was rectified, and service restored the same day. No credit card or billing information was exposed in the breach. "Explained [CCP chief of operations Jón Hörðdal], 'What we discovered was an indication that one of our databases was being accessed through a security breach. Our policy in such cases is to mobilize a taskforce of internal and external experts to evaluate the situation.' Hörðdal said that the taskforce concluded that going completely dark so that an exhaustive scan could be performed was the best course of action. 'While some may feel that such a drastic reaction was not warranted, it is always our approach to err on the side of caution in order to protect the players,' he said."
Re:A lot of issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A lot of issues (Score:0, Insightful)
Without making a super long post about it...my #1 favorite thing about the game is the strategy forced upon a player. By that I mean the death system can be harsh. You don't just run on in guns-a-blazin and hope to kill something. This isn't WoW. You have to think hard and work as a team so your T2 Battleship doesn't go down the drain. Some losses can cause months of lost work.
Some gamers like that kind of stuff, and some do not. I for one love the thrill I get when I rush in with 100 other players. It truly is a player created world.
Re:A lot of issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Aw shucks. I knew there was a reason I liked it. I'm both. Not.
That said, I did like it, but after my trial elected not to play for 2 reasons:
1) The dev scandal was just unfolding, and I was utterly appalled with it. Not only that they handled it so poorly, but the revelations that they allowed devs to participate at that level at all, nevermind the cheating. GM abusing mechanics is bad in a PvE game like WoW or EQ, but in a PvP game like Eve, its absolutely unacceptable.
2) Because its truly massively multiplayer and PvE, your most valuable asset is the people you know, your reputation, and your influence. You cannot obtain this playing only a few hours here and there. You've got to play constantly to become relevant or important in the hierarchy.
In Warcraft, you can play once a week and eventually see the end game, it'll take you longer, but you'll still get there. You are competing against the game, and whever you play, you move forward. Eventually you get to the end. You aren't really competing against the other players, and the fact that other players are more powerful is largely irrelevant.
In Eve, you are competing against the other players, to defeat them or gain influence over them is really the point of the game, and those that consistently play more than you will always be ahead of you. Always.
I suppose if you are content to mine asteroids and sell minerals on some small irrelevant scale you can play Eve and have fun. But that's the equivalent of being an ore farmer in Warcraft and about as fulfilling.
Re:The most amusing thing about this story (Score:3, Insightful)
Alright, Single Sign On (SSO) is a good thing usually. But haven't they ever heard of LDAP before? Why have username/passwords in the database, especially if they suspect hackers might compromise the database? What they really should do is have external authentication servers running LDAP and have both the game client and the forums use that as an authentication source.
It never ceases to amaze me when companies that should know better do stupid things.
Re:BULLSHIT (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, I've never been that obsessed by "progress" relative to whether what I'm actually doing is fun. Case in point, I also play LOTRO some, and I'm still exploring different bits of the relatively low level content a month in- rather than rushing a character up to lvl50 just to achieve "progress". I take my time, actually read the flavor text on the quests, roleplay a bit, help out new players, hang out with my guild. I'll reach 50 eventually, but I'll have had fun getting there, which is supposed to be the point. It's a game after all. Mileage may vary with addiction to level dings.