Recent in-game issues, including a multi-hour downtime beginning at 1AM EST, have been traced back to the efforts of known hacker group Anonymous. Their attacks included creating literally dozens of characters whose names began with the letters "GWEN" and "GUEN" and various combinations thereof in an attempt to deny service to players seeking healing in Wehnimer's Town Square Central and other major population centers.

We responded quickly, but we were unable to prevent major damage to the recently-upgraded Commodore 64 storing the player name database. Overuse has caused corruptions in the accounts of all characters beginning with the aforementioned letters. We have been forced to purge these accounts from our database effective immediately.

After an emergency white board meeting session at Simutronics headquarters, the off-site staff of GemStone IV have been allowed to make the following alternatives for affected accounts:

1) All affected accounts are able to start free new characters in GemStone IV Platinum or Shattered instances under a 15-day free trial period.

2) All affected accounts will receive one (1) roleplaying award not to exceed gain of 500 experience.

3) All affected accounts may optionally choose to receive a Modus Operandi account or access to the Hero's Journey Beta, scheduled to begin in June of 2001.

We appreciate your patience in these trying times, and look forward to resolving this issue as soon as possible.

Auchand

You may have heard of me.

The ongoing live write of my novel-in-progress:
http://story.shadowling.com

This message was originally posted in Discussions with Simutronics, The Bad, and the Ugly (general complaints). To discuss the above follow the link below.

http://www.play.net/forums/messages.asp?forum=102&category=8&topic=3&message=48887