Hackers Put 'Bane' in Shadowbane

The horror, as horror so often does, began slowly … almost imperceptibly.

Late Tuesday evening, little things suddenly started to go very wrong in the virtual world of Shadowbane, a popular online multiplayer game.

Some players noticed that their money and weapons had suddenly vanished. A few whispered that tonight the monsters somehow seemed slightly bigger and meaner.

And then all hell broke loose.

The population of an entire Shadowbane town was forcibly moved to the bottom of the sea, where they drowned. City guards turned feral and attacked town residents. Mobs of never-before-seen superpowerful creatures, seemingly spontaneously spawned from the ether, began to prowl the streets unchecked, killing characters in the most painful way possible.

Not that the game was ever intended to be a happy, cuddly experience. Whacking other players around in one of Shadowbane's many free-for-all zones is one of the main attractions of the game.

But it has a "Newbie Island," where inexperienced players can hone their gaming skills in a protected atmosphere. After making their way off the island, players join guilds, and battle the members of other guilds.

The members of guilds build cities that serve as their personal strongholds. Neutral cities exist also, virtual Switzerlands, where no one is supposed to attack anyone.

But on Tuesday there were no neutral zones -- nowhere to run -- and newbies became the prime targets.

Experienced players looked on in horror as new players were slowly and gleefully dismembered by ax-wielding ogres. Others just laughed and looted the characters' bodies after the ogres were done.

Mike Gontelli, a late arrival to the game that evening, said that when he arrived in Shadowbane "there were hundreds of tombstones. New players were being beaten and tortured. Newbie blood was flowing like a river. I knew it wasn't real, but it was oddly terrifying."

He added, "I've been playing online games for a few years. There are always some hackers hanging around who have figured out how to give themselves special powers. But I have never, ever seen or heard of a game going this deeply berserk."

Clint Hayashi of Ubi Soft Entertainment said on Thursday that "we quickly and easily identified the individuals who disrupted the game" and also said that users' personal information was not accessed.

The game was "rolled back" -- everything and every player reverted to their status shortly before the attacks.

"Hallelujah, I was dead and now I'm not," said player Brian Buttoloer. "This is way better than real life. Let the games begin … again."

"If you go to what is left of the town of Khar, you will see my grave," one Shadowbane survivor wrote in an e-mail. "I never knew dying could be so hilarious -- I had a great time."