Sims 2 Hacks Spread Like Viruses

jowens writes "SecurityFocus reports that players sharing house designs through Electronic Arts' Sims 2 Exchange are finding their game behaving oddly: espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children. It turns out hacks were spreading invisibly with Sims 2 lots, infecting thousands of downloadable homes, and catching Electronic Arts by surprise. The hackers, who never intended their hacks to be viruses, have even written their own AV scanner to find and control the outbreak."

Some of those hacks sound kind of cool!

[ZipR]

Maybe now I'll check the game out.

Me too, think I'll check it out.

[drewzhrodague]

Me too, sounds kinda neat now! Of course, I had fun finding the limits of my Furby (read: abusing) -- y'know, just to test the limits of the device.

Barista Perverts (Re:Some of those... )

[StCredZero]

I hope it's not because of the espresso machines that can satisfy all your needs [google.com].

Re:Some of those hacks sound kind of cool!

[Soul-Burn666]

Reasons for playing the sims are here (sims1) [somethingawful.com] and here (sims2) [somethingawful.com].

Re:Some of those hacks sound kind of cool!

[GweiLeong]

I played it for awhile, and frankly now I'm tempted to start it up again... Most popular at the moment seem to be the teen woohoo mod (no pregnancy) [modthesims2.com] and teen woohoo mod (pregnancy possible) [modthesims2.com]. Someone made a mod where you can invite anyone (regardless of age/gender) to move in with you. They should have called it the Michael Jackson mod. ;)

Re:Some of those hacks sound kind of cool!

[VivianC]

...espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.

Oh my God! They are all becoming Democrats! Can't somebody stop the madness?

my favourite line from the article:

[mu22le]

my favourite line from the article:

"Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant. As the game is sold, they can't even have sex."

Oh my g0d yhis is SO...

I dunno, normal?

I wonder.

[Blapto]

Where can I buy me one of these magic espresso machines?

Re:I wonder.

[grahamsz]

I thing you need the 'special' columbian beans for that.

Re:I wonder.

[Mr. No Skills]

All espresso machines have magic in them. :)

Re:I wonder.

[numbski]

Amen.

espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs

Exactly the way it should be.

Re:I wonder.

[AndroidCat]

espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs

Exactly what kind of needs are we talking about here?

Re:I wonder.

[petsounds]

I bought my wife a Gaggia Classic [wholelattelove.com] for xmas and she seems to think there is a miniature Italian man inside, so you might say it is magic. Makes espresso as good as you could get in most coffee bars in Italy. This model has been honed over many years, so it's extremely dependable and built like a tank. Perhaps not as high of a hacker factor as the manual-pump La Pavoni [wholelattelove.com] machines, but there's still an art to getting a perfect shot out of it.

Re:I wonder.

[allism]

It sounds like your wife is a lucky lucky woman...

either that or you really screwed up sometime earlier in the year and you were trying to make up for it...

Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[Skyshadow]

Great! All we need now is a patch for the real-life analog of this. You know what I'm talking about here, that one where you go over to a friend's house for dinner and afterwords have this conversation:

Wife: Wow, I love what they did with their place.
Me: What?
Wife: Didn't you notice they redid their kitchen?!?
Me: I noticed the beer was in a different place...
Wife: (ignoring me) I loved their new countertop, and the wine cooler, and...
Me: This is bad, isn't it?
Wife: We need to do something like that.
Me: Yup, it's bad all right.
Wife: I'm sure we can put something together for under $25k...
Me: PWn3d.
wife: Goddamn right.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[andalay]

Only 50% of the slashdotters with id 1000 are still married.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[Tony Hoyle]

Only 50% of the slashdotters with id 1000 are still married.

Surely there's only one slashdotter with id 1000...

Is he half married?

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[rackhamh]

Surely there's only one slashdotter with id 1000...

Is he half married?

With the amount of time some people seem to spend on Slashdot, that sounds about right.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[YU Nicks NE Way]

Is he half married?

Isn't that awfully sexist of you? I mean, how do you know /.-er 1000 is a...oh...wait. This is slashdot we're talking about, isn't it.

Never mind.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[ForestGrump]

married and divorced.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[FurryFeet]

Maybe he's Schroedinger's wife?

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[jrockway]

He probably stuck a less-than sign in there and didn't preview. Try < next time :)

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[abb3w]

Wife: I'm sure we can put something together for under $25k...
Me: PWn3d.

What, you thought the upkeep on females became cheaper after marriage?

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[Lord Kano]

Ever played MTG? Women have cumulative upkeep.

Every Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas, and Valentines day you have to outspend whatever you spent on the last one. It all ends with your soul.

LK

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[dillon_rinker]

It all ends with your soul.

Ah, there's the trouble with your relationships. It all STARTS with your soul. See, you're right about the cumulative upkeep; what you've missed is that infinity=infinity+1. So if you give your soul as often as you can (it grows back, you know), your significant other is indescribably happy and you don't have to shell out $$$ on the Hallmark Holidays.

(Sorry, didn't mean to get all serious and sappy there - it's just that what you said clicked so nicely that I felt compelled to

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[SuperQ]

I'm so glad my SO is not like this at all. She wanted some new dishes, so she went out and bought them with her money.

It helps that she makes almost as much as I do.

Re:Sims 2 is the least of my problems...

[Skim123]

This is why you need to make sure, regardless of your age, your friends are poor college students. Then what is she going to say? "I really like what they did with those cinderblocks?", and, "That couch they found on the side of the road sure does add a nice touch to their place."

Hacks?

[trp642]

I'd call them upgrades! If only reality were just as hackable...

Re:Hacks?

[amembleton]

Hacks can be upgrades, in fact usually they are.

It may fulfill all the sims needs...

[Heftklammerdosierer!]

But can the coffee maker shoot Bobs?

Re:It may fulfill all the sims needs...

[andfarm]

... They're everywhere!

Re:It may fulfill all the sims needs...

[tanguyr]

...Thank God it's you!

Relax.

[grub]

Don't worry, a fix is coming. EA has a few employees working overtime this weekend.

Re:Relax.

[Ubergrendle]

Great, stressed out, virtually canatonic coders patching an online game. You'll see people dining out of Stanley Cups, Gordon Freeman lounging on the couch too lazy to change the channel, and Paul Tagliabue running around taping up Sim's breasts in case of wardrobe malfunctions.

Re:Relax.

[Quattro Vezina]

Have you ever had one of their games crash? I haven't

I take it you've never played Ultima Online. The grandparent's description almost seems normal compared to the side effects of some of UO's patches.

Re:Relax.

[Megaweapon]

Too bad EA didn't do Unreal Tournament, it'd be funny if the coders mixed up their code and introduced a low gravity hack for Sims 2.

but..

[sirgallihad]

if they where never designed as virii, then how come they are behaving like them?

Re:but..

[SiliconJesus]

The actual virus like behaviour is due to the way EA's site works.

Basically - you create the house using your copy of the game, with whatever tiles you have installed and loaded. Once you're happy with the results, you upload them to the server inside the game. The game then compares the objects to those in the standard game, as well as those in the game database (every object is given a unique ID and checksum from what I've seen so far), and variants are uploaded as well as part of the upload. The more unique objects your house has, the bigger it is.

Re:but..

[Rei]

I'd be interested in seing a time bomb. An object which does nothing for a month, and then sets everything it can on fire. Just like with a real virus, if you want it to spread far and wide, you need an incubation period.

Re:but..

[pclminion]

To get technical about it, it's not really an incubation period because during incubation an organism isn't doing anything except growing and maturing. It isn't reproducing.

This is more like the "lag period" after pitching yeast to make beer. There is a period of time (anywhere from 6 to 48 hours) where the yeast is not yet fermenting anything, but working as hard as possible to reproduce and grow its numbers. Then, once the resources start to get crowded, it switches into a new life mode and begins its "

Re:but..

[LnxAddct]

As with most things in life, its not the science that is bad, its the human factor.
Regards,
Steve

read the fracking article

[hexfortyfive]

The game lets you share your acomplishments on EA's Sims 2 website. When you "check out" someone's house, the hacked objects get imported into your copy of the game. If you then export one of your houses, the hacked objects propigate.

Re:but..

[iabervon]

Essentially, everything behaves like viruses in the game, but people didn't realize this in advance. It makes sense that when you import a house, the things in it come along, but people didn't realize that a number of game mechanics were treated as things in houses. People also didn't realize that, if you modified "the espresso machine", the change would apply not just to one item, but to all items like that one, so importing the house with the weird espresso machine imports and applies the weirdness to your espresso machines, which you then pass on when you export your house.

Someone set up us the Sims

[PornMaster]

All your Sims are belong to us!

+4 Funny?

[Run4yourlives]

Good grief some of you need to get out more.

Re:+4 Funny?

[rackhamh]

some of you need to get out more.

Dude... it's an article about the Sims...

Re:+4 Funny?

[m50d]

Says the guy posting on slashdot complaining about the moderation

So, a game which simulates live

[Trigun]

catches a virus? Oh the irony.

A virus gets a life, and life gets a virus.

Re:So, a game which simulates live

[Rei]

Now, we just need to make it so sims can get jobs as spammers, and we're all set... ;)

A brave new world.

[Dr Caleb]

Life imitates art imitating life.

My head hurts.

It's The Sims!

[devphaeton]

How do we know the Sims themselves haven't created these hacks? I mean, all of us here fantasize about being able to program the physics around us for a happier existence, right? right?

Re:It's The Sims!

[SiliconJesus]

The actual Sims behaviour is created in the actual game engine itself. The engine is kept seperate from the addons due to the existance of an extra program that does the installation (basically - it splits out the pieces of a .sim2package and puts them in apropriate sub-directories).

What is the Sims?

[Syncdata]

Indeed. Once there was a sim with the ability to re-make simsville as he saw fit. He freed...

And so on.

Re:It's The Sims!

[Thuktun]

Sounds like a cool hack. Give the sims the ability to mess with the internals of objects around them, then see what happens over time.

"hacks"? Come on....

[imsabbel]

Its user downloadable content.
It changes details of the game mechanics.
Those maybe wanted or not (perhaps people WANT a coffee machine that satisfies all theirs sims needs), but is it a hacK?
Then making a single player quake level without healthpacks and lots of big monsters would be a hack, too....

Re:"hacks"? Come on....

[Tarwn]

From what I gathered this would be more like altering an ammo pack to give you full ammo and full health in a modified quake level. Ie, the user has to download the level and gets their previous definiton files for the ammo pack overwritten so then the next time they play locally they have magic bullets o' health.

-T

Re:"hacks"? Come on....

[glwtta]

Well yeah, modifying a game to what you want is a hack. That's the definition of hacking: making things do stuff.

Security perimeter

[freitasm]

Are they going to establish a security perimeter, put every virtual people in bubbles and then use radiation to remove the contamination?

Virtual CDAMC (Center for Disease and Appliance Malfunction Control) officer: Don't worry, we are from the government and we are here to help.

so what?

[mrn121]

And how is this not EXACTLY like real life?

Re:so what?

[utlemming]

Yeah, can you imagine the problems that would happen with self-aware Sims? You would have your own cult of Sims worshipping you. Everytime you would open the Sims, they would praise you and beg for your benevolence or beg that your menevolence would be adverted. That could be a fun, yet cruel game. It could be called Sim God. If only AI tech was that advanced. I would buy a game where I could tinker with the lives of a self-aware AI....muhahaha

Re:so what?

[Ironsides]

It's called "Black and White"

Re:so what?

[DarthWiggle]

Similarly, Populous, a much better game. (old school)

Re:so what?

[StikyPad]

How do you know we're not Sims, who've finally created our own Sims? Oh God, when will the cycle ever end?

That does explain the popularity of the Sims though. Our Player makes people play it until the urge to poop is overwhelming.

Old news for those in the 'scene'

[Richard Frost]

User based sites that create mods, such as http://www.modthesims2.com, have been warning about this for months now.

magic toaster

[Fr05t]

I want the magic toaster what eats lady sim shirts and skirts!

port

[CAIMLAS]

So, what will it take to get this virus ported to reality? :P

New Sims add-on?

[weeboo0104]

Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.

Does this mean that EA will be releasing a Jerry Springer add-on for the Sims?

Springer - Dr Phil!

[Man in Spandex]

Watch out. If they do it, they'll receive complaints and their solution will be to make a Dr Phil add-on and I don't think you want that, or do you ^^

Funny

[i_r_sensitive]

I interviewed for a position at SecurityFocus. Damn, I would have lied my ass off if I thought it would have led to this!

yes but,

[Anonymous Coward]

Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant.

do.... do we see em do it?!?

Re:yes but,

[sTalking_Goat]

Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant.

Dammit I told them that that Abstinence hack was a waste of time...

wow

[Jailbrekr]

virtual world plagued by virtual virus. Should we be virtually worried? Will the virtual police come and arrest the virtual hackers as they spread their virtual malware? Will it become a virtual catastrophe, or a comedy of virtual proportions?

Not to worry.

[jd]

The Virtual FDA has approved a virtual antiviral that virtually cures the virtual virus. The only question is whether this has any virtue.

Now we know why "Spamford" Wallace stopped....

[martinbogo]

He's secretly in Belaruse, designing new Sims2 malware objects. Infecting every Dishwasher, TV, and Social Worker in the Sims2 universe!

"Sim1, can't get it up? Get Simagra!"

sounds like a patch to me

[jeif1k]

are finding their game behaving oddly: espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.

And what's so odd about that? If the game didn't work that way before, maybe it's just a patch.

Re:sounds like a patch to me

[oberondarksoul]

None of these effects are considered 'normal' in The Sims - a coffee machine fills one stat (Energy), but rapidly drains another (Toilet), the result being a Sim gets a momentary boost but needs to go to the toilet sooner. This is intentional and is a (simplified) model of real life. However, the modified expresso machine fills all meters and lowers none - it's the coffee you've always dreamed of. Not at all realistic, and certainly not something EA/Maxis would have introduced.

Ditto with the 'open relation

Re:sounds like a patch to me

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Ditto with the 'open relationships' and the social worker. Sims, like us, get kind of jealous if they see their significant other getting intimate with another Sim, and Social Workers will gladly take away a child they feel is neglected. These 'hacks' remove these effects.

Cool - the sims was too much like work anyway.

I've heard this before...

[lpangelrob2]

I've heard this before... Magic espresso... being whisked away by 'aliens' when I look into a 'telescope'... this must be a glitch in the Matrix.

Tank...?!

Sims 2 is a virus

[t_allardyce]

I remember getting hooked on Sims 1 untill I realised it was a totally retarded game, because the clock runs so fast it can take you several hours to just make coffee and walk to the front door in the morning.

Re:Sims 2 is a virus

[Tony Hoyle]

it can take you several hours to just make coffee and walk to the front door in the morning.

Hey, I didn't realise it was *that* realistic!

Re:Sims 2 is a virus

[necro2607]

No kidding, I started getting pissed off that it took 2-5 hours to microwave a TV dinner...

Ah...

[Lord_Dweomer]

Sims 2: The Hipsters

How far can the Sims Virus go?

[mykepredko]

The question I have is, are these addins restricted to just the Sims universe or can they access hardware/files on the PC?

The two methods I would expect to be able to do this are:

1. Direct file/hardware manipulation. I would presume that the features are organized like DLLs, so placing code to execute a from within the addin should be possible.
2. Sub files that can be placed in specific locations (ie execute when the PC boots). If there is no access to the file system, what about the PC's registry? C

You are stoned!

[bigberk]

espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children

Marijuana?

Sigh

[Dante Shamest]

The "No Jealousy" patch lets them keep multiple lovers without getting slapped all the time.

Guys really want something like this in real life.

Another hack allows teenagers in the Sims 2 to get pregnant.

Guys really want...no wait. Real life already has this.

the social worker?

[PanBanger]

and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children.

Sounds like Florida!

Yet another reason...

[geekwench]

to refuse to get addicted to The Sims. (I've got a good friend who's trying to get me hooked.) I refuse to have a virtual replica of me that lives better than I do. Coffee that fulfills all my needs? Don't I just wish!

I'll stick to Wolfenstein. And Conquest. Subjugating the globe; now that's control! ;)

Sleep Depravation = Bugs

[Safety Cap]

From the article:

Someone at Electronic Arts was really shortsighted not to have thought of hacked objects spreading this way.

Let's see, if you work your developers to death on the Bataan Coding Deathmarch 18/7 (with 2 hours off on Sunday for "good behaviour"), then how on earth are they supposed to write anything remotely resembling quality code, let alone manage risk?

Answer: you don't; instead you adopt the Slashdot style of code testing: Ship it!
503? Hacks spread like viruses? Oh, par for the course. [slashdot.org]

Re:Sleep Depravation = Bugs

[ironygranny]

I'm assuming your clients are running Windows: try creating a "Sims" group, adding the limited user accounts to it, and giving it at least "Write" access on the Sims directory under "Program Files" AND go into the registry under HKLM\Computer, find the Sims-related keys and grant the "Sims" group Full Control over them. That usually works for me with games (which tend to be less good about keeping user data in places where user data should be).

If you're feeling especially masochistic, you can download a u

Sounds eerily familiar.

[kapella]

If this were a virus
You would be dead now
Fortunately it's not
The Metaverse is a dangerous place;
How's your security?
Call Hiro Protagonist Security Associates
For a free initial consultation.

Not really a virus

[RandomBitFlipper]

...sounds more like a bunch of more-or-less benignly corrupted files which have been unwittingly user-propagated, rather than self-propagating virii. I guess the Sims cops need to be modded to keep the SimVille neighbourhood from going to the dogs, or else they'll be as useless as an Indian policeman enforcing cyber-law.

What's strange about magic espresso?

[gerardlt]

...some characters are finding all their needs fulfilled by a single shot of magic espresso.

Isn't this normal?

My idea

[Mr. Cancelled]

I always thought it would be way fun to be able to insert a downloadable sim, who would act as somewhat of a virus, and murder other sims.

My GF's hooked on the Sims (and now Sim2), and even she thought it'd be kinda neat to download an innocent looking Sim, only to have them turn out to be a serial killer who begins killing off your other Sims at some point in time. Sort of a simulated "whodunnit" murder mystery.

EA corporate culture in danger

[Muhammar]

EA management is run by Sims too.

Downloadable homes

[PornMaster]

The article appears to be saying that the hacks are in downloadable components like pre-set-up homes with the magic espresso machines.

Re:Patches

[HTH NE1]

I guess their software developers will have to work overtime to put together some patches.

All while drinking the magic espresso?

Re:And..?

[Man in Spandex]

It's a mystery just like why people buy every sport title from EA every year. Hardcore fans in that case but in the case of Sims? Who knows.

Oh I know, maybe it's to take off some rage. You simulate the life of some pissed off Sim who decides to go punch Lenny right in the back of the head. It all makes sense now!

Re:Fitting Expresso Machine

[mmkkbb]

burnt schwag? that's their usual 'french roast'

Re:57 Years Old?

[necro2607]

Um, what I'm more curious about is why the hell they arbitrarily chose this "57-year-old Sims 2 player from Pflugerville, Texas".

I mean, it doesn't get much more obscure than that. Does this woman happen to be a well-known member of a Sims 2 community site or something? Or did they just do a google search for "arbitrary Sims 2 player" and then interview one of the people randomly selected from the list of results?

Re:57 Years Old?

[glenebob]

I think they saw where she was from and gave it a +5 funny. After that, it was an easy choice.