StarCraft 2 hackers are reportedly exposing unsuspecting gamers to horrific footage of a real-life capturing in addition to movies that includes vibrant flashing lights, seemingly designed to set off seizures. Whereas Blizzard is investigating, it appears this has been occurring for practically a yr or extra.
On April 20, a StarCraft 2 participant shared a narrative a couple of hacker injecting a video of a mass capturing into the sport whereas they had been enjoying on-line. Reddit person Tad0422 defined that this occurred whereas enjoying a map in StarCraft 2’s Arcade, a characteristic of the sci-fi RTS that lets gamers add custom-created maps and modes to play with others. Whereas enjoying with some buddies, the group encountered some “rando” gamers.
About 3 minutes [later] a video appeared on my display,” claimed Tado422. “I’ve by no means seen this earlier than however it took up the entire display. It was a Russian pop video or one thing that performed for 20 seconds or so. Most of us had been speaking in chat about what the heck was occurring.”
Tado422 additional defined that, shortly after the primary video, a second video appeared. This one confirmed a person coming into a retailer and capturing individuals within the head.
“At this second I freaked out and exhausting closed out of StarCraft 2. My 5 yr previous daughter was within the room with me, half taking note of me enjoying a online game. That is past unacceptable. I ought to by no means have to fret about seeing individuals murdered or porn whereas enjoying a SC2 recreation.”
Tad0422’s submit blew up on Reddit and led to many different SC2 gamers sharing their tales about related hackers injecting annoying or graphic movies whereas persons are enjoying the sport. I reached out to Tado422 and so they shared with me a replay of the match that was hacked by somebody. In addition they made it clear that this isn’t a difficulty with the Arcade map they had been enjoying or the creator of that mode. It seems to be a bigger exploit inside StarCraft 2’s Arcade Mode. Yow will discover others reporting related incidents with screenshots, too.
As reported by 404Media, some gamers shared tales of seeing swastikas whereas enjoying. One other person claimed they had been hit with an “epileptic screamer” video designed to set off seizures utilizing flashing photos and lightweight. All these issues with hackers hijacking maps and modes in Arcade have been reported by StarCraft 2 gamers for no less than a yr now.
Kotaku reached out to Blizzard. The corporate says it’s conscious of the state of affairs and is at present working to “repair” the exploit. Right here’s the corporate’s full assertion:
“We’re investigating a participant declare that disturbing content material that violates our insurance policies appeared in a recreation. We take the protection of our gamers and our platform very critically and are working to repair the exploit we imagine might need been used to add this content material.
Replace: April 22 – 8:30 p.m. EST: Blizzard despatched over a brand new, up to date assertion.
Right here it’s in full:
We’re working to repair the exploit we imagine might need been utilized by sure gamers to add content material that violates our insurance policies. We take the protection of our gamers and our platform very critically. The inappropriate content material is being eliminated, and the accountable events have been banned. To stop extra coverage violations, we’ve quickly disabled the power for gamers to add new maps and mods by the SC2 Map Editor whereas we work on a everlasting repair.
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