So, we attacked virtual Denmark...
Page 1 of 1 [ 4 posts ]
05 Aug 2014, 12:41 am
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/09/tech/soci ... minecraft/
Quote:
So, the Danish government sanctioned the creation of a replica version of their country within "Minecraft" to use as a progressive teaching tool for schoolchildren, educating them about Denmark's geography.
Really, it was a wonderfully creative and virtuous idea.
Thus, cyber vandals promptly decided to blow it up.
Somehow, these vandals were able to infiltrate virtual Denmark while sneaking in virtual dynamite, at which point they virtually demolished parts of virtual Copenhagen.
What's interesting is that the use of this virtual dynamite was actually banned on the Danish server. But the ever-cunning vandals discovered they could sneak it in inside a virtual mining cart.
Which is both amazing and ridiculous .. that it should come to this.
But through their virtual sneak attack invasion, the vandals proudly constructed virtual American flags all over town, and built virtual signs reading: AMERICA.
Really, it was a wonderfully creative and virtuous idea.
Thus, cyber vandals promptly decided to blow it up.
Somehow, these vandals were able to infiltrate virtual Denmark while sneaking in virtual dynamite, at which point they virtually demolished parts of virtual Copenhagen.
What's interesting is that the use of this virtual dynamite was actually banned on the Danish server. But the ever-cunning vandals discovered they could sneak it in inside a virtual mining cart.
Which is both amazing and ridiculous .. that it should come to this.
But through their virtual sneak attack invasion, the vandals proudly constructed virtual American flags all over town, and built virtual signs reading: AMERICA.
I don't think I've ever been more proud to be an American...
_________________
“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson
05 Aug 2014, 9:11 am
Fortunately this is not quite true...
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/c ... ca/cjfwyxh
Quote:
Hi there.
Even though it is a nice story, it is not exactly accurate. I am one of the creators of the map and work at the Danish Geodata Agency (Geodatastyrelsen).
First of all we never imagined that this would spread as it did. Initially we had only 225 player slots on the servers. I don't have up to date numbers but one month ago there had been 35.000 visits to the online map and we have had more than 300.000 file downloads (chunks of 10 by 10 km). We are humbled by the great response and amazed of the interest.
The "bombings" of the model happened shortly after the servers went public and the (admittedly) gaping hole in the map protection was soon fixed. The "invasion" and subsequently posting of screenshots happened a couple of weeks later. The two stories are not related. We were quite relaxed about the "griefing" as we planned to simply roll heavily destroyed areas back. We did this a couple of times (which also resulted in outcries whne people found their nice builds wiped out).
We had no problems with the decoration (tanks or otherwise) - it was actually encouraged. People from all over the world made flags and other decorations. We saw English, German, French, North Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Canadian (even though the creator said it was hard to get the maple leave look good) - you name it! Tons of virtual flags. It was beautiful.
There were also a lot of self-policing amongst the users. People stood up for each other when good creations were being torn down by griefers. Some very nice builds were made - for instance this showing Kronborg (Hamlet's castle) [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0syWbNJbg
In the end we had to disable user interaction. We did not have the resources to monitor the server 24/7 and as time went by the servers evolved into a kind of social media in itself. The tone of voice in the public chat got rather nasty at times and since the servers only were for demonstration purposes we decided to leave them at that - just a demo. We have no reason to believe that the "griefers" were from one particular nation but it says a little about the media how USA (at least in this case) gets blamed per default.
You can still connect to the servers to have a look. The url is server1.gstcraft.dk . For an interactive map showing player locations go to [gstcraft]http://gstcraft.dk
Kind regards,
Thorbjørn.
TL,DR: Highly exaggerted story about American invasion and destruction of virtual world.
Even though it is a nice story, it is not exactly accurate. I am one of the creators of the map and work at the Danish Geodata Agency (Geodatastyrelsen).
First of all we never imagined that this would spread as it did. Initially we had only 225 player slots on the servers. I don't have up to date numbers but one month ago there had been 35.000 visits to the online map and we have had more than 300.000 file downloads (chunks of 10 by 10 km). We are humbled by the great response and amazed of the interest.
The "bombings" of the model happened shortly after the servers went public and the (admittedly) gaping hole in the map protection was soon fixed. The "invasion" and subsequently posting of screenshots happened a couple of weeks later. The two stories are not related. We were quite relaxed about the "griefing" as we planned to simply roll heavily destroyed areas back. We did this a couple of times (which also resulted in outcries whne people found their nice builds wiped out).
We had no problems with the decoration (tanks or otherwise) - it was actually encouraged. People from all over the world made flags and other decorations. We saw English, German, French, North Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Canadian (even though the creator said it was hard to get the maple leave look good) - you name it! Tons of virtual flags. It was beautiful.
There were also a lot of self-policing amongst the users. People stood up for each other when good creations were being torn down by griefers. Some very nice builds were made - for instance this showing Kronborg (Hamlet's castle) [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0syWbNJbg
In the end we had to disable user interaction. We did not have the resources to monitor the server 24/7 and as time went by the servers evolved into a kind of social media in itself. The tone of voice in the public chat got rather nasty at times and since the servers only were for demonstration purposes we decided to leave them at that - just a demo. We have no reason to believe that the "griefers" were from one particular nation but it says a little about the media how USA (at least in this case) gets blamed per default.
You can still connect to the servers to have a look. The url is server1.gstcraft.dk . For an interactive map showing player locations go to [gstcraft]http://gstcraft.dk
Kind regards,
Thorbjørn.
TL,DR: Highly exaggerted story about American invasion and destruction of virtual world.
