What's the most risque thing you've ever seen as part of an official server message in an MMO? Chances are Wizard101 has you beat, as players of the magical MMO were subjected to a barrage of strange, sometimes very NSFW server messages this weekend, apparently sent by a current or former Kingsisle employee.
What were these Wizard101 messages all about?
Several Wizard101 users began noticing that these strange messages were being displayed on Friday evening. The messages ranged from fairly innocent ("the wizard police are after me") through to misleading ("JOIN BUILDERS CLUB! ITS FREEEEEEEE!!!!") and, uh, downright NSFW. One simply reads, "this game is shit". Can't fault the apparent employee for their directness, at least.
One message exhorts "Bradley", whoever that is, to "come down to the office this instant", purporting to be from the game's CEO. Of course, it's impossible to say whether or not this message was, in fact, sent by the original employee, and is part of their ongoing campaign to troll Wizard101 and its developer Kingsisle.
Not all of the messages were (relatively) innocent, though. One message simply read "kings isle [sic] is the worst company i have ever worked for". Others had the supposed employee complaining that they "hate my job" and imploring players to email the developer "so i can get a raise". If this really is an actual employee, it doesn't sound like things are going well.
How have Kingsisle responded to these messages?
The official Kingsisle game alerts Twitter account acknowledged these errors late Friday evening. A tweet said that Wizard101's servers had been "temporarily shut down" due to an "unexpected issue". Not long after that tweet was sent, another confirmed that the game's servers were back up and that a "temporary fix" for the "in-game disruption" had been implemented.
It's likely that Kingsisle is referring to revoking access to server messages for certain employees here, and that a more permanent solution will involve reworking Wizard101's architecture so this kind of thing isn't possible again. Seems like a bit of a shame if you ask me; I bet a lot of players are having more fun with these messages than with the game.
Of course, in a worst-case scenario, the "temporary fix" could in fact be Kingsisle banishing players to Room 101 so they can think long and hard about what they've done. Given that the employee appears to be complaining about poor working conditions, some kind of more "human resources"-centric solution might not be beyond Kingsisle's capabilities.
This is by far one of the less damaging ways that hackers can interfere with your gaming experience online, it must be said. Still, if these messages are legit and not just someone trying to troll Kingsisle, there might be some deeper questions to ask here about the studio's working culture and practices. We've reached out to Kingsisle for comment on this story.
