The fantasy MMO Guild Wars 2 seems to be the victim of a DDOS attack right now. Since shortly before 5 PM, the servers have been unreachable, and the forum is down.
DDOS attacks are now part of the unpleasant reality of public life on the internet. A hacker group has apparently specialized in targeting large MMO providers and basking in the resulting public attention. While the servers are down, the group continues to make some comments on Twitter. In the forums for the MMOs, there’s a consensus to not give this hacker group additional publicity by naming them. We agree with that.
It seems there were attacks on Guild Wars 2 and the forum last night as well. This DDOS attacks resumed and intensified around 4:40 PM our time. Both the homepage of Guild Wars 2 and the servers were unreachable for about half an hour.
Update 5:20 PM: ArenaNet apparently quickly got the problem under control according to a tweet and has brought the servers back online.
Update 10:20 PM: The hackers are on the move again, boasting that they are attacking multiple MMOs simultaneously.
Update 10:30 PM: The official Twitter account of GW2 states that they are aware of the causes of the server issues and thank everyone for the numerous hints regarding what may be causing the servers to be down. The official technical term from Guild Wars is “Connectivity Issues.” ArenaNet goes a step further than we do, not only withholding the name of the hacker group but also that it is a targeted DDOS attack.
Update 11:30 PM: It apparently does not only concern Guild Wars 2 but also other NCSoft titles like WildStar. Also in the crosshairs of the hackers: Jagex with Runescape; and the Icelandic MMO EVE Online.
Update Friday 3:55 PM: Next DDOS attack is underway.
Update 5:30 PM: Yet again, NCSoft is hit with Aion, Guild Wars 2, WildStar, etc.
Update 9:50 PM: Again Guild Wars 2. This has been going on for long days now. The times when the servers are down are becoming shorter at NCSoft. Let’s just hope that the issue can be resolved long-term soon. Certainly a difficult situation for the technicians.
