- Dec 1, 2017
- 262
- 466
From what I can tell (MCP, MCDST) is there is no permanent damage, I don't know if Defender isolated some of it before it could fully execute or this was the limit of the malicious code. What happened was when you put in a old supporter code to unlock content (code updates often, every few days, hours or whenever Elzee wants to), it cause an immediate slow down of the OS. Its like your OS was running and only outputting a frame every second. Even the mouse inputs where slowed down. It was impossible to run any diagnostics during the event to track what happened. Only log created was the isolation of the file in Defender. During this slowdown, it managed to open a website on your default browser to a site meme'ing on software piracy and shaming it. I didn't nab the url as I was in damage control, The only option was the hard shutdown via the powerbutton.I've been watching Elzee's ci-en since they started Tunnel Escape but never felt enthused enough to shell out for a trial version, somehow never caught wind of this incident for how big it seems to be. Seems I dodged a bullet in hindsight, how bad was this malicious code? (I know this is off topic, but I'm too curious now)
It did effect supporters, I was on the discord after it happened for about 2 days before Elzee banned me for being associated with F95. A mistype of the supporter code was cause them to also be hit by the malcious code. There was no warning to the supporters this was put in place either. Elzee did come into the forum and his game's threat to boast and shame the people in that thread, F95 and piracy in general. A day later his comments were deleted but you can see some replies that quoted his posts still.It seems rather benign, limited to some forced crashing of the game (which would be fine, as a typical, oldschool punishment for pirating) but quite a few people report weird behaviour of their PC after that. There is a huge suspicion that Elzee, in his paranoia and damaged pride (which makes sense because people went a bit over with their gloating in his face), decided to implement a malicious script that goes overboard and may hurt legitimate supporters as well.
I've stopped watching the drama after that but I know his code generation was linked to his other patreon (hijacking the mechanics against ToS?) and that Patreon account was banned for that...
It's actually VERY EASY to get your Patreon locked if you deviate from ToS and the Sauron's Eye decides to watch you at that moment...
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I'm all for devs putting in DRM and trying to protect their property. I make copywrited material myself and like to protect it. My content has been pirated to no suprize. I accept it and do the little I can while not being an ass about it. Sometimes its flattering honestly. But once you cross that line of being malicious and damaging... Honestly, I think what bugged me most about Elzee is he affected his paying supporters by doing this. Overall I hope Elzee learns from this and straitens up. The guy has talent that could be better served by focusing on the things that matter.
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