The classic online game Old School RuneScape suffered a global glitch that allowed players to go on a massacre with each other anywhere, even where it is not allowed by the rules of the game. This led to anarchy and looting, as well as the loss of valuable items and experience for many affected. The creators of the game were forced to suspend its work for several hours to fix the error and return everything back to normal.
Old School RuneScape is a 10 year old MMO that builds on a 16 year old MMO and you would think it’s a laid back, old school online world where people are friendly and mind their own business and nothing changes. In fact, this is not the case at all: players are constantly finding new or unusual things that would be incredible (or crazy) in a regular MMO. The latest example of this is an update that GamesRadar says made some minor changes to the game’s code. Basic maintenance, really – except that after installing it, players found that typing “Rainbow” in the game chat would cause the game to crash. And not just their own game: everyone who saw the word faced the same problem. Game developer Jagex initially attributed the problem to a “bug in the Zebak fight” that only affected one player, but it soon became clear that the situation was much more serious. Hours later, the entire game had to be shut down so they could fix it.
Old School RuneScape players reacted calmly to a simple bug, but some, because of the word “Rainbow”, jokingly accused not the developer, but LGBT people.
