Lulz Security has struck again but many gamers aren't lulzing ... er ... laughing at the hacking group's latest antics.
Through its Twitter account Tuesday, LulzSec claimed it had taken down gaming magazine The Escapist as well as the website and log-in server for massively multiplayer game "EVE Online," the log-in server for online action-strategy game "League of Legends," and the log-in server of popular indie game "Minecraft."
And a visit to those websites showed that, sure enough, they had bit the digital dust.
Meanwhile, like a playground bully, LulzSec spent Tuesday morning taunting those it had taken down with various tweets.
"@EveOnline our boats sunk your inferior spaceships, ujelly," they fired off at the official "EVE" Twitter account. And they added, "Silly Eve have taken their entire network offline after our very simple DDoS attack. Oh well, another day, another lulz!"
And LulzSec had a post for those gamers upset by their attack on "Mincraft" as well: "If you're mad about Minecraft, we'd love to laugh at you over the phone. Call 614-LULZSEC for your chance to reach Pierre Dubois! :3"
Tuesday's victims were just the latest game-related sites to come under attack from the loosely-knit collective LulzSec (so named because "lulz" is Internet slang for laughs).
On Monday, LulzSec announced it had hacked the website for popular game developer Bethesda Softworks — the makers of games like "Brink" and the "Elder Scrolls" series — and had taken the personal information of some 200,000 users. But the group claimed that because it "liked" the development company it wouldn't reveal the users' personal information.
It's unclear why LulzSec would target Bethesda, "EVE Online," "League of Legends" and especially "Minecraft" — which is an underdog of a game if ever there was one and an outstanding example of the kind of great game a small developer working outside the mainstream corporate setting can create. (By the way, Markus "Notch" Persson has said his server is now back up and operational.)
But then again, who says hackers have to make sense?
One commenter over at Slashdot suggested that "EVE Online" might have been targeted because of the news announced at E3 last week that the game's maker was launching an "EVE"-related title exclusively for the Sony PlayStation 3. And everyone knows how hackers feel about Sony.
Meanwhile, perhaps "Minecraft" was victimized because it was announced last week that the game will soon appear on the Xbox 360?
As for The Escapist, the game magazine (or at least their readers) appeared to have stuck a stick in the hacking hornet's nest. A tweet by LulzSec suggested that this Escapist discussion thread full of gamers making angry comments about hackers had caught their eye. So does that mean LulzSec isn't a fan of free speech? If they don't like something someone writes about them, they simply aim and fire?
Or perhaps it's all just random ransacking. LulzSec did announce via its Twitter account that it was taking recommendations from its followers to determine who it should attack next. And the group did recently tweet: "We did it because they couldn't stop us."
Certainly LulzSec has been very busy in the last few weeks. It has laid claim to breaking into the websites of PBS, Sony Pictures, Nintendo and others. And yesterday it attacked not only the game sites, but a porn site and a Senate website as well.
While attacks on big and seemingly "faceless" corporations may not have inspired much ire from some corners of the gaming and online worlds, these attacks on smaller companies and groups have certainly fired many people up.
Tweeted one angry gamer to LulzSec: "OMG yeah so mad SO F%#&ing MAD!!! I know thats what you want but wtf what did they do?"
Tweeter Markus Nigrin summed it up best: "Great move by @lulzsec taking down Minecraft. Independent game devs are such great targets :("
Yes, the question is, with LulzSec's increasingly mean-spirited attacks, how many people are laughing?
For more gaming and hacking news, check out:
- Bethesda is latest game company hit by hackers
- Google de-feathers infected 'Angry Birds' apps
- Senate confirms website hack
- LulzSec hackers expose passwords of porn site users
- Sony hacked? Website lets you know
Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter .