Hits where it hurts

The ongoing conflict between China and Japan seems to be spilling over into the MMO mulitverse.

For a while now there have been allegations that Chinese groups have been targeting Japanese web sites, such as the Yasukuni Shrine, with DDoS attacks. Last week SquareEnix reported that some FFXI servers were suffering DDoS attacks by “anonymous third parties”.

Now we hear from the Allakhazam forums, via William Huber at ludonauts, that these attacks might also be inspired by the conflict. Though things are complex, as well was the revisitionist text book issue there is the question of a Japanese seat on the UN Security Council and the ethnicity of Gil sellers and Gil itself.

I get an uneasy feeling when actual conflict spills over into games of conflict. But I’m not sure why. Maybe it -would- be a good idea if opposing sides took up virtual arms – anything is better than stones and bombs. For example, one might argue that the current India vs Pakistan test series is a cathartic political statement, the leaders of both nations being present seems to suggest that that game does have political significance. Or am I just trivializing matters now? After all, war’s not a game (pdf) now is it?