10 Times Players Broke MMORPGs
4. The Falador Massacre - RuneScape
What makes The Falador Massacre that extra bit spicy is that it occurred on the 6th day of the 6th month in 2006 and was the result of a user named Cursed You. Spooky.
To celebrate becoming the first player to reach Lv99 in the construction skill, Cursed You decided to throw a house party in their RuneScape abode. However, the number of players attending was causing lag and Cursed You decided to boot everyone out of the house and back out into the world. However, due to an oversight in coding, any players who had been engaged in PvP in his combat room were suddenly given a deadly new ability.
These players could suddenly kill players no matter where they were on the map. Even safe areas, such as the city of Falador, became warzones as some players realised the power they had.
The glitch itself occurred in the middle of the night in the UK, where developers Jagex reside, and the team had to assemble at the office all of a sudden to correct the problem. Perpetrators were banned, but moderators decided not to roll back the code and those who had been killed and/or looted were merely apologised to.
However, they are also memorialised in the game. The Falador Massacre is now part of official canonical RuneScape lore, and a statue pays homage to those lost.