It's been an interesting weekend for unsanctioned online activity in the gaming world. In roughly the same time span that Grand Theft Auto 6 apparently had dozens of gameplay videos inadvertently leaked to the public, servers for Wizard 101, a free-to-play MMORPG primarily aimed at children, were shut down temporarily this weekend after users noticed profanity-packed pop-ups across the system's servers.As originally reported by PCGamer, an alleged disgruntled employee of KingsIsle Entertainment, the parent company of Wizard 101, used the game's alert system to send a string of messages complaining about the company and causing general havoc. The messages, which each took up no more than a couple lines on text, varied from direct criticism of the game — one four-word message simply compared it to fecal matter — to complaints about management of the company and treatment of its employees. Another message did nothing more than list euphemisms for the male anatomy, while yet another issued a fake apology for the chaos caused by previous messages and falsely promised to compensate all affected players with 60,000 crowns, Wizard 101's in-game currency.In response to the messages, KingsIsle shut down the game's servers, announcing the temporary action Saturday on Twitter. A subsequent tweet the same day apologized for the issues and announced the servers were back up and running. KingsIsle has not issued an official statement indicating whether the person responsible was an actual employee or just someone who hacked into the alert system.
Wizard 101 has always been a game primarily aimed at children, so it's not surprising KingsIsle Entertainment took action immediately after discovering the unsanctioned alerts. It has had a solid fan base since its launch in 2008, having players take on the role of a student at Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, learning spells and participating in both PvP and PvE wizard duels. While it does have the option of subscription bonuses and microtransactions, the base game is free to play, which continues to lure in a decent number of players. More than 50 million accounts have been created for the game during its roughly 14-year existence. As a safety measure, the game locks users under the age of 13 out of sending or receiving messages via chat, but this feature does not extend to the alert messages, which are supposed to be only sent by KingsIsle staff.