In what could be a scene from the South Park episode "Make Love not Warcraft" the weekend saw thousands of players and NPCs getting killed on servers in World of Warcraft. This wasn't just one player doing the damage but a mass of hackers according to Blizzard. Blizzard community manager Nethaera explained on the forums:

"Earlier today, certain realms were affected by an in-game exploit, resulting in the deaths of player characters and non-player characters in some of the major cities. This exploit has already been hotfixed, so it should not be repeatable. It's safe to continue playing and adventuring in major cities and elsewhere in Azeroth.

As with any exploit, we are taking this disruptive action very seriously and conducting a thorough investigation. If you have information relating to this incident, please email [email protected]. We apologize for the inconvenience some of you experienced as a result of this and appreciate your understanding."

On Youtube and Ownedcore (a WoW hack and exploit site) a user named Jadd claimed responsibility:

"We didn't do any permanent damage," Jadd writes. "Some people liked it for a new topic of conversation and a funny stream to watch, and some people didn't. The people who didn't should be blaming Blizzard for not fixing it faster (4 hours of obvious use is sad)."

You can view videos of the carnage here: