Home Gaming The desperate search for Overwatch’s Sombra saw some Game Detectives resort to hacking

The desperate search for Overwatch’s Sombra saw some Game Detectives resort to hacking

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Sombra Overwatch

The search for Overwatch’s mysterious new character Sombra stagnated to a halt several weeks ago when the momentincrime website went up. Before that however, the shooter’s community was ablaze with activity. Game Detectives rallied together and actively cracked each clue Blizzard put out as part of their on-going augmented reality game.

Some people though, went too far. In their desperation to find answers, they resorted to hacking, which I don’t think Blizzard ever intended to be a part of the game.

Though admittedly, I can understand the confusion some fans had, or why they considered such hectic measures necessary to find answers. Sombra’s entire being (thus far) hinges on the fact that she’s an excellent hacker after all, so would it be too far fetched to think that actual hacking was necessary to find additional clues (not condoning it, just pointing it out)?

Some people seemed to think so. A small group of fans identified a Battle.net account that had the name Sombra in it, and they believed accessing it might yield new information on the mystery character.

“These users eventually came to the conclusion that they would need to use social engineering to break their way into the account using Blizzard’s support desk,” Game Detectives admin Epsilon told Kotaku.

The group managed to convince Blizzard that the account belonged to them. Naturally, it turned out to be nothing out of the ordinary. The account held no information on Sombra. Despite that, this rogue group shared its username and password to the Game Detectives Discord chat, which saw them being banned.

“Users sometimes get excited and try to take actions into their own hands,” Epsilon explained. Hacking tactics are against Game Detectives policy, admins maintain.

Another Game Detective, Svardskampe, says that the above has happened around four more times with other similar Battle.net accounts.

He described the technique as “social poking around in the Blizzard support section in order to convince the poor [support] guy to make those accounts available.”

Thankfully, this sort of activity has died down (I hope). Like I’ve said already, the search for Sombra has somewhat stagnated. Personally, I feel that Blizzard dragged it out for just a little too long. People do strange things (like hacking) when they get desperate for answers.

At least some sort of resolution is on the horizon. If this recent leak is anything to go by, we can expect to see Sombra make an appearance in Overwatch fairly soon. Hopefully innocent people’s accounts being hacked will cease immediately.

If anything, Blizzard can learn from this debacle, and sharpen up their account protection in future. I know I’m safe. There’s no character named HairyKnees, is there?

Last Updated: October 11, 2016

4 Comments

  1. Such a sombre affair

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 11, 2016 at 12:28

    YOU WENT TOO FAR THIS TIME! YOU’RE ON SUSPENSION! TURN IN YOUR GAME DETECTIVE BADGE AND GUN!

    Reply

    • Deceased

      October 11, 2016 at 12:57

      😀

      Reply

  3. VampyreSquirrel

    October 11, 2016 at 12:28

    lol that 88.4404% completion on the moment in crime site.

    Reply

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