Minecraft hit by DDOS attack

Minecraft has fallen victim to a distributed denial of service attack according to creator Markus Persson, although the developer is at a loss to explain why.

"Denial of Service means you occupy certain resources for a long period of time, making other people not able to use them. A real world example would be running up to the cashier at a super market and paying in small coins, counting every single one really slowly, then finding out at the end you didn't have enough in the first place," Persson, who goes by the name Notch, wrote on his site.

"As to why minecraft.net is being targeted, I'm not sure."

In a later update Persson said he had signed up for a DDOS protection service and upgraded his server.

According to a post on 4chan (thanks Kotaku), the attack may have been organised by fans of the game angry at a lack of updates. Persson had recently slowed development in order to set up an office and hire staff.

"Coding wise, I'm officially behind schedule now, but I fully intend to deliver," Persson wrote this week. "My schedule is clearing up nicely, and I'm learning to say 'no' to people who want to talk to me. I just blame it on having an important update to do."

Not familiar with Minecraft? Weirdo. Bring yourself up to date by reading through Rob Fahey's summary of what makes the game lovely and how well it's doing.