FFXI Servers Under Political Attack

Right now, Final Fantasy XI's servers are under relentless DDOS attack. PlayOnline's official press release tells us that the attacks are deliberate, and a post on an Allakhazam forum thread points out that they started on the same day that cataclysmic anti-Japanese riots started in China.

At least two blogs mentioning this (Terra Nova's Hit where it hurts and Ludonauts' Cross Straits relations in Vana'diel) conclude that Final Fantasy XI is being punished for being Japanese.

Twenty years ago, the hacker called The Mentor wrote that the networks could fight discrimination—

We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.

—The Conscience of a Hacker

—and I'm ashamed for how far we've degenerated since then. The Internet, promising to break down social barriers (like skin color and nationality), has instead widened the divide and become a weapon for bigots. There's no evil worse than prejudice, and when when people vandalize a videogaming network because they feel it represents one country, then I wonder where we're going.