Microsoft spokesperson blames ICANN

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

Microsoft appears to be blaming ICANN for the failure with Microft's
domain name servers (all located at the same place at Microsoft).

  Microsoft has yet to pin down the cause of the DNS error. "It can
  be a system or human error, but somebody could also have done this
  intentionally," De Jonge said. "We don't manage the DNS ourselves,
  it is a system controlled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned
  Names and Numbers (ICANN) with worldwide replicas."

http://www.idg.net/ic_386962_1793_1-1681.html

Microsoft gamers (users of www.zone.com) quickly came up with various
workarounds so they could continue playing.  They were posting HOSTS.TXT
files on various gamer bulletin boards overnight.  In particular
"Asheron's Call" had several problems during the last week, including
banning a number of users and rolling back experience points due to
a game bug.