alt Hacker News> I have found that there are people who just want to watch the world burn. There are many reasons, but, at its most basic, hurt people hurt people.
I'm not sure that it's even malicious. I think many hackers look at a website or a service as a game to play. They aren't thinking so far as the person that this action affects, just as far as "I wonder if I could get all the data off that site?" or something similar. And on top of that, some view the rate-limiting as a challenge.
I think it's the same thing that drives the excessive snark or cruelty in comments. They don't think of the person on the other end as a person, they think of them as an endpoint.
You are correct about the way we dehumanize others on the Internet, but I think hackers have changed, quite a bit, since War Games.
Hacking, these days, isn’t just for the lulz. Hackers have a purpose, and that’s usually monetary or military (sometimes both).
Hacking crews, these days, run professional organizations that would make a lot of SV C-Suiters green with envy.