Mega-popular MMO EVE Online prides itself on its realistic, player-controlled economy. In a scarily familiar episode of games-imitating-life, EBank, EVE's largest virtual bank, has been shut down after a former CEO embezzled 200 billion ISK from it.
Known only as "Ricdic," the former CEO is actually a 20-something Australian guy who works in the tech industry, according to Reuters. After he made off with a fat wad of virtual spacebucks, he sold them for about $5000 worth of realbucks, which he used to make a down payment on a house and pay some medical bills. I probably would've used the loot to buy PCP and Taiwanese ladyboys, but to each his own.
When the rest of the EVE community caught wind of the theft, things got a little nasty. According to the New York Times, 5.5 trillion ISK were quickly pulled from EBank, effectively crippling the bank's ability to operate or give out loans. There are about 300,000 EVE users, 130,000 of which had accounts with EBank. With thousands of them clamoring to be refunded in full, some users are appealing directly to the developers for help, but CCP's laissez-faire approach will probably preclude any sort of intervention -- this wouldn't be the first time they've let players sort out their own messes.
Ricdic has been banned from EVE, but not for embezzlement: trading in-game assets for cash is against EVE's terms of service. If he had simply stolen the money and used it in game, he'd still be playing EVE. ""We have never seen ourselves as gods who make the rules of social interaction," said Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, an economics adviser to CCP. "You are able to lose the things you have created. That's what makes the world interesting."
A married father of two, Ricdic says that, while he regrets stealing the money, he would do it again in the same situation: "I saw that as an avenue that could be taken, and I decided to skim off the top, you could say, to overcome real life difficulties."
[Via Opposable Thumbs]
Contest:
11:20 AM on 07.08.2009
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THAT'S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME.
a)He stole people's hard earned cash!
b)He sold people's hard earned cash for real money.
had he not done b), it would have been perfectly legal ingame. Except he'd probably have been exploded by annoyed customers by now.
/sorry
@RedScorpion: insert peso/ruble joke here. :P
@D Sane: of course, you'd have to be willing to spend a long assed time to get into his position.
(I think its about 40,000,000 ISK per 1$)
I ended up being part of a corporate alliance that maintained their power in a constellation chain. We used this position to mine rare oars and build battleships for other corporations. We made good money, had fun coordinating operations together whether to mine, fight for territory, hold combat contests, occasionally sell our services as bounty hunters, and just general goofery.
Things broke down however when the higher ups (CEO's) of our major alliances branches stepped down and management went out of whack. Due to lack of good coordination we began to be harassed by pirate corporations and started suffering material losses (ships, equipment, etc...). But some of us held together and managed to help each other out still.
All of this shenanigans, while being amazingly fun, was also extremely stressful. Because of the immersion, the losses in game really get to you. You worked so hard to achieve everything. It's not like WoW where it's just a matter of time. While EVE's skills are a matter of time, they don't get you anything unless you use them. If you want to think about it this way, it's "work". But it is satisfying.
So anyway, yeah, people don't take losses lightly in EVE. I didn't, I just decided to quit and start migrating away from MMO's. With a full time job, girlfriend, friends and family, school, and so many other of life's pleasures (and tons of other games to play), it's just hard to find the devotion for an MMO. Although whenever something good rolls around, I get a little twitch like a crack addict. But then I just whip out Monster Hunter, which is superior to any MMO in my opinion.
but $5000 is still puny for like 200 Billion
Luckily, I do not have any ISK in the aforementioned bank currently, but I have used the service before.