Bank heist at Eve Online
p2pnet news view | Games:- ” ‘Virtual’ money isn’t really virtual,” p2pnet posted in Tuesday, going on, “A lot of people make a lot of real cash out of it.
“And that’s why the news China has decided pretend money can no longer be exchanged for real goods and services is significant.”
Now, “An Australian video gamer has stolen thousands of dollars from a bank inside an online game and converted them into real-world money,” says the CBC, going on:
“The bank heist happened in Eve Online, where players mine in-game resources to build colonies and space ships in a futuristic space-themed online world. The game has hundreds of thousands of players who pay for access to the world. An in-game economy, complete with its own currency known as interstellar kredits, has emerged to enable trading transactions within the game. Numerous banks have even sprung up.”
Not only but also, piracy and racketeering are all part of the game.
And where there are banks, there are bank robbers, as John Herbert Dillinger (June 22 1903 – July 22, 1934) would probably testify, if he wasn’t dead.
“Using the online name of ‘Ricdic’, the married father of two built a reputation as one of EVE’s few trusted players – a rare commodity in a game where repeatedly blowing up a violator’s spaceship was the only way to enforce some contracts,” says news.com.au.
“More than 300,000 EVE subscribers pay $US15 ($19) a month to play and gain wealth by hard work, manipulating the market, or killing rivals in a distant future where humans have colonised the stars,” it says.
Reuters has Richard, aka Ricdic, saying, “It was a very on the spot decision” — that a, “spam email for a black market website that traded online money for real cash popped up on his screen, prompting him to exchange the virtual cash for real money to cover a deposit on his house and expenses related to his son’s medical problems”.
“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),” he says in the story, which goes on:
“Word of the theft spread quickly within EVE. Panicked customers started a run on the bank, worried that they would lose the money they had amassed by hunting space pirates or mining asteroids.
“Ironically, if Ricdic had merely stolen the online money he could have stayed in the game. But exchanging the virtual cash for real dollars broke the rules and CCP banned Richard’s EBank accounts.”
p2pnet – China bans virtual cash, June 30, 2009
CBC – Gamer robs virtual bank to get real-world cash, July 3, 2009
news.com.au - EVE banker that stole kredits a real Ricdic, July 3, 2009
Reuters – Gamer steals from virtual world to pay real debts, July 2, 2009
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:13 am
as an ex/sometimes on again eve player, the one thing that has been awesome, is that in game, anything goes, you con someone out of a tonne of isk (in game currency), its legal, you join a corperation, gain their trust, clean them out of everything and i mean everything in the corperation hanger, its legal. but once it crosses over to the real world, you are done. even tho i know selling your character for real world money, is illegal, but it still happens, same with farming isk, ie the whole china thing, but it all still happens. altho it seems like the guy kinda used the real world money for a good cause (kids med bills and getting his family a home) its still against the rules and i hope it doesn’t change in game play at all
Uruz-7
Royal Hiigarian Navy
AF Pilot and Pirate extroidinaire
July 5th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Does anyone remember the P2P website Sharelive.com?
It’s now owned by Eve-Online.
July 5th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I applaud this man turning his hard work in game, into a real world asset. He may have burned bridges, he may even get his account banned, but that’s as far as it will go.
EVE allows the purchase of time cards for subscription, and assists in the legitimate sale and trade between the time cards and in game currency. This makes EVE the most liberal of any MMO I’ve seen as far as crossover from virtual / real markets. The only thing that is frowned upon and prohibited is the outright sale of in game currency for real world cash $$$. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be the subject of any criminal charges or civil lawsuits.
This will make news, the ignornant will cry foul, but his gaming accounts being banned is all that will happen. He could buy another account and start over fresh if he really wanted to.