EVE player runs off with ISK 80 billion Comments by Ellie Gibson

That's kind of brilliant in a...terrible way.

Credit Crunch extends to EVE?

Stupidly complicated sci-fi MMO EVE Online

----

My name is Ellie and I like kittens and flowers.

sounds like the EVE banks are a lot better managed than the real ones.

Let's start a campaign, Manalapan for CEO of HBOS!!

Could do with a full Eve article write up thingy, like they did with the story of the 1year sleeper assassin.

Not convinced Douglas Adams would be overly pleased with this use of his phrase, especially in an incomplete form.

haha amazing

i don't know how to take that first line. what is stupid, the "in-game financial crisis" or the complicated game?

This game sounds friggin awesome! Wish I had played this years ago...

Just had a glance around the web and calculated that his 80 billion is worth around $4000. Nice paycheque!

Showing my ignorance of Eve is there not a way to help safeguard against internal theft. (Multiple signees for large withdrawals for instance)

... and in other news Mario has rescued Princess Peach again, Gordon Freeman was spotted fleeing City 17 just as a massive explosion rocks the city, and Russian ultranationalist Imran Zakhaev was gunned down by an unknown party, possibly believed to be a member of the British SAS.

-wolfman

Player banks?!

"Stupidly complicated sci-fi MMO EVE Online"

priceless :D

i don't know how to take that first line. what is stupid, the "in-game financial crisis" or the complicated game?

Err... it means exactly what it says. It's a very complicated game. But said in a humorous fashion.
EG: She is stupidly fit, he is stupidly good.

You're stupidly stupid.

What was the sleeper Assassin story Lutz? Any links? Sounds very cool!

Eve, for me at the mo', is a game based around constant fear of losing something valuable! I'm going for a stealth ship at the mo', so I can 'relax' a little and have a bit more fun.

I thought games were a way to get away from work?

"Not convinced Douglas Adams would be overly pleased with this use of his phrase, especially in an incomplete form."

lol yeah he was definitely as pissy as this quotation sounds.

stupidly simple fantasy mmo WoW.
I'll take the more complicated everyday

I don't get what the problem is. It sounds like he just did what was possible (and thus allowed) within the game world. If they want their money back, can't they put some sort of in-game bounty hunter on his character and get the money back? Or did he just delete his account, vaporising the ISK 80 billion? I have no idea how this game works.

I don't know. Isn't what he did the equivalent of creating a Thief character in an RPG and picking somebody's pockets?

for interests sake thats assuming 30 day gtc is 350 million isk - thats 228 months of gametime or £2628-ish

"Stupidly complicated sci-fi MMO EVE Online"

a perfect description of the game -- bravo Elie!

Err... it means exactly what it says. It's a very complicated game. But said in a humorous fashion.
EG: She is stupidly fit, he is stupidly good.

You're stupidly stupid.

Well now, I'm sorry it sounded like I was asking for a rude comment.
I understood THAT, I've just not brushed up on my english grammar.
By the way, do you play WoW? You must play WoW, you sound just like those guys.

employed as an investments manager

tee-hee

news shocker: there are stupid untrustworthy bankers in space as well as on earth.

Xabier, the EVE equivalent of a "Golden Boy" :-D

A bit like when Errol from Eurogamer ran off with our EG corps money in EVE about 5years ago.
didn't you Errol!!
/Has long memory and never forgets.

Well now if it's possible to sell these game credits online for real money would this not amount to real world theft? If he sells them on ebay for real money then that must surely complicate things a little? Not that I really care and won't be visiting this comments thread again anyway.

iokthemonkey:

My name is Ellie and I like kittens and flowers.

;-)

I like fish too!

Didn't a similar thing happen in EVE years ago? I seem to recall many times more ISK involved.

I don't know much about this area of gaming, and the thought entered my head that if game money can be exchanged for real money, did he commit an actual crime.

However, I figure that if that was the case, in-game boffins would have said so by now. From what I've seen they haven't said tha, so I suspect he hasn't done anything actually illegal.

Its an interesting test case for the game developers though. A game is a controlled world, where the worst case scenarios are less painfull than in real life (crashing a car in real life tends to be worse than crashing a car in a video game). And that is generally what players want. But EVE seems to hinge on the fact that it is a very player-operated and uncontrolled world. On that basis, might the devs say "all is fair in love and war"? The theft took place in the game using game mechanics, so there is probably nothing top answer for in real life.

"Stupidly complicated sci-fi MMO EVE Online

----

My name is Ellie and I like kittens and flowers. "

If a game includes a banking system that actually needs real bankers to run, then it is stupidly complicated.

Link to write up about the assasination by Guiding Hand Social Club:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/art...

This game rocks. Fraud, piracy, trading, merc-ing, freedom-fighting, terrorism, escrow, escort, smuggler...whatever you can envisage within the framework can be done. I'm only 3 months in, wished I'd started years ago when I heard about it, but it's great.

Funny story, but how does the in-game bank make a profit to pay dividends?

He's a small-time crook.

86 Billion ISK is nothing in EVE these days.

For real wealth, look HERE

by charging a higher interest on loans than deposits?

I don't play eve anymore, but I remember that guy. It's probably the same guy who was in my corp for a while. One of his few alts. It might not be, he might of sold it but I don't think he did. He stole a couple of carriers of us, when it was a big deal and we were a small corp. That was the way he was playing the game. You got to remember it's just a game. Didn't stop the ceo raging, though. Heh, somehow someone found out who he was in rl and worked out where he stayed to prove he could. It just happened he stayed about 15-20 mins walk from me and a couple of other guys. No one was going to do anything, but it just shows that you can find someone if you want to. Let that be a lesson! If you're going to rob someone blind make sure you do it like in rl and leave no evidence or trail to find you. Hah.

Minmatar ate my hamster!

"Not convinced Douglas Adams would be overly pleased with this use of his phrase, especially in an incomplete form."

Yeah I bet he's spinning in his grave. Thats just the sort of thing that pissed him off to no end i'm sure. And so are you apparently.

If I found out where some of these wow kids lived (gankers, scammers, people who are pathetically rude to you) I would go round and smash their god damn skull in.

This kind of thing is what makes EVE, EVE.

I would love to get involved into the game more, but after 2 or 3 attempts it just isn't for me. It is just a little bit too slow paced.

@ Turrican (great name!) - thanks for the link - a great read!

Wait, he's playing a sci-fi mmo where he works as an investment manager? What's his job in real-life? A starfighter pilot?

"If a game includes a banking system that actually needs real bankers to run, then it is stupidly complicated"

Nonsense. A game can be as complicated or as a simple as the players want it to be. EVE players want a game this complex, so it is not TOO complex.


"If I found out where some of these wow kids lived (gankers, scammers, people who are pathetically rude to you) I would go round and smash their god damn skull in.
ignore poster"

You need to learn to let go dude.

@Turrican

that was an awesome read, shows how a complex community can really make an MMO special :)

I don't understand MMO economy (or economy in genaral, anyway...).

But... "Thanks for all the fish" is freakin priceless!

"Wait, he's playing a sci-fi mmo where he works as an investment manager? What's his job in real-life? A starfighter pilot?"

glol

Is there a way this money could be regained in game? I mean if the guy was tracked down could you regain the cash from him without ticketing some GM? (I ask as I never proceeded beyond the 2 week trial as I found this to be a stupidly complicated sci-fi MMO ;) ). If so this could be awesome rather than a pain in the ass as the Dynasty Banking CEO says, "we'll pay 2 billion for the return of the money."

It'd be nice if money you stole was kept seperate from your legitimately earned money in the game and so was vulnerable to being stolen off you too.

@Benno
If I found out where some of these wow kids lived (gankers, scammers, people who are pathetically rude to you) I would go round and smash their god damn skull in.

Good, physical violence is the appropriate way to tackle any lack of common courtesy. Enjoy the food in prison if you decide to apply this line of thought to other areas of life.

CCP allow these things to happen its all part of the world.
He didn't use a hack or exploit it was just social engineering its allowed.
We used to rip people off all the time in EvE years ago and they would go crying to the devs and they hjust said it was the players own reponsibilty.
No real life crime has occured you can't sue anyone or demand it back.
We use to sell fake blueprints in EVE as real ones and once they clicked accept trade then realised it was dodgy they would cry but by then youd logged off with your alt and doone a runner.
Also there was a cheap ship that looked similar to an expensive one and we used to rename it and palm it off onto newbies that didn't know better. EVE was great for rip offs.
Errol ran off with all our many from our corp too ..