News - EVE Online bank gets ripped off

[Agent]

Originally Posted by BlackDwarf

This would be like somebody stealing from a GB in WoW. If the admins wanted to type 'create x gold' to put it back, they could..

This is where you're misunderstanding:

Its not a real bank, with real things happening. They can just code back in another 200bn ISK!

The 'bank' is not run by the people who make Eve. The Bank can not just insert the cash back into their database.

Originally Posted by MadduckUK

i think the only people that will dislike this guy at all are the ones that have a taste for the mmorpg, everyone else will thing he has done something wonderful.. which he has tbf

Oh I have a taste for Eve and I certainly don't dislike the guy. Sell virtual cash to pay for medical bills? Wouldn't give it a second thought either

[Lucio]

Originally Posted by BlackDwarf

How?

This would be like somebody stealing from a GB in WoW. If the admins wanted to type 'create x gold' to put it back, they could.

This is not real money thats been stolen. It doesn't exist. Its been SOLD for real money, and actually, if I was in his position and had to pay real life debts over a game, I know what I'd do.

I think the thing you're missing is the TIME it takes to generate that currency. To give you an idea, a couple of years back I ran a pretty successful corp mining effort. Over the course of a year, I paid out 4 billion ISK to around 20 members for minerals worth about 6 billion. That's 20 people, working for 1 year, to generate a mere 2 billion ISK profit. Even at say, 10 hours a week mining per person (rough estimate), that's 10,400 man hours. That means the 200 billion represents 2000 people each spending over 500 hours mining, or a lone man spending the rest of their life mining non-stop.


So yeah, it might be "just a game", but really it's a massive investment of people's time and effort that was stolen, and to have it sold to pay off a man's debts, you can see why people are pissed.

[peterb]

Originally Posted by Lucio

I think the thing you're missing is the TIME it takes to generate that currency. To give you an idea, a couple of years back I ran a pretty successful corp mining effort. Over the course of a year, I paid out 4 billion ISK to around 20 members for minerals worth about 6 billion. That's 20 people, working for 1 year, to generate a mere 2 billion ISK profit. Even at say, 10 hours a week mining per person (rough estimate), that's 10,400 man hours. That means the 200 billion represents 2000 people each spending over 500 hours mining, or a lone man spending the rest of their life mining non-stop.


So yeah, it might be "just a game", but really it's a massive investment of people's time and effort that was stolen, and to have it sold to pay off a man's debts, you can see why people are pissed.

Well that is true, but it isn't real work - you weren't underground weilding a pick and shovel and extracting real minerals - those people were sitting at a keyboard - using leisure time. That isn't to detract from the game - in fact with the current economic climate, GL is starting to mimic real life pretty accurately. But in the game you can just switch off - real currency you have spent is for the enjoyment of playing.

It is the online equivalent of monopoly - and this 'fraud' is no different from the banker in monopoly stealing monopoly money and selling it for hard cash. (Except this guy was more successful!)

[Antagram]

So what did the guy need the money for?

Doubt it was that impending as cutting back on luxuries such as broadband and game subs never happened.

[Whiternoise]

Originally Posted by Agent

This is where you're misunderstanding:

The 'bank' is not run by the people who make Eve. The Bank can not just insert the cash back into their database.

I still don't think that's entirely true. Presumably the ultimate overlord admin people do have the power to give people or corporations gold? Would they be right to do so? I doubt it. If it was the bank of EVE that had lost their money then by all means they should take steps to return it, but it wasn't the bank of EVE at all.

In any case, EVE prides itself in having a highly realistic and complex economy, this guy is just a virtual Bernard Madoff in my opinion. Yes these people probably worked their arses off to get that kind of in game money, but at the end of the day it's just a game. No offense, but i'd prefer to play a game where i didn't have to spend that amount of time to earn that kind of money - seems like far too much effort. You trust your money to other people (on an MMO that's pretty damn risky anyway), you suffer the consequences when they bugger off with it. Lest we forget that all games have "rogue" character traits - this guy has just taken it one step further!

What can you buy for that kind of e-cash anyway?

[Sirrush]

Originally Posted by Antagram

So what did the guy need the money for?

Doubt it was that impending as cutting back on luxuries such as broadband and game subs never happened.

Medical bills and a deposit on his house.

[Agent]

Originally Posted by Whiternoise

I still don't think that's entirely true. Presumably the ultimate overlord admin people do have the power to give people or corporations gold?...

It is true

Yes, CCP could give the ISK back (not that they would or should, it would pee a lot of people off), but the bank can not change any database to make the ISK come back - period

As I said:

The 'bank' is not run by the people who make Eve. The Bank can not just insert the cash back into their database.

Which was a response to

Its not a real bank, with real things happening. They can just code back in another 200bn ISK!

The bank can't do it. Simple

[Arthran]

Originally Posted by Antagram

So what did the guy need the money for?

Doubt it was that impending as cutting back on luxuries such as broadband and game subs never happened.

I'm sorry, but in the modern world, Broadband is no more a luxury than a telephone line, if your in financial difficulties then i can guess broadband to be one of the last things you cut back on.

Plus with Eve he probably didn't need to pay for game subs ever, the joy of being able to buy sub's with in-game money.