Recent events in the virtual world of Eve have been making headlines in RL lately.
A player claiming to be an in-game bank managed to convince hundreds of other players to invest thier virtual cash in his company...to the estimated tune of 890 billion isk.
Then he emptied the account and logged off, leaving a confession on the forums and a nasty video laughing at his victims.
Yeah, yeah, it's just a game right? Well yeah it is, and the ability to pull these kinds of stunts (not the nasty bits) are what makes it so much fun.
890 billion isk represents many many hours, much blood sweat and tears and the seriousness that the investors placed in this game.
1 billion isk goes for $15 USD on eBay. So that scam would have made the scammer approx. $13,500 of REAL money. ($16,500 was the number quoted in PCGamer)
The whole thing is being washed away by forum rants atm, but it leaves a very important question about the legality of virtual property.
Here's what an article from the Yale University Law Department has to say about it.
5 comments:
Whenever someone can find a way to make money in real life...they'll take it...I believe there are even a couple of your regular readers who financed a trip overseas entirely through the sale of virtual property!
That being said...I'm pretty sure they didn't rip off people to do so :( Except that one guy...he's kinda shift...Shifty McShifts-alot I call him ;)
Anyways...I figure that when you set out to create a virtual environment that is supposed to allow for things to be 'close' to real life (but in a fictional setting), real life fraud is bound to appear...just as real life fights filter in, real life love interests, etc. etc...
Eve, from what I recall, has always kind 'encouraged' people to do what they will in the game...some of the exploits (like the big bad battleship being stolen) make for GREAT reading!!! From someone who recently had their online account hacked, and their time / money invested vaporized I can say in all honesty...it's just a game. If you think it's anything more, you should REALLY consider pulling the plug and getting back into reality for a bit... :)
Shaymus
It is just a game, but some people take it much more seriously. The fact that you can buy large amounts of cash on eBay makes it more than a game, it's an economy. If I wanted to, I could mine ore, sell it and then sell the isk I gained on eBay. *Shrug* It's frowned upon of course, that money actually belongs in the game Enviroment and thus belongs to the game devs...but I could do something awsome with that cash...perhaps fund a trip to Austrailia?
So what stops me from logging on and ripping off someone else who is trying to save up for a trip to Austrailia?
Just saying...it is just a game, but at some point there should be real laws in place to prevent electronic exploitation of a simple past time. The Devs should be protected from theft at the least.
Really this might be the legal precedence that the music industry has been waiting for. And THAT was the meaning of the post. It's legal news.
Opps! sorry for the defensive post...my browser cut off the top of yours. I just got the last paragraph...
Looks like we are in agreement ;)
What happened with your hacked account? Did WOW reimberse you or anything? What was their stance on such things?
Blizzard restored my characters, and as many of the items I had lost as they could 'confirm' or easliy restore...
Their stance on it was / is, "We will investigate...if we find out that you had no part to play in what happened, we will do our best to get back what you lost"...given the number of accounts that were hacked (I'm hearing thousands) I am guessing their investigations were fairly rudimentary...but I got most everything back.
Problem I personally have, is while I was waiting for them to restore my current characters...I started ANOTHER one! :( So many alts, and so little time ;)
Shaymus
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