I'm rich, BEEYOCH!

In a game news story so big it managed to find it’s way into both the New York Times and BBC Online late last week, it was reported that an EVE: Online player embezzled 200 billion credits from one of the largest in-game banks he was partly responsible for, then turned around and sold the credits for the tune of roughly $5,000 to an online gold seller. I’m not sure whether to cheer or be angry at the guy.

The central strategy behind EVE Online is that it is a player-run economy, where player-run corporations do battle to amass resources for larger ships and defenses.  The Icelandic game developer, CCP, largely lets the players run with these economies.

The problem with this kind of “anything goes” free market framework is that it is just as flawed as the concept of Communism is: it does not take into effect that human beings are greedy bastards, and that all it takes in one greedy bastard in the right position to cause everything to collapse in on itself.

Here are the details.  A veteran player named Ricdic was the chief executive to one of the largest banks in the game.  And when I say “in the game”, the 300,000 person virtual world is all on one server (I think).  It’s not like your usual run of the mill MMO, where the worlds are divided into a dozen or two identical servers.  So, “one of the largest banks in game” means just that.

Being in such a position of authority, when Ricdic found himself an opportunity to make some real cash to take care of some real world problems, including medical bills and a house down payment, he took it, and spirited off with almost 10% of the bank’s holdings, then sold it to an online gold seller.  This, of course, lead to customers to make a run on the bank, trying to take all of their assets out simultaneously.  Which for any bank, either real or virtual, is disastrous; obviously it doesn’t have every single bank customer’s money on hand immediately.

Ricdic, for his crime, was banned from the game.  Whoopee.

CCP does not monitor or enforce the player run economy; hell, if Ricdic hadn’t have taken the credits and sold them offline for real cash, there would have been no repercussions for his embezzlement at all. If you think about it that way, how many of you would quit playing your favorite MMORPG for five grand if there are little in the way or repercussion?

I’ve played EVE: Online: I was an active member for several months, so I’ve got an idea about the in game economy.   I also know that it’s player versus player fighting is unforgivingly brutal, where the destruction of a ship can cost months of in game time farming credits.  For as slow-paced a game as it is, it’s definitely had some heart-stopping, universe-shaking moments in its time.  Think your World of Warcraft 80 person PVP raid on Stormwind is an impressive feat?  Talk to the Guiding Hand Social Club, who conducted a year-long assassination plot against one of the games largest CEOs back in 2005, which ended up netting them approximately $16,000 real dollars of in-game assets.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Thrall.

So the question here is this: in a game where law and order is dictated by the people, and successful universe-wide scams are applauded by those watching safely on the sidelines, do you get mad at this guy, or give him his own ticker-tape parade?  What do you think?

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