It seems like I only hear about space-based MMO Eve Online when someone commits acts of massive moral turpitude in the game. Today's Eve Online caper, though, is special, if only for the amount of fake money involved. It seems an EVE devotee pulled off a white collar crime that netted him in-game currency equal to $45,000 American.
User "Bad Bobby" (whose nick should really have raised a red flag) spent several years building massive investment company Titans4U, then meticulously orchestrated a takeover of its board of trustees, which gave him the ability to steal the company's entire fortune: Over 850 billion ISK, or about 45,000 bucks.
From all accounts, Bobby was totally a good-player for years, genially returning profits on people's investments and building the fortune of his operation and his own reputation over years. The operations were overseen by a board of five trustees, to prevent theft, Bobby didn't have access to over 50 percent of the company's shares, until he convinced the board to issue more shares, which he controlled. He kicked the trustees out and gave himself the cash. Basically, if Madoff took off for a tropical island with his billions in loot instead of letting himself get popped, he'd be a real-world Bad Bobby.
EVE Online maintains a policy of Buyer Beware for its game, which is sort of unique in gaming. It is acknowledged that skulduggery and financial shenanigans are a part of the take-no-prisoners world of EVE, with the game's community manager CCP Wrangler saying "EVE isn't designed to just look like a cold, dark and harsh world; it's designed to be a cold, dark and harsh world." So outright cons, piracy and theft are braggable in EVE, which makes the stealing a little more lovable than typical in-game griefing. Basically, if you want your hand held, play Warcraft. If you have stones, play EVE.
My question is: Did Bad Bobby steal the loot for ingame lulz, or is there some kind of mechanism for converting the fake cash into real money? Sure, he'll be able to play EVE Online free for the rest of his life (and his children's lives, too!), but officially, there isn't a way to make PLEX into bucks. While EVE allows players to convert ISK to PLEX, and you can pay for game-time with PLEX, there isn't an official channel for turning PLEX or ISK into money. In other words, you can buy all the ISK for dollars you want, but you can't buy dollars with ISK. But Bobby seems like a clever (and patient!) guy... I wonder if he has a plan for turning his in-game currency back into cash?
Source: Massively
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TruthSeiyer
Yeah, this kind of thing is what makes EvE such a great game.
TheMilkMonster
how do you kill that which has no life?
1337mage
In eve we have a saying...
Every time someone quits EVE for WOW the average IQ of both go up.
SiRRogue2: Yeah the only way to convert it is to buy game time cards in game and use them, saving yourself the $15 a month on each account. (saves me $45/month that way)
Eve is a fun game, there is much cometary from the lowest levels to the upper political alliance controllers.
The best part about eve for me, and some people miss this fact: Time based skill training, you can get busy w/ RL or get into StarCraft2 for a while, and still be lvling your eve guy.
wait, no. the best part is when u kill ppl or get killed, it hurts, not like some other games where you pay a nominal worthless fee to be brought back to life. In eve your assets are your life. To conclude with that in mind, the people who got ripped off by TITANS4U's Boy, were partialy expecting it when they made their investment, or thought they were playing wow.
sirrogue2
To answer the question Stephen asked above: There is no sanctioned way to convert EVE ISK into real-world currencies. That being said, if Bad Bobby were to try it, he would be banned and have his account revoked.
As it is, Bad Bobby has a crap-ton of ISK and can play the game for free for quite a long time. The cost of stealing was his reputation within the EVE game universe... but the player could just start up an alt and no one will ever be the wiser.
Dropped.on.Japan
Malimber, judging by your comment, I can tell you don't understand how EVE works. As an avid PvP'er (and one of those scawy pirates that you seem to be so scared of), piloting skill has EVERYTHING to do with who wins fights. With a character that's less than a year old, I've killed players that have been playing since 2005 in ships that were smaller than theirs. Explain how that works, if no player skill is involved.
If you don't like the kill or be killed playstyle, don't go into lowsec or nullsec and that's just a fact. If you stay in systems whose security status is .5 or higher, don't shoot people (even if they are stealing from your mission), and you'll more than likely have no significant losses to speak of.
I'll give you a plan to have actual fun in EVE. Start out, get your grind on, get some ISK saved. Once you've gotten to the point where you're doing Level 3 missions, start looking for a *good* corporation to join (aka do some research). There are a lot of corps that specialize in guerrilla tactics where they will fly out 10+ cruisers into nulsec and blow some stuff up (Southern Cross Alliance comes to mind). That will give you a very small taste of how PvP works in EVE.
Personally, that gave me the bug to learn how to PvP seriously. I went into lowsec, blew up some stuff, am now a flashy red pirate, and having the time of my life. Of all the things I've done in real life, nothing came close to giving me the adrenaline rush that EVE gives me when fighting. I usually walk away with hands shaking and heart racing. Wow has never came close to giving me that much of a rush.
Yes you can become completely screwed in this game if you trust the wrong people (as Titans4U found out).
If you enjoy games that require study, thought, and skill by all means check out EVE Online. If you're one of those WoW nerds that rage about how the newest instance is just too hard, avoid this game, because you frankly just won't make the cut.
Bad Bobby probably saw an opportunity and took it. Did he piss off some very powerful people? Probably. Does he care? Probably not when he checks his wallet.
Malimber
Ugh I wasted a year of my life on this game. You don't really win due to any skill..you just win because you've played longer and trained more skills. I cant count how many times I lost stuff just going about my business when some jerk jumps in, threatens to blow up my ship if I don't give him all my money, blows me away when I say no and then jumps away. The only person who looses is the one on the receiving end. The game will never be all that big because its major selling point is you can get griefed at any time for any reason by someone who is bored. At the end of the day that's all the game is about. They don't do what they do because they have a valid reason for it. They do it just because they can.
cmejia_
Baby Fart McGee Zax?
greymtns
that reminds me, the new Eve trailer/contest
The entire trailer is devoted to the fact that you can wipe out entire alliances, just by being the right person, in the right place.
Sadly, I got too attached to the people in my corp, screwed that theft up. ^^
greymtns
Eve,
It's not a learning curve, it's a learning "sheer cliff with a stake filled pit full of vipers"
If you can't take real losses, enjoy your "padded" games.
Eve takes guts, patience and brains. And even if you lack those, you can still make peoples live's hell just for the pure joy of it.
Aldowyn
I just love reading about these stories! :D
TKEmysterio
I think I'm going to try the 14 day free trial on this game. The more I hear about stories like this the more I at least want to check it out.
Phuk5tar
Isn't the first and won't be the last...
MartiansfromUranus
So we pay 10 bucks a month to just have the rest of our hard earned cash to be swindled out of us by other players because it's a game mechanic?
Symicide
Like a effing! !!!BOSS!!! this guy need Tshirts made after him.
ATUN
I played the game for a few months and loved that there is only ONE community that was controlled by the players. Anything that happens affects everyone.
I want to see more games implement more options like formal businesses and such that the players control.
I stopped playing because the game eventually took too much real-world time to level skills. I found myself for a month logging in only to queue up skills. Then eventually canceled my subscription.
ZyloWolfBane
Wouldnt it be totally ironic if it was some kid barely out of school and working as a bagboy in a supermarket?
You never know where you'll find a financial genius!
Atavax
i thought bobby kotick didn't play videogames...
gman2200
the game is amazing, but it takes about a month to really get the hang of it and understand it and probably another 2 before you can get into the real fun stuff like pirating. The first three months are basically training, building your assets, and finding a corp you like. After that it is an absolute blast and I highly recommend it (if you have the patience). The great thing about it taking a while to get good though: keeps the kids in world of warcraft. Most EVE players are over 21.
GameFreak398
Bad Bobby Strike's again.
vismortis
Every time i hear about this stuff in the game it sounds fun... Anyone know if the game is any good?
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