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EVE Online Ponzi Scheme Nets $50k Worth of In-Game Currency
Calidreth writes "EVE Online is famous for its stories of theft, underhanded dealings, criminal empires and general unscrupulous play. For EVE players, this is generally an accepted part of the game and part of the risk players run. The type of scheme might be old, but the profits were big in the latest EVE Online scam, which has broken records and is now being called the biggest scam in the game's history."
regardless of how much real-world money the fraud was supposedly worth, it was all fictional money people basically invested for fun. Anyone treating a game as a serious investment has problems that the FEC can't fix.
I see this as a positive thing for EVE, because it underlies how the game is a kind of organized crime simulator all-the-more.
Looking at recent history it seems like they are very likely to fall for such a thing.
How is spending substantial sums of money on in-game items of no practical real-world value any different from spending substantial sums of money on real-world items of no practical real-world value?
Some people get as much enjoyment out of EVE as you might out of a month in the Bahamas. What makes them insane and you perfectly normal?
Social signaling.
Why do you buy $30 t-shirts with hilarious geeky in-jokes, when the 3-for-$5 pack of t-shirts are, functionally, identical?
Social signaling.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Every money making venture in Eve is scam. If it doesn't start out as one it turns into one when the pile of cash crosses a certain threshold.
There is no safe investment in Eve. We are all crooks.
I think the only reason these things continue to work is player churn.
I find being offended by me offensive.