EVE Online Ponzi Scheme Nets $50k Worth of In-Game Currency 171
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."
Re:Every "investment" in EVE is a scam. (Score:5, Interesting)
Along the way, 345.18 billion ISK was paid out to investors as interest to make sure the scheme kept going. Another 452.72 billion was withdrawn by worried investors before the company shut down; that left 1,034 billion ISK in the hands of the company's owners.
I always wonder how many of these worried investors recognized the scheme for what it was right away, and decided to try and make some profit out of it themselves.
Re:It's fun when it's fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's fun when it's fiction (Score:3, Interesting)
The reason you are bored is because you aren't playing EVE yet. You are just playing in the baby area, with the toys we left there to keep the kids from pissing us off. I'm entirely serious. If you have been playing EVE for more than 6 months, and you haven't gotten involved in some form or another of PVP, then you are denying yourself the entire POINT of EVE. Not to whip out the old stereotypes, but carebearing has never really been the point of EVE, despite the fact that CCP recognizes it as a major contingent of the player base.
I've been playing EVE for a long time. (I'll spare you the self important listing of badassery). It seems to me that the reason EVE stands apart isn't its intricate market, or massive universe (although that helps), what really sets EVE apart is that you can actually BUILD something. I don't mean a space mining outpost attached to a moon like baby to a tit. I mean empires. I've seen more than a few come and go, and each one changed the landscape. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. There are entire periods of EVE history where massive portions of the player base were repressed by overly powerful empires. (Moo, for instance) But back to my point, EVE lets the players build an empire... and then, just like the real world, you have to defend it, expand it, make it righteous, or, if it should not stand, if it is not good enough you can tear it down.
That might sound overly romantic, because aren't we talking about spreadsheets in space? Maybe. I'm sure it's a matter of perspective. My perspective has been entertaining. I watched one man pull off a coupe and take down a 5k player alliance. Funny what putting the enemy jump scouts into your gang and opening a cyno can do. (and if you play eve and don't know what I mean, you are missing out)
I know not everyone wants to deal with the 'people' in EVE, and even less the alliance politics, but if you aren't involved, you'll never be intrigued, and you'll never have the fate of thousands resting on F1-F8. If you play the game, you should not deny yourself this experience.