EVE Player Loses $1,200 Worth of Game Time In-Game 620
An anonymous reader writes "Massively.com has reported that an EVE Online player recently lost over $1,200 worth of in-game items during a pirate attack. The player in question was carrying 74 PLEX in their ship's cargo hold — in-game 'Pilot's License Extensions' that award 30 days of EVE Online time when used on your account. When the ship was blown up by another player, all 74 PLEX were destroyed in the resulting blast, costing $1,200 worth of damage, or over 6 years of EVE subscription time, however you prefer to count it. Ow."
ok i'll say it (Score:5, Insightful)
...and nothing of value was lost.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. Digital information can be destroyed with a click of a button. It's called backups, don't put all your eggs in one basket and backups.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, since these were paid for with real money and are basically "one month subscriptions" to the game they have as much value as any subscription to a service.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Funny)
It's a shame they blew up with the ship, if they'd dropped then we'd now be reading the headline "eve pirates legally steal $1200".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I see most MMOs as a race where they keep moving the finish line further away.
The only MMO I've really enjoyed was Guild Wars because anybody could make it to the endgame without sacrificing other areas of their lives. They have decent expansions and some groups raise a stink if you don't have certain ones on your account but you never feel like weeks worth of work was undone in an instant if you fail a mission. Once you "beat" the game you could spend time on upgrades or test out strategies in PvP and si
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Insightful)
Another nice thing of Guild Wars was that, if you spent two months building up your pimped-out sword-focused Warrior and suddenly decided axes looked kinda cool, all you had to do was to enter an outpost, take the points you spent on sword specialization and put them in axes rather than spend another two months building up *another* Warrior on your account from scratch, only this time with axes rather than swords.
But then again, Guild Wars has always been focused on 'casual' playing, preventing any 'hardcore' from gaining too much of an advantage over a casual player, while EVE goes pretty much the other way, pampering its hardcore playerbase and encouraging its casual players to become part of it, with PLEX are one of the main ways they do that. I'm not saying either approach is better, but they are different enough that it feels like an "apples vs oranges" comparison.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
CCP doesn't pamper its hardcore players. If anything, the hardcore players get the short end of the stick.
In Eve, there are no levels for characters. You can be as hardcore as you like, playing 14 hours a day, every single day, for 5 years. I can play an hour or two a week, with sometimes a week or more between logging on. After 5 years, you'll probably have a whole lot more cash than I do, but we'll be pretty close in skillpoints (depending on implants we each use and how much PvP you're doing to lose impl
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
One week is enough to grind your skills to do something useful. Maybe a couple of days would be enough, or maybe you could get useful with the original skills.
After all, a lowly frigate with a jump device interdictor is enough to pin down a battleship, and the big guns of a battleship are almost unusable against a small and agile target as a frigate. True, you'd only be the tackler and not dish any damage, but you'd be as important as the people doing the shooting.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, I see what you did there.
Lazy
A word used by the obsessed to describe the sane.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Eve doesn't have an "endgame". It's a sandbox where you can do what you want (and so can everyone else) limited only by what features exist within the game mechanics. If the game mechanics are working correctly, CCP doesn't care what you do or how you do it. The nice thing is that there's essentially no "power leveling" and a week-old player could potentially kill someone who's been playing for many years (and not "potentially" in the winning-the-lottery sense either, but in the getting-the-ball-in-the-cup-
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:5, Funny)
I "beat" EVE Online on day zero.
My goal was to never play that game.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Funny)
By the time you got 80% of the universe together in one big united alliance, people in that alliance would get bored and double-cross like crazy, stealing everything not bolted to the deck plating along the way.
Sounds like what you really need is a proper reign of terror. Blow up a few civilian planets at random to set an example, that'll keep the rest of them in line.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Digital information can be destroyed with a click of a button. It's called backups, don't put all your eggs in one basket and backups.
That has basically no relevance to this story.
The ship was carrying PLEXes. They're in-game items representing a one month subscription. You purchase them with real money, and get an in-game item, that you can then sell for in-game money.
This allows people to fund their EVE addition without having to pay real money.
It allows people with lots of real money to burn to get lots of in-game money to burn.
And there is absolutely no way to make a backup of a PLEX.
No, it isn't very smart to carry all 74 of them with you at one time. You certainly shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. But you cannot create a backup.
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Informative)
However there is also no need to ever undock with one PLEX never mind 74. You can apply them to you account (ie use the item to add 30 days to your subscription) from anywhere in the game. Yes he dies trying to get to the main trading hub in the game however he could have gone to any other station in the system and had no problems. Also he was an absolute fool for flying in a very fragile ship when another group had declared war on him (thus was able to be attacked even in the main trading hub system without interference).
Kithran
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:5, Insightful)
However there is also no need to ever undock with one PLEX never mind 74.
You've made one error here - prices can vary by location, and buying/selling is location sensitive.
I'm not arguing about anything else, he definitely acted the fool - but still.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There is _NO_ excuse to even UNDOCK while carrying 22 billion ISK worth of cargo in a kestrel* during a wardec** (or even when you're not, as we have suicide ganks), in Jita*** of all places.
The guy and his alliance is now the laughingstock of EVE, and the alliance he led probably won't survive losing pretty much their whole ISK reserve.
* Kestrel; noob frigate that goes pop if you stare too hard at it.
** Wardec; one corp declares officially sanctioned war against another, being able to shoot without retalia
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly. Digital information can be destroyed with a click of a button.
Nowadays, lives [slashdot.org] are destroyed in the exact same manner, albeit with no backup strategy.
All your eggs... (Score:2)
Never keep all your... ...PLEX in one cargo hold ...Eggs in one basket
Don't spend real money on fake crap.
All your PLEX are belong to us.
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, who would possibly think that moving that many plex in one go is a good idea?
Re: (Score:2)
Can someone explain why it is at all sensible to carry around game subscriptions--paid with real money--as in-game cargo?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Primarily, because they can be traded in-game. It's essentially an approved way of paying for just about anything you might want to pay for in-game using real money. Instead of going through other channels (ebay, etc.) you just buy game time, convert it to PLEX, and trade the PLEX in-game.
It's beneficial to the players because it reduces the likelihood of scams--you pay CCP Games for the PLEX, and you trade it using in-game mechanisms. It's beneficial to CCP because they essentially get cuts out of every
What this guy did wrong (Score:5, Informative)
2. He couriered something while he was at war with another corporation.
3. He did not set up an instant warp bookmark for exiting the station.
4. He did not put a cloak on this ship.
5. He was in Jita. The biggest trade hub in the game. He did not have to pick up plex there.
6. There is no six (Monty Python and Eve University reference).
Re:All your eggs... (Score:4, Interesting)
In EVE, isk are currency. PLEXes are valuable commodities. They're about as good as in-game currency, and to heavy EVE players they're almost as good as real currency.
Just like some transactions IRL you can make in gold, stock, bonds, beer, or whatever you can get plenty of people to take PLEXes as payment in the game. Still, you can buy and sell PLEXes for isk.
Some players buy PLEXes with IRL currency and sell it for isk or trade it for other stuff in-game. Some players play enough and make enough in-game profit that they buy PLEXes in-game and don't pay real money for their subscriptions, at least not every month. Those are the players CCP wants to keep around anyway, as they make the high-level PvP game interesting for the other players.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hm, not so sure about that. Up until recently, PLEXes were immovable -- you couldn't undock with one in your hold. However, if you owned a PLEX, you could use it (apply game time to your account) no matter where it was located.
To use your example, all you'd have to do is contract the PLEXes to the other player. Private contracts can be accepted even if both parties are in different regions. The buyer can then use the PLEXes when convenient.
One reason (perhaps the only reason?) to move a PLEX is for arbitrag
Meme over (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one of the more condescending and snotty memes out there, like "FTFY" it exists only to mock. Basically it is saying "I militantly don't care about this, and neither should you." Value is a funny thing, by definition it means whatever you want it to mean. There is no 'value' outside of the human mind. In your own mind, you are the absolute master of value, you can place whatever valuation you like on anything you like. So, when you say "Nothing of value was lost" All you are saying is that nothing you value was lost. Which is likely just as true of, oh say, those floods in Pakistan, nothing you value was lost.
But obviously, these PLEX were valuable to quite a few people, not to mention a gaming company.
I think that's the point (Score:3, Insightful)
The point is to be condescending. What the grandparent is saying basically is "EVE is a stupid game and you waste your time playing it."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Should that viewpoint be applied to any/all video games then? Should ./ not post a video game story?
Especially in the games section. I mean, wtf?!
Re:Meme over (Score:5, Funny)
Not any more than usual. I don't play EVE or other online games, so it's not personal in that sense. It's just that overvaluing goofy things that other people don't is pretty much the definition of being a geek. I'd hazard a guess that most people here are pretty obsessively into something that most normal people would consider "nothing of value."
The meme is basically a slight against all geek-kind.
Not all geek kind. Just those specific geeks that are slightly different from us. :P
I play Warcraft so I'm NOTHING like them
Re:Meme over (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just that overvaluing goofy things that other people don't is pretty much the definition of being a geek.
Ah, like sports geeks, and beer geeks, and dance geeks...
Maybe "overvaluing goofy things that other people don't" is the definition of being human.
Re: (Score:2)
Nice of you to pay to be here, Coppertop
Re:ok i'll say it (Score:4, Informative)
While I generally agree and would tell this guy "tough shit, should have been more careful, but it's only a game", I wouldn't say nothing of value was lost. These items do have a value which directly translates to a USD amount. So it is definitely arguable that they have a "real world value". Even if it was just ISK or another in game currency. Alternate currencies are legal and still have a real value. I think it would be interesting to see what a court would say on this. For example, if somebody had been in some way been defrauded out of $1200 worth of in-game items. Fraud is a crime, and it does not only apply to a US Dollar; it applies to any item or items of value. I would suspect most judges would throw the case out, as taking on a case like this could open the floodgates.
I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever played EVE
Eve's ToS specifically states that all in-game objects (including ISK, PLEX, etc) belong to CCP. This is the basis upon which CCP bans those who sell OR buy ISK and other game items outside CCP-sanctioned venues. As such, it's a legally difficult argument to make that the virtual objects or ISK have any real-world value since nobody could (per the ToS) pay any real-world money to get them from you. In the eyes of CCP (via their ToS), what happened here was that two players used established and functional in-game mechanics to cause the destruction of in-game objects belonging to CCP. The person who owns the account has no firm basis to bring a suit because they received what they purchased from CCP (access to the in-game PLEX objects) and the person lost those objects via well-known and well-documented game mechanics.
CCP gave them access to the objects (which is what they paid for) and through a series of events initiated by their own actions, those objects were destroyed. If I rent a car from Enterprise for a week and I blow it up with explosives on day three, I don't get to sue Enterprise for fraud because I paid for 7 days' use of a car that no longer exists because I blew it up.
Question for EVE players (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there a reason an out of game object is stored within the game like this? Can you buy them in the game?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If I remember right (and it's been a while) you can buy PLEX in game for real cash, and then exchange it in game for game cash. It's a way of A) Allowing players to exchange real money for in game money, and B) Allow players to buy their subscription using only in game money (without upsetting their finances because someone at some point paid for it).
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting... it almost sounds like a 'gift card' type situation, in which case there are some fairly decent consumer protection laws depending on the state (ie, in CA they are transferable and never expire). It would be an interesting lawsuit if the player tried to claim they were equivalent and that by allowing them to be permanently "destroyed" the company was cancelling/expiring the certificates (though I doubt any lawyer would take it unless it was common enough that they were able to establish a class action).
Re: (Score:2)
I can't see how it could be considered a gift card. They have no physical monetary value once you buy them (only in-game value), and you can't pull real cash back out from it in any form. It's just another in-game item (that happens to be capable of giving you 30 days of play time)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Allowing players to exchange real-world money for in-game money:
The current rate is (roughly) $35 -> 2x 30day PLEX -> 560 million isk. 560 million isk will get you 4-5 fully equipped and fitted battleships, or halfway to a equipped and fitted capital ship. Amusingly, as with any real-world currency conversion, exchange rates vary minute to minute, based on the current buy and sell orders on the market.
Allow players to
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever play arcade games? Remember how you got free games if you did well enough? This is that, but you can trade your quarters in-game just like you trade any other game item.
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:5, Informative)
You can buy PLEX (Pilots license extension) in game. This means that elite players that have spent the time developing the skills to make a lot of in game money no longer have to pay to play the game. It's a good system I think, rewards the hardcore fans.
Anyways, if you buy it in game - it would have to have been sold at a station, and the system is set up that you can't take PLEX outside of a station (or at least thats how it was about 3 months ago).
So - this guy would have actually had to have bought the time codes from an online retailer, activated them while in his ship while in space - and not in the safety of a station where he could have used them. It's likely he wanted to check the best prices in verse for plex and then sell them for massive in game profit - however he activated them before reaching that destination (74 plex codes CAN take a while to enter).
It's all foolishness in my eyes - I don't have any qualms with people who want to pay for in game money - be it ISK or WoW Gold or whatever. Eve at least balances it so that if you WANT to buy in game money, the PLEX is a solid and secure way of doing it, and its pretty steady based on the market of the game, and the real world value of Plex is always constant, whatever CCP says it is ($40 for 2 plexes or whatever?).
However, this idiot basically circumvented every provision designed to stop this from happening. Had he been docked at a station this would have been impossible.
Re: (Score:2)
"It's a good system I think, rewards the hardcore fans."
Isn't that a bad system? The hardcore fans are the ones most likely to keep paying you cash money. Letting your best market off for free is a good way to turn down revenue.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Someone has to pay real money for the PLEX before they can sell it to the hardcore player buys for fake money.
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:4, Informative)
Anyways, if you buy it in game - it would have to have been sold at a station, and the system is set up that you can't take PLEX outside of a station (or at least thats how it was about 3 months ago).
A recent patch a few weeks ago opened up the ability for PLEX to be transported by ship. CCP thought that would be a good idea to allow players more control of their items and I would have to agree with them. It's helpful for those who live deep out in 0.0 and would rather buy PLEX from a corp-mate than have to travel back into the Empire systems.
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:4, Informative)
Well its pretty silly if you ask me - considering you can create 3 characters - you can leave one of them in high sec space to deal with PLEX if you want, without having to take your low level toon out of low sec space.
It was really a non-issue before, I don't know why anyone would have wanted it any other way. I guess it just opens itself to these kinds of stories. Because PLEX is negligable in cargo space - you can put infinite amount on a cargo ship and move them around now.
You could have some fool moving over a million dollars worth of in game plex and have them get blown up - and theres only chance that any of the loot is recoverable - meaning 1 Million dollars worth of money ends up in CCP's pockets without anyone gaining anything out of it.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
meaning 1 Million dollars worth of money ends up in CCP's pockets without anyone gaining anything out of it.
Now why would CCP allow that to happen?
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, a recent update changed them so that you can undock with them in your cargo.
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:4, Interesting)
You can now undock with PLEX. The player didn't buy them with real money - he was the direction of an alliance and was using the alliance's pocketbooks for a "get rich quick" market speculation.
Of course, undocking with an active wardec going on with hostiles present in the local system and no defenses are chance at getting out...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You can now undock with PLEX. The player didn't buy them with real money - he was the direction of an alliance and was using the alliance's pocketbooks for a "get rich quick" market speculation.
Of course, undocking with an active wardec going on with hostiles present in the local system and no defenses are chance at getting out...
Not to mention he was in a kestral. It's not a beginner ship, it just one of the next ones up. Just plain stupid of a move.
Re: (Score:2)
According to the article, they made a change last month to allow them to be transported.
Last month, CCP announced changes to allow PLEX to be transported in a ship's cargo. This meant that if a ship was transporting pilot's licenses when it was destroyed, the killers could literally find game time codes in amongst the loot. Last night, players from Method Of Destruction corporation became the first to prove just how dangerous it can be to transport PLEX in a ship's cargo hold. After scanning the cargo of a lone Kestrel in Jita, "slickdog" and "Viktor Vegas" discovered that the ship was carrying a whopping 74 PLEX. Unfortunately for the trigger-happy duo, all 74 were destroyed when they blew the ship up.
So this was all by design. Interesting form of gambling.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You should read this: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=776 [eveonline.com]
PLEX Rules CHANGED. Your info is outdated/wrong (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've never actually played, but I recall that you can earn game time while playing.
Re: (Score:2)
Now CCP makes even more money as every time code destroyed is free money in their pocket.
Re: (Score:2)
CCP recently re-introduced the mechanic for moving these items around after a long hiatus of being completely unable to do so; however, there really isn't any reason to (especially not $1200 worth.
Once you purchase the item with real cash, you must then go to someplace which is a) perfectly safe and b) where the item can be sold; you can then 'redeem' the item, causing it to appear in the game world. While moving them between
Re: (Score:2)
Yes you can buy them in game. But why anyone would fly them around instead of using them up on station is beyond me. And then transporting them in a fragile ship like a Kestrel... :-))))
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. There is a secondary market for them in the game. It's a common method for converting real currency to in-game items (or converting game items/currency for an item of real-world value, if you want to look at it that way).
I say, boo-hoo. Other items lost/destroyed in raids have been worth far more than this measly $1200. What's interesting about it is that it represents pure profit for the owners of the game. Someone paid real money for those items, now they're gone fo
Re:Question for EVE players (Score:4, Insightful)
> Is there a reason an out of game object is stored within the game like this?
My guess is because it increases the profits of CCP.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
EVE is rather harsh on idiots ;)
I'm pretty sure that was CCP's justification for letting people undock with PLEXes in their cargo. If you're smart, you won't do it!
Time to call Guido (Score:2)
hope that guy can shoot first....
Sheesh! (Score:4, Funny)
I thought Ultima Online was unforgiving back in the day...jeebus.
EVE is the dickhead MMO (Score:3, Insightful)
It is designed specially for people who love to make others miserable. It is a griefer's paradise. One of the main things would be the destructibility of so much in the game that takes so much time to get. You can lose nearly everything under the right circumstances. It would be like a single player game that goes and deletes your saves if you screw up. Also there's a real caste type system in that it takes real time to increase skills, as in you set the game to increase a skill and after a fixed amount of
Re:EVE is the dickhead MMO (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, or I could say that WoW is for dull idiots who love to simply click a button endlessly til a virtual candy pops out, while EVE is for those that prefer having a simulation of real-world economies, with all the risks and opportunities it entails, in a virtual world.
In short, don't be so fucking biased with your descriptions, if you couldn't get into EVE it doesn't mean it's just for "griefers" and people who "derive their pleasure from causing pain to others".
Disclaimer: I don't play either of them and prefer Guild Wars instead, its just I've enough common sense not to offend people just because they don't play my favorite game.
Re:EVE is the dickhead MMO (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:EVE is the dickhead MMO (Score:5, Interesting)
He's absolutely right, though. I've played WoW before and I've played many other games. I play Starcraft 2 (and have throughout the Beta). No other game has ever gotten my heart racing like Eve. No other game has ever gotten my adrenaline and fight-or-flight instincts so pumped up like Eve. In Eve, I jump from one system to another, I could be killed on sight. Maybe there's nothing there. Maybe some absolutely irresistable target will be just sitting there waiting for me. Maybe that irresistable target will be a trap. Will the fleet I'm in fly to this player-owned station and destroy it? Or will there be a fleet three times our size sitting there waiting for us when we get there? Will our trap work to kill off enemy targets? Or will they flood ships in where we only have seconds to try and escape? Will I play my part correctly? Or will my mishap kill off a dozen friends?
When actual, serious loss is involved (as opposed to simply re-appearing elsewhere fully or mostly intact), and you actually care about what you could be losing, it's easy to find a physiological rush coming over you in dangerous situations. That risk, that uncertainty, causing adrenaline jolts to surge through you makes it more worth the subscription cost than anything else.
I can get excited about a new game like Starcraft 2. I can be happy about playing it. But I'll never never have the rushes and highs of Eve while playing a game with a 'reset' button.
Re:EVE is the dickhead MMO (Score:5, Interesting)
We like a challenge. When I take my favorite ship into combat there's a substantial risk of losing it. Higher risks make the rewards of victory that much sweeter.
Yawn. If you really thought there was a 'substantial risk of losing it' you wouldn't take it out, unless you already had a backup that was nearly as good, if not better, or enough isks lying around that you could afford to lose it.
Higher risks make the rewards of victory that much sweeter.
Indeed. I'm no stranger to risk, I've played EVE, I played Diablo2 online "Hardcore" (permadeath) with level 85+ characters in Hell (and not just safe hillz runs) and I lost them time and again, along with piles of difficult/impossible to replace sets, uniques, and rares.
I played Everquest on Rallos Zek - with open PVP and the ability to loot opponents. I played Asheron's call on DarkTide with open PVP and opponent looting. I'm certainly no 'pussy' when it comes to risk.
In all of these games, when there is conflict, its almost always extremely one-sided. Few combats are between remotely balanced forces. And most of the time group-A knows it can't lose, while group-B knows it can't win and just wants to escape... and if its stuck around to fight its because it CAN'T escape. Nearly all combat in EVE falls into this category.
The trouble with EVE is that despite this potential adrenalin shot... EVE is still 99% tediously and drearily dull spreadsheet reading with a terrible UI and a lousying colour scheme and font. Interesting combat is rare.
Real competition is hard to find... if you want to go get blown up, that's easy, just wander off alone. But if you want to have a good fight? Good luck finding it in eve... anybody worth fighting will run if you outmatch them, or your group will flee from a group that outmatches you. Close-fights? Sure they happen... but its rare.
All the EVE advcotes will boast about how they aren't pussies, and how they love risk and a challenge. But they only love risk and challenge when they are heavily favored to win. What do they do when a stronger force shows up? They run away. God forbid they actually fight something that might beat them. Of course, this is the 'intelligent' thing to do in EVE, so you can't fault them.
IF anything it just shows how stupid eve is. Its called a greifer paradise because that's what the mechanics have dictated it must be. The game rewards preying on the weak, and brutally punishes standing up for yourself when outmatched. And a fair fight? Best to avoid those as much as possible too, as the risk of losing is great.
Get involved in 4 or 5 fair fights and there is an overwhelming chance you'll lose at least once. And you only need to lose once to wipe out any profit you might have made from the other 4.
Eve is a tediously slow game, punctuated by the occasional one-sided combat. Now and again you'll come away victorious from a difficult fight... or perhaps just escape a fight you shouldn't have, and this 'victory' will sustain you through the next patch of tedium.
I normally love games with risk and consequence. I still think eve is a waste of time.
So in other words... (Score:5, Funny)
Brilliant (Score:2)
By making extensions like that items, EVE has made it possible that people could literally pay for nothing.
Send more rodians! (Score:4, Funny)
Ouch. (Score:2)
Wow, that seems pretty harsh. It's one thing to destroy in-game things that took time to build, and call that a loss of the real-world assets that you had to spend in order to build those objects. But to create a game such that your future assets are vulnerable to in-game attack is really too harsh. It's as though in Street Fighter II you could execute a special move that would decrement your opponents' Credits, instead of their health meter.
Re: (Score:2)
Piracy in space! (Score:5, Funny)
Is there a killmail? (Score:2)
massively is blocked where i'm at. Is there a link to the killmail?
Re: (Score:2)
http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7309710 [eve-kill.net]
Good Summary (Score:2)
The summary spells out what a PLEX is, so I did not have to google PLEX. Geddit? Ha.
gift card laws? (Score:2)
This may fail under them and the lost ones may have to be given back to him.
Re: (Score:2)
How is this a gift card? It's just an in-game item redeemable for game time, that you are capable of paying for cash with. You can't take cash back out.
Remember Rule #1 (Score:3, Funny)
If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times:
First pillage, _then_ burn.
Wrong summary (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't a "pirate attack", it was a sanctioned war in a trade hub where hundreds of players are on at any time and it's difficult to spot war targets in local.
Also the PLEX cards survived, but to stop scavengers that are all over the trade hubs the wreck was immediately destroyed.
Quite the red-letter day.
Re:Wrong summary (Score:4, Informative)
No, the killmail is API verified and the PLEX were not dropped. The article even states it: "Unfortunately for the trigger-happy duo, all 74 were destroyed when they blew the ship up."
http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7309710
For those that are new to looking at killboards, bellow the picture of the ship is a list of all the items equipped to the ship and in its cargo hold. Green items survived the destruction of the ship, the others did not.
New headline (Score:3, Insightful)
The right headline for this article is, "CCP takes $1200 from subscriber."
I'm trying to imagine if Blizzard created a World of Warcraft monster that could eat your monthly subscription if it killed you. Players would be furious, and accuse Blizzard of stealing from them. By setting up the system so that PLEX can be destroyed, CCP is doing the same thing.
But in the cutthroat capitalism uber alles world of EVE, it's all part of the game.
This is just one isolated incident, but I assume ships carrying small quantities of PLEX get destroyed all the time. Can anyone estimate how much real money CCP earns from this?
wat? (Score:2)
CCP? ISK? PLEX? Can someone maybe translate this into English? Or at least give some sort of three line tutorial so those of us who've never ventured into the game can at least know what's going on. That article is clearly written for people who play the game regularly. If you want me to be indignant, angry, belligerent, uncaring, etc. about it I'd like to at least understand what's going on.
Help?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
ISK is an in-game currency. PLEX is an in-game object you can buy with millions of ISK or 15-20 real-life dollars, and which you can redeem for game play time. Actual EVE players: amirite?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
ISK: In-game currency
PLEX: Pilot License Extension. It's basically an in-game item that can be redeemed for a month's subscription. People basically buy them from CCP for real money and sell them for in-game money. A legitimate way of buying in-game currency that is sanctioned by CCP
He was an IDIOT! (Score:5, Informative)
No one even needs to move the PLEX, you can use them from ANYWHERE (i.e. you do not have to be in the same station as the item, or even in the same region of space, to convert the PLEX into play time on your account). The person moving them was an idiot for doing so. The only reason to move them is so that they are closer to you so you can more easily sell them in the game for in-game money (which is also the main reason to convert them from an ETC to PLEX in the first place).
Isk amount? (Score:2)
The article is blocked for me, but how much ISK does this convert to? Last I remember one PLEX was something like 300million ISK?
Sounds familiar... (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds familiar. Bond movie plot?
This is sort of like robbing Fort Knox with a nuclear weapon.
The idea isn't so much to take the loot, but to destroy it and in the process make your OWN all that more valuable.
If Viktor and slickdog are PLEX dealers, this might actually work in their favor. Well...judging by their mugshots, they probably just blew up the most money they will ever see.
Or...maybe slick and vik are CCP employees with a specific task. Gives the term "corporate raiders" a whole new meaning.
Ah! The wonders of Alternate Universes! The Drama!
Re: (Score:2)
The account wasn't attacked. It was an in-game happening that cost out-of-game money, apparently.
Re:This stuff matters (Score:5, Informative)
This wasn't a hack. This was a legitimate in game activity (essentially just an in-game PvP attack) which caused the destruction of cargo worth real world money.
Re: (Score:2)
I think with 'pirates' they meant the players in this virtual world that belong to some type of real 'pirate' faction intent on hijacking goods from other ships and destroying stuff for their own benefits. Kinda like having your base camp Zerg rushed in StarCraft.
Not A Hack (Score:2)
The items destroyed, so called 'plex', are purchased with real money. A player may either trade in plex for game time or sell them to other players for game money. When selling plex it is advantageous to place the items on the market near likely buyers. This creates incentive to move the items around as cargo in ships.
Ships can be attacked by other players in Eve. If the victim happens to be carrying a few grand worth of plex then so be it; they are forfeit. No hacking involved.
Until recently (1-2
Destroyed...by design? (Score:2)
OK, no hack, just an "unfortunate in-game action." However, what is stopping the game designers from coding it so such valuable cargo has less chance of surviving an attack? In this case, the pirates saw the loot before they attacked, and hoped they could scoop it after destroying the cargo ship. What if the game was designed to trash the $$$ so it couldn't be recovered?
Did Wally just decide to "write himself a new minivan?"
Re: (Score:2)
Next on
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. Everything was done within the rules of the game. And further more, from my read of the article, it was not $1,200 from an individual player but a collection of credits totaling $1200.
It could have actually been 1200 dollars, but they probably spent 22 billion isk pooled from the alliance. Still a hefty bit and what it actually means is that CCP was given 1200 dollars because without those PLEX cards someone will end up buying another.
This was inevitable once CCP announced they would allow people to undock with PLEX cards, but no one could have forseen it would be so soon and so hilarious.
Re: (Score:2)
No money changed hands. Cops have no jurisdiction.
Re: (Score:2)
They should made so the only way to lose it was trade or useing it for time this opens the door for the law to come in and for real world jails and courts for in game stuff.
Nothing here was done illegally. Odd design and user oversight combined to create the situation at hand. Read TFA.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No. That is not something they should ever do.
This is not WoW.
This is not a game for pussies.
This is not a game for you to play so don't try to change it so it is.
This is a game where getting killed HURTS, especially if you've not used any of the mitigation methods and safe practices that you should have used.
The only reason I even started playing EVE was because its not a pussied out game where you basically do nothing but grind and even death has no real loss to it.
You do not want to die in EVE. You los
Re:They should made so the only way to lose it was (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not a game for pussies.
This is not a game for you to play so don't try to change it so it is.
People keep writing this. Let me get this straight. EVE is not a game for pussies. So it's a game for toughguys? Given the choice between categorizing players of a sci-fi MMO as toughguys or pussies, I'm forced to go with pussies. You're playing an MMO for crying out loud, you're not engaging in street fighting.
I think the term you EVE toughguys are looking for is "casual player" not "pussy". But whatever makes you feel tough about playing a SCI-FI MMO. From what I hear, EVE is for pussies and UO or Lineage are for toughguys. You see what I did there?
Re: (Score:2)
this opens the door for the law to come in and for real world jails and courts for in game stuff.
How? The fact that the guy paid for the cargo with real money doesn't change anything.
The rules of the game weren't even broken, let alone the law.
Re: (Score:3)
This guy did this in "empire space" which is supposed to be safe if you are not at war. However the two guys who got him, scanned his cargo, saw what he had, and suicide attacked him, because the amount of the cargo was worth getting blown up by the games AI (penalty for attacking in empire).
I believe they were actually at war, making Aystra's decision making skills even more suspect.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)