EVE Online Seizes $620,000-worth of In-game Currency
Posted on: November 1, 2016, 04:00h.
Last updated on: November 1, 2016, 03:18h.
The maker of EVE Online, the massive multiplayer online (MMO) platform, is believed to have seized an estimated $620,000 of?in-game currency as part of its crackdown on gambling, according to Polygon.com.
Several weeks ago, CCP Games announced changes to its new End User License Agreement would establish a zero-tolerance on the trading of in-game goods or currencies via third-party sites.
The announcement was intended to put an end to the proliferation of independent gambling websites that do a brisk trade in offering games of chance using the main game currency, ISK.
The move echoed that of fellow games developer Valve, which recently tried to shut down the multi-billion dollar gambling industry that had grown up around the designer weapons in its popular first-person shooter, Counter Strike:Global Offensive.
The weapons, known as “skins,” are attainable in the game but with varying degrees of rarity, which enables them to have varying financial value ascribed to them.
Epic Alliances
The fact that players were able to transfer skins to third-party sites for the purposes of engaging in lottery style games and esports betting, landed Valve in hot water, and it was forced to act after it found itself the subject of at least two lawsuits accusing it of facilitating underage gambling.
But for all the controversy surrounding skins and the third-party gambling sites, at least they didn’t fund a virtual intergalactic war, as was the case with EVE Online.
EVE Online allows players to explore a virtual galaxy composed of 7,800 star systems, while trading, mining, engaging in piracy and forming alliances along the way.
The galaxy and its half-a-million-plus subscribers are all supported on one server and, with so many players, the alliances formed, and the resulting wars, can be epic. ? ?
Intergalactic War Funded by Gambling
When one such alliance, The Imperium, had become too strong for some tastes, upsetting the power balance within the game, one gambling site, I Want ISK, decided to bankroll a war funded entirely by mercenaries, paid with ISK that were profits from the site.
Needless to say, The Imperium was vanquished and a restless peace was restored to the galaxy when the faction was banished from the northern part of the map.? ?
CCP’s actions are more likely to be related to external pressure from authorities than a wish to punish I Want Isk for its warmongering, although it has specifically banned player accounts closely related to the site, as well as and seizing its in-game assets.
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Last Comments ( 12 )
Needless to say, The Imperium was vanquished and a restless peace was restored to the galaxy when the faction was banished from the northern part of the map. Excuse me we're still here ... Get your facts right moron
not in the north though, don't you even know where you live?
We're not vanquished and there are still Imperium members in the north. #getyourfactsright
This is like explaining world war 2 by saying "some German guy hated Jews".
In-game currency problem? gtfo. CCP didn't give two fucks about this for the last 10+ years so why now? And don't preach "morality." No one that plays EVE gives a fuck about morality, we cut each other down for the shits and giggles of it. A war was funded by gamling... so? In a game were ISK, ships, and numbers equal power, how do you compete against the alliances that have that in no short abundance? Oh, you don't? GG.
If you take grudges outside of EVE you are part of the problem.
Get that noise out of here. This game promotes that mentality, period. In game or inside, makes no difference. As long as we're cutting each other down, CCP should be content and stay the fuck out of it, like they always have.
"Stay the fuck out of it" You do realise its their game right?. And on it doesn't promote people being Immoral. Its a fucking game get the fuck over it Anthony, you seem to just have a serious fucking problem with people having opinions that differ from your own.
That's now the case at all, stupid fuck. CCP has always had a hands off approach. Let me say it again so you can't misconstrued this. CCP has ALWAYS had a HANDS OFF approach when it came to almost everything about this game. Question now, and was before you started being stupid, is why would they start caring now? They don't care if players make it their job to harassment people non-stop in game, why would they care if it's happening outside of the game now? 10+ years is a long time to play the role of passive just to start cracking down hard all of a sudden.
Holy fuck you are salty over people not even related to you being banned. Also if you are so obscenely angry about this go ask them yourself rather than ranting at someone who you don't know and doesn't give a shit about you.
Ugh, just have a good one bro.
Long live caldari