JULY 3, 2009 • EVE Online suffered another scandal when 200 billion kredits were stolen from a player run financial institution, and later sold for $5,104. The heist was carried out by the bank’s chief executive, a 27 year-old Australian who needed the real-world money for a down payment on a house. Although stealing roughly 8% of the bank’s deposits was not against developer CCP’s end user agreement if the cash has been used in-game, selling it online for actual currency is, and the player has been expelled from the game.

Impact: This circumstance is another reason why EVE Online operates in an anomalous fashion compared to other MMOs. Outright in-game theft would not be tolerated by mainstream consumers, yet the niche EVE Online user base accepts their MMO is an anything-goes experience with some grumbling. The question is whether these players have a threshold for these kinds of shenanigans if they continue to occur.