[MUD-Dev] Real money and virtual worlds

[Koster]

Yeah, it's inevitable. But look at the minefield that it is! This is
about Project Entropia, which allows conversion of real eorld cash
into in-game money--and back again. When I first heard of this
project, my first thought was "money laundering." Others, including
the authors of the summary I am about to post, thought "Ponzi
scheme." Instead, it turns out it's actually "great place to engage
in credit card fraud."

>From Waterthread.org:

start quote--->
  But not everything's quite so rosy in the lands of Calypso, thanks
  to a recent invasion of scammers seeking to beat MindArk at their
  own game. Using stolen credit cards to pour massive quantities of
  PED into the game, these unscrupulous individuals began running
  around in-game, purchasing rare weapons and equipment for
  outrageous sums of money from unsuspecting players who couldn't
  quite believe their luck. MindArk's response was as swift and
  decisive as that of any good mafia don protecting his business
  from hustlers: suspending all accounts involved and simply
  deleting every last PEC and item even remotely associated with the
  scam. As the ever-helpful Marco remarked at the time: "Those of
  you who with suspended accounts may notice alterations to your
  Avatar's inventory, made by MindArk. Items or money lost due to or
  because of interaction with scamming participants will not be
  returned or refunded."
  
  And lo and behold, another shitstorm began to stir. Why? Well,
  let's put this into relative terms: let's say you transfer twenty
  bucks into the game to get the 200 PED needed to slap together a
  suit of Fruity Transformers Reject Armor
  <http://www.waterthread.org/news/103005973885780.html>. Just as
  you're putting the finishing touches on the eye-watering ensemble,
  a nice, charming stranger strolls up to you and offers you 400 PED
  for the whole shebang. You, being rather of fond of earning large
  amounts of cash money, agree to the deal and pocket the 400 PED,
  pleased that you've managed to double your investment with so
  little effort. One day later, you log in to find your account
  frozen and your funds suspended, pending further investigation;
  when you finally are able to access your character again, there's
  a nice, empty hole in your wallet to the tune of 400 PED. Et
  voila!  Not only have you lost the money you earned on the sale,
  but you've also been fucked out of the twenty bucks you spent on
  the materials in the first place. MindArk is now twenty bucks
  richer, and you, good sir, are frankly a fucking idiot for putting
  your hard-earned money into this goddamn scam in the first place.
  
  It perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that after nearly
  one hundred posts' worth of bitching, the developers finally caved
  in and decided "to return those items that MindArk determines were
  part of the "scammer transactions" to the original owners. [...] 
  Items lost in any way in Project Entropia due to any type of scam
  are the responsibility of the participants, not MindArk. We do
  feel for the participants who got scammed and therefore, we are
  making an exception this time by returning the items." All right,
  so if somebody offers you 5,000 PED for a piece of shit rifle
  that's barely worth 5, blinking innocently with protestations of
  "How was I supposed to know he was using illegal currency?" ain't
  gonna wash. Simple as that. But are all scammers likely to be this
  obvious? Without a way to track an avatar's credit history, card
  details or other salient details, how is Jonny Scambait supposed
  to realise that the guy willing to buy his new Fireforge at market
  value is actually playing with a stolen card number? Is the only
  serious alternative just not to trade, period? Was anybody even
  thinking when they drafted this up, or were they too busy dreaming
  of the fat sacks of money they'd be scalping from their beta
  testers in a few weeks' time? In light of this, Waterthread.org
  thus heartily recommends that MindArk replace their cryptic
  guarantees "that one PED always is one PED" with a simpler,
  slightly more accurate statement: "Project Entropia: be psychic or
  be sorry."
<---end quote

-Raph

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