There has been a run on one of the largest banks in an economics-themed online role-playing game called Eve.  The event merited an article at the BBC.  The run was triggered when Ricdic, an executive of the bank made off with a large sum of virtual lucre and exchanged it for real-world cash.

Eve Online has about 300,000 players all of whom inhabit the same online universe. The game revolves around trade, mining asteroids and the efforts of different player-controlled corporations to take control of swathes of virtual space.

It has now emerged that Ricdic used the cash to put down a deposit on a house and to pay medical bills.

“I’m not proud of it at all, that’s why I didn’t brag about it,” Ricdic told Reuters. “But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would’ve chosen the same path based on the same situation.”

Apparently, the bank had tremendous reserves and has so far withstood the run.  Here is more information.  Either real-world bank regulators have something to learn from Eve or the other way around because here is Ricdic’s comeuppance:

Ricdic has now been thrown out of the game as trading in-game cash for real money is against Eve Online’s terms and conditions.

The rules governing play within Eve would not have sanctioned Ricdic if he had simply stolen the cash and used it in the game, nor if he had bought kredits with real dollars.

Fedora Flourish:  BoingBoing

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