1v1 EVE COMIC #61

click to embiggen

My fundamental problem with the recent iScorp issue, and one of the major reasons I struggled with it popping up like it did, goes back deeper than the issue itself. And I say this despite the fact that 3rd party "gambling" has contributed to various events that I have run in New Eden over the years. But I strongly believe that gambling is horribly wrong for Eve and that it should never have been allowed to flourish in the first place.

Much like paying for game time with real world money, gambling introduces a fundamental flaw into the virtual economic system which bonkers the in-game origination of value. A controlled, centralized system of economics is suddenly inundated with the out-of-control introduction of money from unknown sources. As in the real-world proliferation of the casino based tax mentality we've seen here in the United States, the initial reasons and benefits are used to sell thru the idea to the community. The reality of the situation is much more complex.

And while everyone rails against certain parties being the recipients of a few special ships, everyone is deflected from the true underlying horror that such institutions represent. And the long-term harm they are doing to the game we love. We are being distracted.

I have no access to data, but the numbers that I've seen bantered about by my fellow bloggers and on the forums are concerning. The vast accumulation of wealth by those responsible for these applications in simply mind-bottling*. And the long-term implications from an economic standpoint are increasingly serious. As more and more wealth is deposited in less and less hands. Does this sound at all familiar to anyone?

It should. And it should worry you.

Power is being sucked away from the individual players hands and slowly removed from the collected players hands as well. True economic weight is slowly being siphoned from in-game Alliance/Corporation control and into the hands of essentially un-regulated bankers.

And so, it is difficult to generate anger over a few ships when the fabric of New Eden, the future of the game itself, is being sold off under our feet.

Fair warning.


*This is a Will Ferrel line from the movie "Blades of Glory"