The Bank You Can Trust
Eve-Online, a space-opera once described as "Icelandic with Calvinist overtones," proposes a more narrow virtual world experience than many: galactic-scale Player-versus-Player combat, a corporate regime and a deep economics game. Yet it is quite one thing to identify a niche, and quite another thing to be able to execute upon that niche. Somewhere in the calculus of success are good tools to enable players to manage themselves and their specialized interests...
In terms of the (near-) mainstream MMOG experience, Eve-Online provides amongst the most sophisticated in-game tools and mechanisms for engaging in, well, intergalactic trade in a player-driven economy. Thus it is no surprise that so much of the resulting player structure and experience revolve around these themes, for better or for worse (ref [1.] , [2.] , [3.] ).
Recently there has been press regarding a 3rd party bank serving players of Eve-Online. The Eve Intergalactic Bank is available to serve the in-game banking needs of galactic traders everywhere (ref. cover webpage, services they offer).
To an Eve-Online player, that you can earn interest and make large sums of ISKs (the in-game currency) work for you without having to engage in time-consuming and risky commodities trading is appealing. True, there is this detail about whether you can trust this bank, any 3rd party bank. And yes, Eve Intergalactic Bank probably doesn't help curmudgeons like myself feel comfortable with their operations when they say (fn1) "we will be taking (ISK) bets on pretty much anything that happens in the world of Eve and outside it." Yes, it seems like they will be entertaining wagers on the upcoming World Cup in Germany.
As in-game tools and services go, there are two ways to look at this glass. The half-empty view is that such 3rd party concoctions are imperfect. First, there is that nagging element of trust. Then there is another issue involving transparency (are they financing my enemies). The half-full view is that they are along the right path. Demonstrated is the viability of such institutions within the Eve-Online universe, with perhaps greater and better services just around the corner.
I see both points-of-view. My question is more basic. If I am earning ISKs rock-grinding and pirate-swizzeling in 0.0 to pay for World Cup bets who are the winners and losers: the Eve-Online universe, me, the World Cup, or all of us? Why or why not.
This story came via Steven Davis and GameSetWatch.
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fn1. Eve Intergalactic Bank Games, Posted by Cally, 24th May 2006, Press Release.
Ref. Eve-Online forum discussion (EIB).
Posted by Nate Combs on May 28, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
The winners are the bank's shareholders of course! ;)
When your shareholders, and others, can kill you at almost any time for any real or imagined slight it's much harder for the bank to do things the majority of players don't implicitly agree with.
The hatred of Macro Miners in eve has reached levels where sacrificing your ship to the police force in order to kill one gains you significant respect, if the bank acted in a way most players actively disagreed with it wouldn't last too long. Killing it would be much much easier than killing macro miners due to the game mechanics it uses to exist.
The question of whether the playerbase should disagree with it is harder to answer, players don't always make the decision that is best for the game. But if the majority of players vote themselves out of the magic circle it's hard to tell them they're wrong.
Posted May 28, 2006 8:54:17 PM | link
They just published a shareholders report yestarday :)
Posted May 29, 2006 6:56:36 AM | link
Besides Eve Intergalactic Bank there are some other quite interesting ventures:
An investement Fund (EvE MUTUAL FUND Inc.)
http://emfi.blogspot.com/
A credit bank (BIG Merchant Bank of EVE) with 96 bilion isks currently loaned
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=333283
http://82.147.248.98/BMBE/default.asp
A stock exchange(Eve Galactic Stock Exchange) where trusted brokers enable the safe transaction of shares between players
http://eve.hubau.be/index.php?page=exchange
Posted May 29, 2006 6:21:29 PM | link
Although the economic model in EVE is certainly more complex than other MMO's, the fundamental trust issue around banks remains. The game (as CCP has developed it to date) offers no analag for deposit insurance, so any venture labeled "bank" is probably more accurately labeled "high risk investment vehicle".
It would be interesting to know what percentage of "investors" in the EVE IGB have invested a substantial sum of their in-game wealth to the venture, and how many are tendering the equivalent of small change on the off chance it pans out (Gambling).
Some recent posts at the EVE Online forums support the notion that mature characters have amassed personal fortunes that run into the billions of ISK. Under this model, a few million (or few hundred million) ISK would be a relatively minor investment, though it might seem large from some perspectives.
Posted May 30, 2006 3:06:24 PM | link
Gerret, in a PvP universe, players should insure the deposits, not NPCs. The interesting thing to watch is whether players will organize to the extent that CCP can remove the NPC insurance "company" from the game.
Posted May 31, 2006 8:31:34 AM | link
Ken>> ..in a PvP universe, players should insure the deposits, not NPCs.
It's especially in EVE Online's PvP universe, where ganking, swindling, and scams are the order of the day, where I don't trust other players to do this for me. ;)
Posted May 31, 2006 10:32:03 AM | link
"It's especially in EVE Online's PvP universe, where ganking, swindling, and scams are the order of the day"
It's that which makes the successful businesses built on trust into real achievements. They're pioneers in a bleak world who have earnt their success.
Reputation and trust means a lot in Eve. The 'TRUST' alliance's neutral trade outpost was attacked because their neutrality was called into question (according to the conqueror's official statements anyway). TRUST wasn't trusted. Their outpost was handed over to the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate, who both TRUST and the conquerors believed to have a much greater neutral reputation.
Tens of billions of isk gets handed to the ISS by players from across Eve every time they announce they're going to build an outpost, with no promise of a return on the investment for months. They must have had over 100 billion isk of investments in their wallet at once recently as they built three outposts at once.
ISS could take that money and run at any point, but we trust them not to. I feel it's important that they /could/ run off with it, though. If you can't have untrustworthy business partners, there's no need for trustworthy ones.
Posted May 31, 2006 4:56:55 PM | link
Interesting. Gnomes tell me that perhaps some of these ventures are tapping into greater demand than they can handle. Eg. Eve Mutual Fund IPO is closed.
Not enough investment opportunities for the quantity of cash chasing 'em?
Posted May 31, 2006 8:20:09 PM | link
Yes, I think you're right nate about limited investment opportunities. The "bank" in the OP is really a manufacturing firm -- I don't think much, if any, of their income derives from money lending.
Posted May 31, 2006 9:59:31 PM | link
I think it does, I know they've lent someone 20B isk to buy a T2 BPO. This BPO is secured in their hanger to prevent him running off with it, he has had to join the corp to gain access to it.
He's paying back the 20B by building from it. I'm can't remember the total interest rate from memory but it's a significant amount of income.
I agree that theres too much cash chasing too little investment. I'm especially interested in the wider implications of this, a lot of MMOG economies only survive because of the huge amounts of cash taken out of circulation because players have nothing to do with it.
Posted Jun 1, 2006 5:09:31 AM | link
Of course, it was a scam.
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=381340
Posted Aug 20, 2006 9:11:22 AM | link
More specifically,
It was a scam by the principle. It was in large part a legitimate business with other people involved as well. He took them all for a ride.
Nearly 800 billion ISK worth of a ride.
Posted Aug 20, 2006 4:11:39 PM | link
