Last week a number of our readers passed us word that "(t)he Bank You Can Trust" turned out to be yet another Eve-Online player scam - only recently revealed. Apparently an elaborate Ponzi scheme. A run-down of the elaborate behind-the-scenes plot is offered here. Slashdot picked up this story and offers much fervent comment. Yes, that place is full of ambivalent murk, piracy, and rich analogies to "No Laws Just Greed." Perhaps these are clear lessons of the need for transparency and regulatory structure in (virtual) worlds aspiring to grow deeper roots.
Oddly, I found myself returning to carp in winter and one NOOB's adventure with wolves...
Not too long ago someone handed us this link regarding one self-proclaimed 0.0 Eve-Online experiment:
A n00b plunges himself head first into the dark scary domain of 0.0 low security space in the MMORPG Eve Online, with only a keen sense of adventure to aid him in his merry quest. What will his exciting journeys through space hold in store for him?
Good reading material, though through the lens-of-this-curmudgeon the account feels fictionalized (I don't know this as fact). Nonetheless it does ring truthful in some of its larger themes. For example, finding honor among thieves and grudging community in small ponds.
A week ago my sons and I played mini-golf at a location featuring a carp pond. After querying we discovered that the carp in their shallow waters remained there through the winter (beneath ice). Conveniently, NewScientist.com reports this week that:
A drop in water temperature prompts the carp to store vast amounts of glycogen in their brains... This enables them to make the switch to anaerobic metabolism – which does not require oxygen – from February to April in the northern hemisphere.
Fascinating.
My wonder is this. What do those carp - the traders, miners, merchants, and manufacturers - in that rich place called Eve-Online do in their pond at winter? If everyone is scamming or a pirate can it still be lawful place or has it to be chaos (fn1)?
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fn1. See alignment from Dungeons and Dragons.
