EVE Online Auto-bill mistake costs users $300,000 in real money - Ouch!

[jstep7262]

"EVE Online" — with more than 500,000 players from around the world piloting starships, trading goods and engaging in galactic espionage — utilizes its own in-game currency, and Carl expects the damage from Monday's conflict to be the game equivalent of about $300,000 in real-world cash, based on data compiled from within the game.

During Monday's encounter, more than 100 Titan vessels were destroyed. The megaships, which are akin to the Death Star from "Star Wars," are the largest ships in the game and are worth about $3,000 each in real-world money. The Titans also take months for gamers to build. That's months in real time: a lot of nights, weekends and days-off actually spent constructing the virtual warships.

I thought that this was pretty funny, actually. So, my understanding is that this was like a giant raid that went very, very wrong and destroyed a lot of items that players had owned? I've only ever played WoW, so I'm unfamiliar with how EVE Online works. Anybody care to enlighten me?

Source: FOX News

 

[Obsidian]

I never played it either but what's different here is the amount of time and money people sink into it, and the amount of people that can enter any single battle. You don't join a lobby, you join a battle that's been going on for perhaps months in real time.

Apparently it started because a faction forgot to pay rent on a planet or something, enabling others to try and muscle in and it got nasty. Which, if nothing else, proves that even online landlords can be dicks.

 

[Mikey Paine]

Yeah, I saw that this giant battle was happening. I saw it on reddit, I think.

Really makes me want to try EVE, but I don't have money to throw around right now. I bet I'm not the only one wanting to try EVE after this happened.

 

[Dieselkerr]

IGN said it was $200K today on youtube.

Is this one of those stories that it'll go higher every time you hear it. lol.
I still think it's a bit sad this much money got lost, even if it was half of the amount suggested. I bet the developers are laughing all the way to the bank.
And it was a debt that wasn't paid on time & a war broke out, 70 titan ships were destroyed. So IGN said.

 

[daimashin]

Kind of awesome when you think about it. It's just like a real life battle, war costs money and this is what happens when factions clash with each other. The $300,000 might as well be collateral damage in this case.

 

[The Unlosing Ranger]

EVE online sure as hell is more than a simple game, this is insane!