The Imperium has been a dominant force in EVE Online for years, but the IWantISK virtual casino funded a war to end its hegemony.
In the “persistent-world” massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called EVE Online, a virtual casino is bankrolling a vast interstellar war. Headlines from the game’s latest events are surreal, include a title sure to get attention: “Online Casino Stars a War”.
The head of the online casino was anonymous at first. Now, he’s beginning to get attention in the gaming media, and recently granted an interview with the video game news website, Polygon. It turns out the head of the virtual casino is named Joe, instead of his more famous username LennyKravitz2. Joe lives in Georgia.
About EVE Online
EVE Online was created 13 years ago by an Icelandic gaming software design firm called CCP. The game was designed to have an additional level of realism to it, well beyond most MMORPGs. Players take on professions which exist in a science fiction world: explorers, traders, space miners, pirates, and soldiers. These characters build skills in real world time and rise to prominence in similar ways that people in real life advance through a career.
The gaming world is a section of interstellar space including 7,800 different star systems. These systems are connected together through a network of wormholes, allowing spaceships to jump from one star system to the next. The in-game economy is open-ended and largely player-based. In other words, players can have a much greater effect on the way the EVE Online’s events happen than in most online games.
In-Game Currency Not Transferable Offline
In-game currency is not convertible to the offline economy, unlike games like Second Life. Players can buy a few in-game items with real world currency, but the reverse is not allowed. Players are allowed to do a number of things which might be illegal in the outside world, such as create devious in-game Ponzi schemes. Virtual banks inside EVE Online exist, administered by real world people. These banks even have regulations which have are enforced in the gaming world — not by moderators.
Virtual casinos exist, too. The one which started the current war is called “I Want ISK”. ISK is the name of the in-game currency, the equivalent of a dollar (or, perhaps better put, a bitcoin).
LennyKravitz2 founded I Want ISK and it became a huge success inside the EVE Online world. The virtual casino has become so wealthy, it can influence events in the MMORPG world, like a major government could influence events in the real world.
World War Bee
LennyKravitz2 (“Joe”) helped to start an event which is being called “World War Bee”. In the game, thousands of players have banded together to attack the most powerful player-led faction in EVE Online, a group called the Imperium (or “Goonswarm” to many). The Imperium has flexed its muscle in EVE Online for years, getting its way whenever it wants. Players in the Anti-Imperium coalition say Goonswarm’s reign of terror has gone on too long.
The way Joe started the war is through financing. He has a huge treasury from his casino revenues. The Polygon interview said that Joe couldn’t leave EVE Online without it causing an investigation. He would be investigated for possible violations of EVE Online’s currency policy, while the thousands of players with accounts there might have their accounts frozen.
Spend Fortune to Confront the Imperium
Joe cannot cash out, yet it would seem boring to keep accumulating fake wealth he could not spend. Instead, he decided to spend that fortune on taking down the Imperium — or at least taking it down a few pegs. After years of the Goonswarm pushing around the smaller factions, most of the smaller factions have decided to get revenge — and strike a new equilibrium in the galaxy.
The old phrase “More money than he knows what to do with” appears to be the literal truth in the case of LennyKravitz2. The MMORPG gaming impresario has massive wealth he cannot cash out, sort of like Wynn Resort founder Steve Wynn’s former wife, Elaine Wynn.
With no selfish or crass ways to spend the cash, except perhaps to get into empire building, IWantISK decided to do something selfless, or at least something so grand that it would leave his imprint on EVE Online’s history. Like Cornelius Vanderbilt or J.D. Rockefeller, the massively wealthy businessman chose to build a monument to his wealth. Thus, an online casino (of sorts) started a vast interstellar conflict.
It’s enough to make Sheldon Adelson jealous.
