Welcome to the 1,117th Edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Yet another EVE banking scandal has rocked the Reuters wire. No stranger to the EVE controversies, we get Goonswarm spymaster The Mittani's take on EVE's player-run banking troubles and offer you several new and exclusive articles on APB, Aion, and World of Warcraft. It's all in Loading... EVE Banks Debunked.

Ten Ton Hammer's very own satirical webcomic, geeked is here with a look at the age old discussion of what game stole what from what other game... and just who the heck cares. Check out geeked: The Horse is Dead, Jim today!

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:

  1. World of Warcraft
  2. EverQuest 2
  3. Age of Conan
  4. EVE Online (UP 1)
  5. Aion (down 1)

Biggest Movers today :

  1. Earthrise (UP 47 to #19)
  2. Jumpgate Evolution (UP 2 to #18)
  3. Warhammer Online (UP 1)
Recent MMO Releases

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This week saw yet another "OMG some EVE Online 'banker' ran away with trillions and billions of ISK" story. Rather beating a dead horse and because I have packing to do and errands to run for my Champions Online trip tomorrow, here's a reprint from a brief interview I did with The Mittani a few months ago for an article on Gamers Behaving Badly:

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EVE has had its share of controversies, from dev intrigues to underhanded corporate takeovers to massive battles that turn on a single well-placed spy. The good news is you can read about all of that and more weekly in our Sins of a Solar Spymaster column. Any massive single shard sandbox must have it’s dustups from time to time. But nowhere are these dustups more avoidable than in EVE’s completely unsecured and unregulated banking system.

On the face of it, EVE players stockpile ISK like hotel shampoo, so why not make that ISK work for you while you’re out-of-game training for long periods? If you’ve got 30 days of training before you can fly a battleship, why buy that battleship today? Invest your money with EIB and have money left over for that Tech 2 turret you’ve always wanted. Operators are standing by!

“The usual customers of 'EVE Banks' are people who live in the protected area of EVE,” The Mittani, leader of Goonswarm and our resident Spymaster explained. “They tend to be less acquainted with how the game really works, and expect that CCP would step in to bail them out much like a GM in World of Warcraft does after a scam.”

And no help was forthcoming when the head of EIB decided to cut and run. In a painfully rambling video, Cally a.k.a. Dentara Rast owns up to his lightning-fast extortion of the alleged 790 billion ISK in deposits EIB had accumulated. If the total held up (and CCP believed it was somewhat less [source]), it equates to over $100k in real money, and that’s just using the CCP-approved channels. Selling ISK through direct sales websites, a.k.a. goldsellers, could net much more.

“Banks offer nothing to anyone in EVE.” The Mittani adds. “They offer crap returns compared to other ways one could make money in EVE... In the real world, you need a bank because cash can be robbed or lost, and is unwieldy. In EVE, you have a wallet that can only be taken from through your own gullibility.”

Nor are EVE’s banking problems completely in the past. As recently as this January, Dynasty Banking lost some 80 billion of its equity balance when a key officer decided to pull a runner. Surely the community would learn its lesson and turn its back on the concept of an EVE bank, right? Wrong. EVE’s largest player-run bank, EBank, reports that it's currently holding nearly 8.5 trillion (with a ‘t’) in deposits from some 5,800 depositors [source]. Dynasty Banking is still taking deposits as well.

But, for better or worse, the EVE banking industry continues to grow. Are player trust and bank trustworthiness on the rise too? The Mittani has a different outlook: “There's an investor born every minute.”

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As if to reinforce The Mittani's words, EBank (the largest and most "legit" of the banks mentioned in the article segment) was at the center of EVE Online's latest banking scandal, which was peanuts compared to Ebanks total holdings and other EVE thefts. The moral of the story: stop lining the pockets of these scammers. Don't invest in player run banks, and if you already have, pull your money out now. Who cares about a run on illegitimate banks?

Why do players invest in EVE banks when story after story proclaims their untrustworthiness? Is it because players don't view virtual currency as real money (it is, folks), or is it the same old profit motive? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me!


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Articles, News & Events Discussion Forum

Be a Ten Ton Hammer Guru

I'm holdin' out for a hero...

Every so often often a community member begs me to open a forum for a certain game. The Ten Ton Hammer Pulse
helps us determine which games we'll create forums for, because it's
our indicator as to what our community's most interested in and most
likely to discuss. Yet when I say that we're waiting to see how our
community receives a game before we open a forum (since nobody likes an
empty forum), I always hear the same promise: "I've got lots to
say about this game! I'll make plenty of posts in your new forum." And
quite often those entusiastic gamers do deliver, thereby helping us
kickstart a new forum.

We're not about to change our policies
for creating new forums (we're still all about what the community as a
whole wants, not just one insistent individual), but we did want to
find some way to acknowledge our forum leaders, people whose
excitement about and knowledge of a particular game spills over into
their forum posts each day. That's why we've introduced the Ten Ton
Hammer Guru program.

Instead of describing the program here, allow me to point you to the thread in our forum where you can learn all about it. Who knows? Maybe you'll be our next guru.

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

No quotes today, just lots of volunteer spirit!

==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 29 in July! 794 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Exclusive Articles:

  • An Intro to All Points Bulletin (APB) with Chris "Ulric" Dye
    Set for release in the first quarter of 2010, All Points Bulletin (APB) is a persistent world shooter that pits enforcers against criminals in a high octane urban playground. The game gained serious traction at E3 2009 last month thanks to an impressive demo featuring gorgeous graphics truly deserving of the HD distinction, novel gameplay, and a just-announced distribution deal with Electronic Arts. We sat down with Realtime Worlds ’ Chris Dye to crack our enforcer knuckles for the first time, learning more about the unparalleled customization options and how the timeless battle between cops and robbers will play out in APB.
  • Aion Flight Facts
    Flight is a huge part of Aion gameplay. Whether you choose to use it for convenience sake or strive to make it a part of your gaming strategy, at some point players will utilize this fun feature. To get you started on your life in the air, we have put together a FAQ that will tell you all you need to know to get started as a Daeva. We detail how flight works, what its limits are, and share great tips that will keep you safe in the air, and get you back onto the ground in one piece!
  • Aion Class Preview: The Gladiator
    Aion's Gladiator is the offensive branch of the warrior archetype. This class offers a heavy plate armor wearing option with high offensive capabilities for players who want a tank that can dish out some punishment. Unlike its counterpart, the Templar, Gladiators use skills that offer more damage oriented attacks rather than defensive options. To help give players a look at what they can expect from the Gladiator, we've put together a preview of this class from Aion's 3rd beta weekend.
  • World of Warcraft - Comparing Raid Gear
    Metas takes another look at the WoW Guide for Comparing Raid Gear with a lot of the updated stats, like the Armor Penetration cap and Hit/Expertise as threat stats for the tank, you get to make the better choices for which epic item is an upgrade for your Fury, Arms, or Protection Warrior.
  • World of Warcraft - Patch 3.2 Rogue Axes Preview
    If you haven't noticed, Rogues are one of the few classes to ever learn a new weapon type in WoW's fairly long history (it's really been more than 5 years, people!). In our next WoW Rogue guide, Stow takes a look at where the axes are at for our new usage. Unfortunately... he's still looking. Find out why!

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

  1. An Intro to All Points Bulletin (APB) with Chris "Ulric" Dye
  2. Aion Flight Facts
  3. Champions Online Power Set Interview - Dual Blades, Single Blade, Fighting Claws and Unarmed
  4. World of Warcraft - Comparing Raid Gear
  5. Aion Class Preview: The Gladiator
  6. World of Warcraft - Patch 3.2 Rogue Axes Preview
  7. Aion Class Preview - The Chanter
  8. The Dilemma of Level vs Skill - How Old Became New Again
  9. EVE Online: Sins of a Solar Spymaster #18 - Defending Allah's Sacred Domains
  10. 13 Things to Know Before Playing Aion

Real World News - We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried:


Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EVE Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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