A little over a year ago, the Guiding Hand Social Club issued a stunning press release - after months of infiltration and planning they had fulfilled an assassination contract on the CEO of a major corporation and ransacked the corporation's hangers, stealing almost 20 billion ISK, worth over $16,000 USD at the time. See PCGamer's excellent detailed description of the event: pages 1, 2, 3, 4. As synthetic worlds like Eve-Online and World of Warcraft gain popularity, what should we make of this kind of behavior? Eve's own players respond. Also, a response with a little more perspective. And what's going to happen when the IRS catches on?
posted by heresiarch on May 14, 2006 - 58 comments

I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island! The virtual economy gets more interesting. (More inside)
posted by malaprohibita on Dec 17, 2004 - 35 comments

NationStates.net allows you to create your own country, decide how it starts out by answering a short questionary, and then it gives you issues to solve (one per day, though you can set it to two per day). How you answer those issues determines how your country fares, the type of country it is, and many other things. You can join the UN and elect a regional representative, create your own region that you and your friends can migrate to (all new nations start out in The Pacific, which is consequentially the largest region in NationStates, but you can move wherever you want).
posted by sailoreagle on Jan 3, 2003 - 51 comments

Oh my god, i'm so addicted. it's like a chat. but it's like the sims. and it looks swedish. and i can't stop hanging out there. i'm in the room 'shacknews'.
posted by jcterminal on Oct 18, 2001 - 25 comments