Eve Online, one of the biggies in online MMO gaming, has just banned Ricdic (AKA Richard), one of the CEOs of the game’s in-game Ebank from the game.  And not entirely for why one would think.

Yes, it’s true, he embezzled some 200 billion odd Intersteller Kredits from the bank.  But that wasn’t why he was banned.

No, Ricdic was banned for selling the in-game money to other players for real money, in this case about AU$6,300 (he is an Australian tech worker).  It comes to about five grand in US dollars.  But the amount isn’t all that important.  It was the selling of in-game money for real money which breached Eve Online’s terms of service, forcing them to give him the boot.

So why’d he do it?  For fame and profit?  Nope.  Nothing so easy to hate him for.  He did it to cover some of his son’s medical expenses.

Right then.

There are just so many things wrong with this picture that it’s really hard to make heads or tales of this scandal.  Proof once again that the world is rarely black and white, no matter how old your monitor is.