Many of EVE Online's most prolific marketeers use courier contracts to collect together items from their region-wide buy orders but that's not all they can be used for. Courier contracts were originally intended as a way to pay another player to haul items for you securely using a standard collateral deal but if you know how, they can also be used for theft. Over the years, players have found ways to use courier contracts for profiteering, gambling, and even corporate theft. In EVE's Machiavellian universe, anything you can get away with is fair game. This includes twisting an innocuous game mechanic like courier contracts into a tool for theft and piracy.

In this short article, I examine some of the more creative ways pilots have used courier contracts to steal and plunder their way to the top.

At last week's Game Developers Conference 2009, we got the chance to sit in on Mark Methenitis' talk on How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy. You may have noticed the sheer quantity of legal cases, rulings and issues surrounding virtual environments and MMOGs that have direct impacts on users and players lately.

We found the talk to be an engaging and interesting one, which certainly went a long way towards clarifying some of the past, present and future problems and we've got a tasty summary of the highlights for you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like you to give a big hand to the US Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which is back with us once again as a special, and rather unexpected guest. You see, while the UIGEA initially kicked around in 2006, the actual regulations that will implement it are just about to kick off.

Today, the House Financial Services Committee will be holding an emergency mark-up of some of this legislation. Why is it an emergency? Well, because while the whole thing is technically about 'gambling', the wording of the UIGEA isn't at all clear about what it actually is making unlawful, and when it comes to legislation and regulations, the words are everything. Words that are getting decided today.

While you might already be under the impression that the UIGEA was already active, the fact is that businesses have just been jumping the gun and attempting to regulate based on some rather fuzzy wording what they might not be permitted to do.

Online games of chance? Well, sure. What about online games of skill? That's where you use your knowledge and abilities to make a profit in an online activity. That's where we get to the sticking point, because virtual environment economies may yet fall into that yawning abyss between words.

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	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

In the months leading up to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, with world events being what they are, it's not often that foreigners residing in the mainland turn to China Daily's English pages for the news. This little gem is an exception, however. When you picture the man who's fast becoming a leading light in China's expanding online gaming industry, who do you see?

Maybe you picture a slick twenty-something entrepreneur from Hong Kong, decked out in a $5000 suit and shuffling between calls on a few wafer-thin cell phones. Or do you envision a middle-aged bureaucrat turned businessman from Beijing, using his network of connections and riding the tide of interest in online games? Stereotypes aside, no matter how you picture Shi Yuzhu, that aforementioned 'leading light,' you're probably wrong. The 46-year-old CEO of Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) is more outwardly eccentric than most would guess. Shi, who prefers tracksuits over 3-piece-suits, is reportedly the first CEO ever to ring the NYSE bell in anything but formal attire... much less athletic wear.

Fury, the maligned combat MMO by Auran Games, has had a pretty rough history. Despite the critical drubbing, the low player numbers, and the loss of a huge portion of its development crew, Auran has managed to stay together with a skeleton crew, working on the problems that made Fury such a target for ridicule.

Well, according to an interview with CEO Tony Hilliam, conducted by australiangamer.com, they've made significant changes to the title and renamed it FuryLeague, which will focus more on the competitive aspects, and less on the MMO features. Additionally, there is the prospect of winning game gold that can be converted to real money, which, because the game is skill-based instead of luck-based, means that it's not gambling and is therefore legal.

The full interview is available, and the Qualifying Season has already begun. Admit it: you're just as curious as we are. Give it a spin and let us know what you think!

[Via Kotaku]

Second Life has been used to protest many things that are happening in real life. However, most don't break the Terms of Service in order to do so. Quick! Hide the cards! The Lindens are coming!

In all seriousness, the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society wants viewers to know that poker is a game of skill, therefore should not be considered in an online gambling ban. Showdown at the Statehouse Corral is clever, although sometimes cheesy with the fake celebrities. Hopefully it will help raise awareness for their campaign, because this is exactly the sort of cost-effective machinima that SL is useful for.

[Via Popcha!]

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

I was in the bathroom the other day, reading Games for Windows (because let's be honest, where else would anybody read GfW?) and they had an article on an extremely interesting, though vaguely troubling new shooter called Kwari. Its basic premise is that players pony up a small amount of cash, the amount varying depending on the stakes of the game, and players lose or gain a portion of the pot based on their fragging prowess. Or to put it more simply, it's like online poker, but instead of cards, there are bullets. Designer Eddie Gill of Kwari Limited was hoping that in adding a financial incentive to the basic shooter model, it would result in an experience that was much more intense for the players involved. And if he took in a cut of the profits as well, what's the harm?

By all accounts, Kwari utterly fails at delivering an engaging shooter experience, so whatever sociological implications the game would have had were rendered moot because of sloppiness on the developer's part. Still, this perception that online games could be tweaked to be a form of online gambling got me thinking. Is this business model just a developer supported real-money transaction (RMT) scheme, or is it even deeper down the rabbit hole of Shylock-esque shamelessness?

That may be overstating things a bit, but from from the Western viewpoint that's a pretty accurate assessment. It's easy to point out the little things that are different in China. They really like steamed buns, for example, and they make stamps that taste like pork. But the games ... the games are what are really different.

Take ZT Online, possibly the most popular game in the country. A fantastic article in the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly took an in-depth look at the title, unveiling the fascinating and utterly alien gameplay that props up the game. It's PvP-heavy, and absolutely riddled with Microtransactions. Almost everything you can think of, from leveling to looting, requires that you pay for it. It's a swirling morass of everything that Western MMOG players say they hate.

And it gets even better! Because in ZT Online if you want some loot, you can obtain it easily, just by gambling for it. With real money. Meanwhile in the states we're nervous about the possibility that the government might tax avatar sales. Hah! This is a really complicated issue, and we could all use some help understanding things.

You should start with Danwei's commentary, as he was the one kind enough to translate the article for us in the first place. (Oh, by the way, did I mention that the article was pulled from the newspaper's official site when the company that makes it made a complaint? Did I mention China is different?) Then move on to Bills Due's observations. He notes that this gambling component is extremely widespread in Chinese games. A less detached and +5 more cynical analysis is available from the PlayNoEvil, who wonders if the highly addictive game is as much a drug as a pass-time. Simon Carless gives a great capper at the GameSetWatch blog, and should hopefully drive home why you need to read this: The full article is absolutely fascinating - in fact, I'd go as far to say that it's one of the best written, most humanistic pieces on games I've read so far this year.

The chart above represents the user-to-user transactions in Second Life (in US Dollars) per day, over almost the whole second half of 2007. The day the gambling ban was enacted is marked with the red line.

From the data we have, it appears that proceeds of the gambling culture that existed prior to that ban did not significantly flow on into the broader Second Life economy, but tended to circulate within itself and via the LindEX currency exchange.