While we're on the subject of mainstream media covering videogames, the BBC gets hip to what cool stories you can glean from Eve Online, a massively mulitplayer game that's not afraid to leave the "fair" out of laissez-faire. It's just another day in Eve Online when someone steals lots of money from someone else.

The BBC story opens with a bang, proclaiming in a headline "Billions stolen in online robbery!" (exclamation point mine). It's not until a few paragraphs in that you realize the billions are strictly virtual. Eve's unit of currency is the isk, and it's kind of like lira in that you tack a whole mess of zeroes onto the price for even the smallest items.

However, what makes this story noteworthy is that the player, a dude in Australia, sold all his isk to one of those shady MMO currency exchanges for a little over 3000 pounds of bona fide real world money. Then he spent it.

It has now emerged that [he] used the cash to put down a deposit on a house and to pay medical bills. "I'm not proud of it at all, that's why I didn't brag about it," [he] told Reuters. "But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path based on the same situation."

The Canadian coverage here specifies the medical expenses had to do with his son. Presumably, he means his real world son. It's also worth noting the dude no longer plays Eve Online. Exchanging virtual currency for real world money is against the terms of service, so his account was closed.

(Thanks Cal!)