EVE Public perception
Virtual crime
CCP's approach of managing the in-game economy has come under fire for allowing in-game "criminal" activity. Piracy (in the ship-to-ship sense) is part of the game, as is protection racketeering and theft.
One example is the corporate heist perpetrated by the in-game assassin's guild Guiding Hand Social Club (GHSC). GHSC infiltrated a target corporation over the course of nearly a year before performing a virtual assassination on the target's CEO and stealing or destroying billions of credits' worth of property which the CEO had entrusted them with.[79]
Events of this nature are debated both inside the game world and in the media[80].
Such dangers are an intricate part of Eve Online's virtual economy and thus are purposely not dealt with by the developers.[81] Players are expected to make financial decisions based (among other factors) on the possibility of other players' financial malpractice, much like in real-life economics.
