The real world has already seen the actual Icelandic financial fabric come apart, so there is more than a little 'games imitating life' in seeing the Icelandic-run E-Bank (the bank of Eve Online) suffering from theft at the hands of one its most trusted employees.

The story goes that an Australian Eve E-banker with the in-game name of Ricdic, sold virtual game currency for real world currency in order to clear some debts. While headlines were talking about 'billions stolen' (thanks BBC), that was referring to 'kredits'. Actual real-life cash amounted to around £3,000; this lead to a 'run on the bank' among gamers panicked into believing that their savings had been pillaged. This is not an outlandish thought given that only months before the life savings of several hundred thousand Icelanders had indeed been wiped out. Given that the country only has a population of 300,000, you can probably empathise.

So, what lessons have been learned? Well, by Ricdic himself, apparently not too many. He states,"I'm not proud of it at all, that's why I didn't brag about it. But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path based on the same situation".

Well, at least that's up-front.