Market Discussions

There are so many variables in the system to know what the actual production rate is w/o CCP's help.

EVE is about as close as a virtual economy can get to the real world economy. It is very complex with so many variables to consider.

I am sure it would be possible to generate a graph like you describe but it would take years of researching and dissecting EVE's economy to get it even remotely accurate.

I can tell you playing this game since early 2009 I have seen the market stabilize and fluctuate wildly for a number of reasons. But looking at the broader picture the inflation curve although not liner is somewhat consistent.

Thru 2009 and 2010 indy activity in EVE was somewhat stable. Mining was a very low source of income, minerals sources where supplemented steadily by drone alloys and meta 0-3 loot drops being reprocessed. Trit was fairly stable at just over 3 isk/unit PLEX bounced between 300 and 350 mil. A teir 3 battleship cost about 100 mil. The market was fairly steady.

Since then there have been a number of changes that have had significant effect on the market.

Some large alliances in game have dedicated much more time to market manipulations as a primary source of income.

The loot tables were changed to remove drone alloys and meta 0 loot drops shifting primary mineral supply back to the miners.

CCP has stepped up efforts to identify and remove third party isk sellers, and BOT program users.

The revamp of mining ships has made mining safer and easier.

The introduction of incursions brought a significant isk faucet into the game giving a massive source of income to PVE players with the ambition to go after it. The flow of this isk fucet was turned down recently but too late to curb its impact on the EVE economy.

Several recent updates have addressed long standing issues with various indy activities stirring the pot even further.

On top of all this market speculation has become a growing fad in the trader community, with even players that do not understand it trying to get a piece of the pie.

All these issues combined have made the market very unstable in recent years. Just when it looks like it is starting to level off another wave of market manipulations, or game changing update throws another wave into the mix. Eventually the market will become somewhat stable again. There will always be certain items that fluctuate outside of the normal swing due to FOTM or successful market manipulations. But in general it will level off, eventually. I believe almost every change CCP has made to the game is for the better, but we all need to be patient and give the game time to find it's new balance.

Just as with the real world economy some actions and incidents have ripple effects in the economy for years, A game of this complexity can take years to level out. and only then providing no new waves are adding to the ripple.

The real world economy is suffering with so much devastation sucking resources that could have gone to other area's. How many Trillions of dollars have been spent by this worlds leading governments in recent years to repair the damage done by this devastation; There was the Tsunami, 9/11 terrorist attacks, the resulting war on terror, the devastating hurricanes to hit the southern United States, and more recently New York City.

With so many countries spending hundreds of millions of dollars on disaster relief there is not enough money left to cover the basic needs of these countries. The world economy has suffered as a result. Much of the economic problems we see in the world today are the result of these financial burdens rippling down thru the various levels of government down to the tax payers. After all where does the governments money come from?