EVE General Discussion

Compared to what?

Lol u r rught and that's what i was meaning.
I can play for a short time any days and i cant spend all my game time killng AI for 1.1B / mo... killing rats is 100% boring and i play for fun, not for work or to be bored.

LOL did someone rimenber the planetary strikes? LOL so much resources wasted by CCP... for that DUST... a toatal fail itself... OMG.. cya CCP....

…such as?

You don't know much about games, do you?

The price of a BMW is too high also, Germany pls.

One rather cynical suggestion, is seasonal PvE "events" with grind rewards.

I dont particularly endorse the idea, but its something that was done with some success in WaR for example, and it prompts players to return and perhaps stick for a month or two.

Something along the lines of a mission chain, or sets of spawns, that drop Tags that can be used to increase standing and buy season exclusive items from an NPC entity.

Woulndt appeal to me, but seems this would probably appeal to the psychology of some substantial part of the player base.

Yes, ofc.

But thats where everyone is anyways.

Everyone leaches on HS, especially null entities.

So...CCP should step in to artificially lower the price of PLEX so more people can play for free? Good luck with that.

There is a vested aspect to PLEX supply/demand that doesnt seem to be coming across to some people (yet).

PLEX is a peculiar thing.
Its correct to say that all PLEX is paid for, and infact CCP earns more per PLEX, than it does per sub.

But PLEX is also a commodity, that unlike the gold standard it is often compared to, is CONSUMED when used, which then results in another player being active (less or more) ingame. IRL gold remains gold. In EVE, when PLEX is consumed, it goes *poof*.

So what happens when PLEX is no longer consumed by the market, but instead stockpiled?

Do you see what Im getting at?

Lets say, just for example and simpler figures, that 1000 PLEX are purchased from CCP, per month.
Then lets assume (rationally) that all those 1000 PLEX are put onto the ingame market (as is the purpose of PLEX, to revenue isk).
Now lets further assume that 50% of that 1000, are bought by players and consumed.
They are gone. 500 accounts are subbed. Activity ensues.
Lets assume that 10% of the 1000 are priced so high (rather irrationally) that they stay on the market till next month.
What about the remaining 40% (400)?
They are bought up by PLEX traders/stockpilers. They are not consumed. Their value is still latent, but has not benefitted activity in terms of consumption.

As a result of that, the entities which bought up 40% of the available PLEX and stockpiled them, starve the market for the people who otherwise would have bought that PLEX and consumed it as a way to sub and continue activity ingame. They end up buying parts of that 10% which were overpriced, raising the market standard.

Do you see what Im getting at?

The effect of PLEX stockpiling has a fundamental effect:
-On the supply, which raises prices
-As a result, as reduced activity

Furthermore, this stockpiling and market starving RAISES the value of the PLEX these entities have stockpiled, creating more value aginst which to buy up and stock even more PLEX in the next month.

If I had, lets say, 1 trillion isk.
If I had started buying PLEX last fall, at c.700mill, for all of my money, I would have 1428 PLEX stockpiled. Thats 1428 subs I denied from the market, and subsequent player activity. At this moment, in this year, my stockpile would be worth 714bil more than then. So from a 1 trillion investment, I would now have 1.714trillion in assets.
Not bad, eh?

And to do that, all I had to do, was buy up PLEX, and wait while everyone else competes for what is left.

Furthermore I can approach any investor with proof of my assets, for more credit to purchase even more PLEX, and raise its prices even higher.

But, the downside. Im sitting now on 1428 PLEX. Thats 1428 months of gameplay that nobody else can use.
Sure, it was originally paid for, but nobody can use it, because Im sitting on it, and watching its value increase.

Now, if I have substantial income, I can continue to buy even more PLEX, growing my stockpile, reducing supply, and increasing the value of my existant stockpile.

Summa summarum: The more PLEX I buy, the higher the value of my stockpile, against which I can leverage the cost of buying even more PLEX. Its systemicaly irrational due to the peculiar nature of PLEX vs consumer behavior. The more you buy of it, the higher its value is.

The natural counterbalances to this, are:
A) People buying PLEX from CCP (which has been shown to not be price reactive from testimony of retailers.
( People dont buy more or less, regardless of its isk value),
B) Less demand, as players drop out and reduce accounts.
= PLEX prices will continue to rise, at the increasing and escalating detriment of account activity

The system will eventually stabilise when remaining player tolerance of isk value of PLEX reaches its zenith, at horrific loss in player activity, but at that point the PLEX stockpilers will still hold the market, potentially indefinately, as they are sitting on tens of thousands of units of PLEX.

TLDR: PLEX is not being consumed. It is being stockpiled. Stockpiled PLEX results in zero account activity, starving the market, and an articial increase in its price as a result of reduced supply, at the cost of reduced player activity. PLEX that is consumed, is gone and creates content. PLEX that is stockpiled, denies content, but increases in value.

I fear the PLEX system has at long last been broken.
Ive often thought of doing it myself if I ever won the lottery by brute cash force.
Seems some people have gotten so space rich within EVE, that they have achieved the same internally.

Hrm.... Makes me wonder if Dscan can be made passive. Sweep angle and range relate to cycle time? Same result, but improved content. Will propose on the F and I

Also, to compare the game costs. Terraria is a low cost game and simple in programming equalling fun. But do we want eve to be a 2D sidescroller on player run servers? Some games from companies are low cost due to low overhead making good value. Versa is true. Eve has a higher overhead than a simple program indie game. Just do the math. Every asset and command being processed to every active player. And how much offgrid being processed?

I would really like to know how much data storage, processing, and ram is being used during peak times... Or even just Jita. Running Jita per month probably costs more than some indies spend for the entire development period.

Talk to your government about that.



You're paying to play EVE. I would think that much is obvious.