EVE General Discussion

wat

1.2b isk...

ffs.... WoT dont charge anything.... LoL dont charge anything... Neverwinter dont charge anything... ffs, chesscube dont charge anything...

why do I have to spend 3 hours daily to rat to be able to pvp on weekends... ?!?!

wtf....?!?!

1 account Eve = 1 account in WoT + 1 account in LoL + 1 account in (random game name) = more fun then EVE at these plex prices...

Or spend 13 dollars... less than cost of a movie?

Those other ones are simple arena style combat. Compare their server requirements and overhead to what CCP runs? Hell, my sub doesn't even cover my power bill?

Blah blah blah.

Its simple fact, that the higher PLEX costs go, the lower player activity will be.

No matter what side or angle of the argument you are on, you are going to have to deal with that simple systemic fact.

Whining at the leaving players isnt going to help.
Whining about PLEX price, isnt going help you leavers either.

Decline in activity is imminent and present, and will continue along that trend as long as PLEX prices rise.
Its already 1.2. How about 1.5? 2? 3?

Inversely, even if PLEX prices drop, miraculously and irrationally, to 750mil again from the current 1.2bil, its too late for either party, and too late to increase player return.

This is the FUBAR we live in.
Deal with it, or abandon ship.
Your choice.

My personal stance, is I will ride along as long as I can sustain myself with isk.
When I cant, despite efforts to adapt, lll leave. Simple as that.

Is that not a rational and resonable decision? I think so.

I'll say it again: CCP need to work out where on the Laffer Curve PLEX stand at the moment. Because if there are two revenue equilibira, with one having a much higher number of PLEX being consumed, then CCP unquestionably and obviously need to choose the higher.

I like you, man. But you lost me on the rest of your post, so Ill focus on this.

I dont doubt that EVE can continue as a zombie on a skeleton crew of both players and staff, almost indefinately (like Runescape).
Its a VERY good game, at what it it does, and for what it is.
The hardcore and truly committed will fund this game till the final light goes out.
And they will no doubt enjoy it too, till that finale moment, and its catharsis.

But it will be in a very empty universe...

Talking about the goals of CCP, where is the idea and development of a EVE II?
This game has already extised, with legacy code limitations/complications for a decade.

Whats the long term plan? Whats next?
What is the greater future and ambition?

UO also tried to re-invigorate its basic product with graphic updates and content that was possible within its limitations.
But failed.

EVE will always have players, no matter the cost of subs/PLEX, or changes within it.
Albeit few, but hardcore.

But whats next?
Why is there no EVE II in development?

Yeah I know that the Laffer Curve is questionable to say the least in RL economic models (A curve in just two dimensions to model a modern economy? Really? ), but it's an adequate metaphor for the current PLEX situation. Not least because there's no substitute good.

Although CCP have done their laudable best to treat PLEX as "just another" in game item, the fact is, it isn't just another in game item. It doesnt matter a jot to the long term health of EVE what the long term price trends of eg: Bhaalgorns or A-type EANMs or whatever is, but it matters a whole ******* lot what the time cost of PLEX is. As any ecologist will happily confirm to you, the diversity of an ecosystem strongly correlates with its resilience to catastrophe. Likewise, an EVE with 200,000 customers generating an average of $275/yr each is a considerably less resilient EVE than one with 300,000 customers generating $150/yr each.

PLEX resulted in an artificial player count bubble that was due to burst eventually. All those alts that can PLEX themselves in a matter of hours were only ever going to inject a huge amount of ISK into the economy and drive up PLEX prices. Imagine where we'd be if ISBoxer were still a thing.
At this point CCP must have learned there's no limit to inflation in this game since ISK faucets are infinite, while single-account users like myself don't have the faintest sympathy for how hard it is to PLEX anything. No hard feelings though, because to me this game never has to feel like a job.

Someone(s) in EVE have wrestled control of PLEX from CCP and the consumers, by buying up and stockpiling the limited amount that is introduced to the game.

The consequences of this are difficult to get ones head around:

1) CCP, though an infinite source of PLEX ,from outside, only deals ingame with those PLEX which have already been paid for. I dont know what their reserve is, but I think its rational to conclude they are more reluctant and more lenient in re-introduction of those than are their player competitors. Basically, that means that whenever CCP reintroduces ingame PLEX to the market (cheaply, obviously), guess who buys it up? Stockpilers.

2) Lets say Im sitting on 1000 PLEX. Sure, some 1000 players brought those to the game, bought some ship with the isk, and then blew up. Their money is at CCP, their ship is a wreck, but I still have their PLEX. Im sitting on that value still. I lost nothing.

3)The more PLEX i can buy up off the market, the more I starve the market of supply, and the higher the value of my stockpile rises.
No matter what the current price, Im selling the oxygen/food/water package (PLEX) that people need to survive. They want it (they NEED it),I have it. Their need is absolute. This is not a module or ship we are talking about, its their very survival. I make the price.

4)When there is a critical mass of PLEX withholders on the market, those players cut CCP out of the loop. Not in terms of IRL PLEX sales (which have anyways been shown to be remarkably resilient to fluctuations on ingame funny money), but rather in terms of ingame activity levels which are crucial and central to many players experience of EVE. These players control the PLEX market, not CCP.

5)So would/will this result in more subbing? Unlikely. Will this result in increase of account activity? Hell no!

There are thousands upon thousands of PLEX sitting in various accounts, which produce no content except appreciation in value of those who hold them.

This is the PLEX Achilles Heel.

PLEX took an arrow to the heel, and its adventuring days are over.