EVE General Discussion

PLEX is not the only thing you can buy out of game. So I see nothing bad in limiting its uses. THAT would only change the balance between supply of game time and supply of cool stuff (skins?)

When I wanted to inject isk, I've sold my PLEX to a buy order most of the time. So I think that's how speculators get it.
But... Really, don't you believe in some people going after the CCP's huge PLEX packs? I know at least some people can. Not the most pleasant subjects to speak to, but... they still exist and play games.

There's evidentially enough being purchased in RL cash that there is currently $40,000 worth for public sale on the market, lets not forget that people also buy them for purposes other than gametime, including replenishing stockpiles that are released for cash injections, cash injections, for exchange to Aurum, for dual character training etc. So I don't think there is a RL lack of demand.

Do you have any evidence of this beyond cries of "I can't afford to sub because I'm unwilling to put in the amount of effort required to purchase a PLEX with ingame cash and I'm too tight/poor to pay for it in RL"? PLEX is a luxury good, deal with it.

Yet you're willing to claim that it will harm CCP, without holding yourself to the same standards of evidence that you demand of people that disagree?

That sir, is called hypocrisy.

Unfortunately, he's so correct it's almost a tautology. There aren't enough PLEX for everyone who wants one. Therefore either demand will decrease or supply with increase. A higher ISK price effects both of these changes. So much for Economics 101.

You're right that it's unhelpful to keep saying something so obviously true, but it's also equally important not to forget it. A PLEX isn't like steak; no matter how much I like a good steak, there is only so much of it I can eat, even if I get unlimited quantities of them for free. By contrast, I can and would expend my hypothetical free PLEX usage massively beyond what it would take to sustain my current two accounts, to the point where the utility of an extra login and training queue diminishes to below the effort required to create the account and use it.

At almost any price point above zero, therefore, demand for PLEX will increase with a drop in price, and vice versa.

So there's a bunch of ways to decrease the ISK price of a PLEX. But first it's important to decide why you want PLEX price to increase. What's the goal here? If it's just "So I can play EVE like I do now but spend less time making ISK to pay for my PLEX", that's fine but it rules out solutions like eg: CCP decreasing demand by limiting the number of accounts players can have.

In short: defining the actual result you want to achieve will make the solution much clearer.

That may be varying from place to place. I'm getting 4035 AUR on the secure.eveonline.com for the PLEX price, and people say PLEX gives only 3500 (I didn't ever care before yesterday).
But I have also suggested increasing AUR prices to match in the OP.

My only worry regarding PLEX is the extent of speculation and hoarding.


PLEX without hoarding/speculation:

. John buys PLEX with cash, trades it with Jack for ISK.

. John buys some ships and plays the game

. Jack pays his sub with PLEX and plays the game

net result: +2 people playing


PLEX with hoarding/speculation:

. John buys PLEX with cash, trades it with Nastyguy for ISK

. John buys some ships and plays the game

. Nastyguy resells the PLEX at +50% ISK value

. Jack can't afford the higher price and unsubs

net result: only +1 people playing, plus Mr. Nastyguy laughing


I hope CCP has this under control in some way, a completely free and wild market on PLEX is not good for the game's health.

I would consider introducing a 6-month expiry on PLEX to curtail hoarding.

Your figures sound like mine. My formatting was a little horrible. It was Dollar Aurum Dollar/Aurum.

I don't think it's any complex to implement, but... well, that would cut one of the things I and others use. I mean storing PLEX in hangar when we temporarily leave game, to surely be able to return and play as we would normally. But that doesn't seem like a big issue to me, at all. If this helps the issue.

Go take a graph of the PLEX price – then overlay the USD on top of that.

There's your explanation. Real world economics affect PLEX prices more than anything else.

Yea sounds fun and I like it. And is already made (in a way) with snowballs so wouldn't be completely new.