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Pay to win

First post
Author
malcovas Henderson
THoF
#221 - 2012-07-17 01:29:18 UTC
I see you are banging your head against another brickwall Tippia.


For all intent and purposes, Eve cannot in any way shape and form be a P2W game.

Alts offer no clear adavantage that cannot be gained through having Friends
The arguement for this seems to be a little scenerio hugging. In which the "multi boxer" competes with a solo player. Lets just turn that onto the other foot. How about 3 players competing againt the solo player. Is this P2W. It is 3 accounts after all. Even though each player has only 1 account.

Alts being bought offers no clear adavantage over a character of equal or there abouts Skills
It is a misconception that this is P2W. All you are buying is the "lack of grinding". The character you have purchased has not miracously become invincible or able to fly ships not skilled for. Everything that char can do, can be done on another char given the time. You could also argue that as "alts" are created, and sold as a commodity that are available to any one, it is not entirely "exclusive"

Gear bought offers no clear advantage over someone with same gear gained through grinding.
There is no "gold" ammo in eve.


I would offer you some headache tablets Tippia, but with all the headbanging you done this last year. I should imagine your Brow to be hard as rocks.



o7
Plutonian
Intransigent
#222 - 2012-07-17 01:44:41 UTC
Xorv nailed it.

You see, for fun I like to fit up a frigate and go fight. But it's actually a bit more than 'just fun'. I want my skills to advance... I want to get better. It's not about my score on Battleclinic (I stopped posting losses or kills back in Dec 2008). It's about running a single account, finding a fight, killing or being killed, and then examining that fight to see what I can do better.

There are fights that I've had where I have no idea what the hell went wrong. A bit of research can give me an idea of what my opponent might have been flying. But, unless they're willing to talk fitting, I can't know if I lost the fight due to a mistake on my part or if my opponent had help (in the form of an off-grid booster).

I know it sounds silly, but this problem threw my entire game out of whack. When boosting alts became more 'the norm' in the "solo" lowsec arena, I began to question why the hell I even played.

I understand I operate in a niche role in a niche game. Got it. I understand being blobbed and ECM'd. No problem. I'd never complain that another player fought unfair. I do not expect fairness from players. But I absolutely DEMAND fairness from the 'scoring system' (a.k.a., killmails). A boosting alt makes a huge difference 1 on 1.

Except for the above, I enjoy the game and wish I could find a way to continue it. But until the booster situation is fixed, there is literally no point in playing. I find I simply cannot find a reason to continue.

Which is a shame, 'cause I really liked this game.
Mallak Azaria
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#223 - 2012-07-17 01:49:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Mallak Azaria
Xorv wrote:

1) An account paid directly or via Plex is still paid for with real money by someone to CCP, it is not free.


Correct.

Quote:
2) A Boosting Alt gives a significant real advantage.


Also correct.


Quote:
* Further due to it's passive nature it's unlikely anyone would want to actively pilot that ship, because it's boring.


The same goes for mining, but people still do it. Humans will forever surprise one another.


Quote:
3) Plex is being used here to fudge the issue. It doesn't matter how you cut it, someone is paying CCP real money for your advantage of a boosting alt on a second account, and advantage that can't be fully realized without using a second account.


A boosting alt is an advantage, but it's not an advantage that guarantees a win most of the time. Therefore it is not pay to win, it's pay to have a second account.

Comparing a free to play game that survives solely on it's pay to win scheme to a game that survives on active subscriptions adds no credibility to the argument presented.

This post was lovingly crafted by a member of the Goonwaffe Posting Cabal, proud member of the popular gay hookup site somethingawful.com, Spelling Bee, Grammar Gestapo & #1 Official Gevlon Goblin Fanclub member.

Maxpie
MUSE LLP
#224 - 2012-07-17 05:52:04 UTC
Alts are the single worst thing in Eve. Not from a pay to win standpoint, but from a hide behind and/or recycle them standpoint. The idea consequences goes out the window when people can hide behind alts. The uniqueness of an in-game reputation is also reduced. Eve would be a much better game without alts.

No good deed goes unpunished

Garresh
Mackies Raiders
Wild Geese.
#225 - 2012-07-17 05:54:24 UTC
Because ultimately, the value of a Plex is honestly not that much. Any big time players in Eve can afford multiple PLEX in a month without too much hassle. Also, the black market ISK trade will always exist. PLEX took something that is impossible to completely remove, and instead transformed it into a way for players who don't want to spend $45 a month to still have multiple alts for recon, trade, production, mining, boosting, whatever. PLEX actually removed a pay2win element from the game by allowing us to use our in game achievements to create and run alts.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

Herr Hammer Draken
#226 - 2012-07-17 07:04:04 UTC
Mallak Azaria wrote:
Xorv wrote:

1) An account paid directly or via Plex is still paid for with real money by someone to CCP, it is not free.


Correct.

Quote:
2) A Boosting Alt gives a significant real advantage.


Also correct.


Quote:
* Further due to it's passive nature it's unlikely anyone would want to actively pilot that ship, because it's boring.


The same goes for mining, but people still do it. Humans will forever surprise one another.


Quote:
3) Plex is being used here to fudge the issue. It doesn't matter how you cut it, someone is paying CCP real money for your advantage of a boosting alt on a second account, and advantage that can't be fully realized without using a second account.


A boosting alt is an advantage, but it's not an advantage that guarantees a win most of the time. Therefore it is not pay to win, it's pay to have a second account.

Comparing a free to play game that survives solely on it's pay to win scheme to a game that survives on active subscriptions adds no credibility to the argument presented.


It needs to be pointed out that an off grid boosting alt is almost solely done by players with multiple accounts. Yes a team of players could also do this but it never happens. It just is not human nature for some other guy to pilot his ship off grid and not get into the battle. But if both ships are run by the same player it makes total sense to do this because then he can freely play the one ship in combat while the off grid only takes a tiny bit of the players attention to set it up for the battle. All the while it is relatively safe against a solo fight. It is similar to griefing a pilot simply because you can and it is not illegal to do so.

Again this activity is almost never done by multiple players in a fleet it is solely done by a single player with multiple accounts to gain an advantage over another single player in 1v1 solo fights. If the player was flaged somehow to indicate he had multiple accounts active then the player without multiple accounts could have intel on an issue he might wish to avoid.

And no the fix is not to say well just get friends to help you out. The idea here is it is suposed to be a 1v1 fight and the solo player has no idea and no way to know that he is being cheated by the other guy with multiple accounts using off grid booster.

Maybe it is not play to win per se. But it is an issue that should be delt with never the less. Or you risk all the 1v1 fights from players with only one account to stop in eve. For all of you trying to encourage more PvP this should be something you guys take to heart. Probably half of the PvP fighting that happens in eve or more is 1v1 fights.

If solo meaning players with only 1 account realize that EVE is rigged against them how many will cancel their accounts because of this? Sure they can join groups. But how much fun is EVE if you always have to wait for your team to log on?
This issue can blow up into a serious problem for EVE if it gets out and becomes part of the EVE social consciousness.

Herr Hammer Draken "The Amarr Prophet"

Rico Minali
Sons Of 0din
Commonwealth Vanguard
#227 - 2012-07-17 07:09:43 UTC
Pay to win and alts are two completely different things., how can you even put those two in the same or even similar catagories?

Trust me, I almost know what I'm doing.

Altrue
Exploration Frontier inc
Tactical-Retreat
#228 - 2012-07-17 07:56:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Altrue
In Eve it's not Pay to Win, it's Pay to save Time.

Save time with alts if you want to be able to do multiple activities at the same time.
Save time if you can't find the time to bring friends (but friends are 500% more efficient)
Save time because you can buy a character / ship that takes a lot to be created.

But :
If you want, you can also have the same result with skilling during more time.
If you want, you can also just take the time to bring more friends. (I recommend)
If you want, you can also reach the same result without buying anything. (And more important, there is not CREATION, the player who sold the ship/character LOSSES IT, and the isks that the buyer had are coming from multiple people that at the beggining of the chain always spend TIME and not MONEY. (Or just the money for their subscription. Eh, in fact when you spend some money in a subscription you're PAYING to have the possibility to WIN ! We have to move to a F2P !... Or not, because this is the part of the money that goes to the developper.)

The only exception to this rule is botting, because with botting as you're not playing you don't spend any time at all, money or not.
Or more precisely, you spend a ridiculous amount of time that others players CANNOT spend. (23.5h playing, and so on).
Then, this is a situation when an advantage is acquired and can't be reproduced by the others : Unfair advantage. Like gold ammos.

But.. Oh, surprise, CCP is already banning bots ! So everything is fine. (Well I don't know if they are truly working on banning bots of course but at least this is the public policy they show.)

Edit : I don't even talk about the fact that alts (multiple mains or true alt in fact) are equiped with ships and equipment that comes from other players, so when someones buy an alt and play it, it modifies the full eve economy. Then, each alt as an influence over eve economy, which is not the case if you make items spawn from a cash shop.

PLEX is good, it's like Pay to Win except, as said (in page 4 I think), that that's a balanced model because every side have something to win from PLEX.

Also : If you don't understand economy, just be quiet and let adults discussing. That's why there is so much tears about plex, people talk about things they don't understand.
I'm part of the people who have multiple accounts but PvP solo against multiple people (in pvp ships) without a boosting alt (not yet), and I win. Why ? Because I spend a lot of time skilling. (And because I'm fighting in wormholes but that's another debate)

Signature Tanking Best Tanking

[Ex-F] CEO - Eve-guides.fr

Ultimate Citadel Guide - 2016 EVE Career Chart

Xorv
Questionable Acquisitions
#229 - 2012-07-17 08:06:11 UTC
Mallak Azaria wrote:

A boosting alt is an advantage, but it's not an advantage that guarantees a win most of the time. Therefore it is not pay to win, it's pay to have a second account.


I wasn't aware that guaranteed win was required for something to be 'Pay to Win'. Maybe CCP should revisit some of their old ideas for the NEX store then?

Mallak Azaria wrote:

Comparing a free to play game that survives solely on it's pay to win scheme to a game that survives on active subscriptions adds no credibility to the argument presented.


Where did I do this in my post? Are you hallucinating additional comments in my posts or confusing me with someone else?

Malcanis
Vanishing Point.
The Initiative.
#230 - 2012-07-17 08:13:27 UTC
Maxpie wrote:
Alts are the single worst thing in Eve. Not from a pay to win standpoint, but from a hide behind and/or recycle them standpoint. The idea consequences goes out the window when people can hide behind alts. The uniqueness of an in-game reputation is also reduced. Eve would be a much better game without alts.


The administrative burden of ensuring that people didn't have multiple accounts would be excessive.

"Just remember later that I warned against any change to jump ranges or fatigue. You earned whats coming."

Grath Telkin, 11.10.2016

Malcanis
Vanishing Point.
The Initiative.
#231 - 2012-07-17 08:21:07 UTC
Reposting this from a couple of years ago (this thread is not new or original)

Think about what happens with the PLEX transaction. The originating player buys a GTC from CCP or some other retailer and redeems it into 2 PLEX. At this point CCP count their product obligation as fulfilled; the player has receive what he has paid for, regardless of what happens to it in the future. So far, this is pretty much identical to any other MT: gief publisher monies = can haz in-game itemz. But what can you actually do with your PLEX?

Well first you can add it on to your own account, which enables you to play the game for another 30 days. Of course this isn't really a MT in any way that people care about, just a slightly roundabout way to pay a subscription, but I presume we can agree that this promotes gameplay, insofar as it means that the original purchaser will play EVE for +30 days.

Secondly, you can sell it to another player for ISK. This is where it gets interesting, and where it starts to look like RMT and so forth. The most important difference is that the ISK exchange is between two players, not between a player and CCP. This sounds too obvious and trivial to be worth mentioning, but so many people don't seem to understand how important this subtle difference is. Player A sells a PLEX to player B for 500M ISK. (In and of itself, this is a player interaction just like any other market trade, BTW) The amount of ISK ingame stays the same. The ISK that player A receives, he receives apparently without doing any work for it, but the important thing is that work was done for that ISK. So player B had to do missions, convert LP, play the Jita market, risk his ship ratting, run a research POS and sell BPCs or do whatever other activity he engaged in to raise that 500M ISK. If Player A wasn't lazy or time-restricted or whatever other reason he'd rather pay $17.50 than make 500M for himself, he would have done all those activities. As it is, Player B did it on his behalf, but those activities still had to take place, with all the normal implications for wider interaction with the EVE economy and community. To the rest of EVE there is no functional difference between player A selling a PLEX to player B, and player A using his ISK making alt A2 to make 500M.

Additionally, the value received is determined directly by player supply and demand. The amount of ISK you can get for your $17.50 is always dynamically set to exactly what the EVE playerbase as a whole thinks it should be. If CCP sold ISK directly, they'd pick a value (and you can bet your ass it would be hilariously wrong) and stick to it .

Conversely, if Player A was simply able to buy ISK directly from CCP then all that activity would not take place. In addition, it is quite possible that Player B simply wouldn't be playing, as for many people, being able to play for free is all that keeps them subscribed. Even if they kept their mains going, the number of "ISK making alts" would plummet, as the Player B's partly have them to pay for PLEX. So Player C cant buy his faction ammo from B, sell his stuff at Jita to B, gank B's ratting Drake or do whatever other interaction might take place, or at least has less opportunity to do so. Player interaction is reduced, player population is reduced, gameplay is reduced.

Additionally, because the amount of ISK you can buy is limited by the amount of ISK that other players are willing to spend on PLEX, there's a hard cap on how much ISK you can buy this way. It's a pretty high cap, but it's there. If CCP sold ISK directly, they'd sell it at the rate which maximised the amount of money people give them, which obviously means that they'd have every incentive to sell it for ever cheaper prices, since they can spawn as much as they want for free. Hello galloping inflation!

"Just remember later that I warned against any change to jump ranges or fatigue. You earned whats coming."

Grath Telkin, 11.10.2016

Malcanis
Vanishing Point.
The Initiative.
#232 - 2012-07-17 08:25:02 UTC
It's even worse if CCP directly sell items; not only are all the effects above seen, but instead of A using his purchased ISK to buy stuff, supporting all the supply chains that create ships, modules, etc, he bypasses all that and just gets an item magically appearing in his Hangar instead. Although from A's immediate point of view, he doesn't see a whole lot of difference, suddenly EVE has a great deal of things less to do, and less to care about. Why make ISK when the best ships are in the NEX store? Why do invention when the best modules are in the NEX store? Why run missions when the best ammo and implants are in the NEX store? Why run plexes when Y- and Z-type stuff is in the NEX store? Why mine? Why run a moon?

And when there's less point doing all of those things, then why bother to PvP about them anyway? EVE devolves towards being a shallow, mindless shooter.

In short: PLEX are massively less detrimental than traditional pay-to-win schemes, and also carry strong benefits - especially in a sandbox context where the players are the content. They're one of the smartest things CCP did and as has been said above, probably a major factor in EVE's continued survival.

"Just remember later that I warned against any change to jump ranges or fatigue. You earned whats coming."

Grath Telkin, 11.10.2016

Bunolagus
NIPTO
#233 - 2012-07-17 08:42:13 UTC
I could spend thousands of RL cash on Plexes and still be an amature player. Big Isk may give some advantage, but without the knowledge of how to use the equipment it really is a waste of money.
Holy One
Privat Party
#234 - 2012-07-17 09:05:42 UTC
Vilnius Zar wrote:
PL brought a 140 billion setup to last night's AT fight and got their **** pushed in by 3 RRless Sleipnirs. Pay to win obviously doesn't work.


nerd

:)

Signal11th
#235 - 2012-07-17 11:30:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Signal11th
Jesus this is still going on.


There is nothing in Eve that you cannot buy using ISK so there is no Pay to Win in EVE, enough already.


If you're tried of the grind just get yourself educated and find a better job!

God Said "Come Forth and receive eternal life!" I came fifth and won a toaster!

Lady Ayeipsia
BlueWaffe
#236 - 2012-07-17 11:54:35 UTC
Alts also allow people to experience multiple aspects of the game without years of extra training time. I have thus cimbat character. She is great for pvp, exploration, and missions. She can't invent or manufacture though. I have an indy alt that runs a small t2 productiin firm. He couldn't hurt a fly unless you came to a pos. So why should i have to spend a year extra in game to do both, when having alts let me experience more aspects of the game?

As someone said, seems the op is more worried about numbers. Not all alts are just for numerical superiority, some are just there to allow people more enjoyment in the game.
EpicFailTroll
Doomheim
#237 - 2012-07-17 12:51:11 UTC
- Before PLEX existed, was EvE P2W, since many people supported multiple alts, just as now?
- Since time is money and grinding takes time, isn't grinding a form of P2W?
- If grinding is a form of P2W, why is it accepted on all mmos?
- If grinding is accepted in all mmos, is it because the upper edge you get through it is somewhat irrelevant, since a single human player can only reliably control one character reliably, however pimped out he is?
- If the free iteration of a formerly paying mmo does now forbid what was -when it wasn't free- allowed before , i.e. simultaneously logged alts that provide an extra edge without requiring interaction, what does it say about the impact the use of simultaneous logged alts have on the game's revenue, and its gameplay?
- Do offgrid boosting alts, and static scouts alts require any interaction other than looking at their respective client?
- You can fund those alts through isk, but can't you also fund them through RL money, which is faster, funnier, and more efficient in the vast majority of cases?

- In Derkastan, you can get a high post in the government, either through giving money to the president (corruption), or working your way up: what is the state of the regime? Is it corrupt? Is it not corrupt? Is the regime the cat of Schrödinger?
Khanh'rhh
Sparkle Motion.
#238 - 2012-07-17 13:26:35 UTC
"Before PLEX existed, was EvE P2W, since many people supported multiple alts, just as now?"

You would have more case for it, and it was against the rules before PLEX. PLEX and alts were legalized which didn't create a pay to win environment. You could certainly "pay to win" before, but it was against the rules, thus within the rules of EvE there was never pay to win.

"Since time is money and grinding takes time, isn't grinding a form of P2W?"
Time is money is a useless idiom, and not a statement that supports anything. Again, all you are saying is you can pay to avoid spending time in game to acquire it. We agree on this. It is not "winning" however, and offers no advantage.

"If the free iteration of a formerly paying mmo does now forbid what was -when it wasn't free- allowed before , i.e. simultaneously logged alts that provide an extra edge without requiring interaction, what does it say about the impact the use of simultaneous logged alts have on the game's revenue, and its gameplay?"
Why don't you ask this on the game forums? It is not relevant to EvE no matter how many times you ask the same question. I may as well ask "Shouldn't the fact Second Life bans all non consensual PVP and bumping mean EvE should do the same?"
You're discussing two wholly different things.

"Do offgrid boosting alts, and static scouts alts require any interaction other than looking at their respective client?"
No, not usually. However, they are not an advantage you can only acquire through paying so it is not pay to win.

"You can fund those alts through isk, but can't you also fund them through RL money, which is faster, funnier, and more efficient in the vast majority of cases?"
I acquire all my ISK by scamming and stealing from other players, and have loads of fun doing it. Does this mean I am "griefing to win"? It doesn't matter how I acquired what I use to perform the action, since what I acquired is the same whether I paid for it or not, therefore it cannot be pay to win.

"In Derkastan, you can get a high post in the government, either through giving money to the president (corruption), or working your way up: what is the state of the regime? Is it corrupt? Is it not corrupt? Is the regime the cat of Schrödinger?"
This is paying to win, as what you are acquiring (shorter time, no actual input) is not replaceable with that which you do not pay for. The analogy doesn't hold up.

You still fail to grasp the very basic level of this argument, which is you cannot pay to win, you can only pay to avoid earning it in game.

We have been saying this since page one and all you keep coming up with is more examples of things you can pay for, which avoids the need to acquire them in game.

You need to show us how you can turn money (payment) into a scenario where you are more likely to win than if you had not spent money.

"Do not touch anything unnecessarily. Beware of pretty girls in dance halls and parks who may be spies, as well as bicycles, revolvers, uniforms, arms, dead horses, and men lying on roads -- they are not there accidentally." -Soviet infantry manual,

DrSmegma
Smegma United
#239 - 2012-07-17 13:27:54 UTC
KEEP APART!!

Eve too complicated? Try Astrum Regatta.

Degren
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#240 - 2012-07-17 13:30:54 UTC
The argument I don't get is "Paying for plex is ok. Paying for standings isn't."

Hello, hello again.