Market Discussions

I understand that Plex was created to get rid of RMT transactions. I would hope that would be assumed by my post but I guess not. Plex was the only item that can be purchased out of game and converted in game for isk. Thats a big problem.
Doesn't anyone see a glaring comparison to a RL issue??? 100mil isk to the person who gets it right.

Again: you do not convert PLEX into ISK.

Yes. It's just a tool to trade ISK vs game time between players. It's not constructed from materials within game, and it turns into dust the moment it's used. So, nothing is created, nothing is lost. Think of two players A and B:

A --- "rich" player --- 1000 mil ISK
B --- "poor" player --- 100 mil ISK

total: 1100 mil ISK

Now... B wants to be richer, buys some GTC and turns them into PLEX

A --- 1000 mil ISK
B --- 100 mil ISK + PLEX

B sells the PLEX to A

A --- 600 mil ISK + PLEX
B --- 500 mil ISK

And A turns in the plex

A --- 600 mil ISK
B --- 500 mil ISK

total: 1100 mil ISK

So, after the transaction, no trace of any item is even left in the game. The same amount of isk in game. The same amount of wares. No influence on values.




Cheaper minerals, as mentioned above, means more ISK value. You get more minerals for your ISK after all, don't you? So... what are we complaining about? Devaluation or deflation?

Aye you are right , didn't look at it that way allthough so obvious

Well, other then the market broker fee and sales tax (unless it is a direct trade between players).

Bottom line (as others have said): If the ISK flows from an NPC's wallet into yours, then it's an "ISK faucet". If the ISK flows out of your wallet and into an NPC's wallet, it is an "ISK sink" (reducing the amount of ISK in-game). If the ISK flows from one player's wallet to another's then it is a neutral event in terms of inflation/deflation.

In general, the amount of ISK will always increase in a game, because the more "sinks" that are added, the more that players will hit the "faucets" to get ISK.

Time is inexorably linked to ISK. It takes time and effort to generate ISK from the faucets. ISK is functionally a commodity money, an abstraction of labor in the past.

Keeping this in mind, you're both right, and you're both wrong.

If PLEX were not in the game, and assuming RMT was not there either, then moving ISK (time/effort) around the game would not be as fast or as easy. Since it is easier to move ISK around using PLEX, the existing ISK can be rotated on and off the market much faster than would otherwise be possible. This can certainly have an impact on prices and the overall availability of liquidity in the game. Instead of the ISK sitting around in wallets, some of it is out and doing things.

From a static non-temporal view, PLEX does not change the value of ISK one bit, no new ISK is added. In fact, some is removed in the form of the NPC taxes and fees. From a non-temporal point of view, PLEX is actually deflationary. However, From a temporal evaluation, PLEX may very well be inflationary. How it manifests is anyone's guess, though I suspect this is not exactly what the OP meant, or if it did, it didn't make it clear.

Well said. Yes, PLEX can serve to increase the LIQUIDITY of the market, and hence lead to increased prices. However, note that ANY form of trade can serve to increase liquidity on the markets if someone with few ISK sells some of his wares for a decent amount of ISK to purchase other things. Also, Liquidity can be generated in player-granted loans. In any kind of transaction which gives a "poor" player ISK to spend on the market.

While PLEX transfer increases market liquidity, lots of other things do so, too.

On another note, even if PLEX was responsible for a large effect on the liquidity, labelling the PLEX as "teh ebil" and shutting down the PLEX market could lead to a strong decrease of this liquidity and thus lead to deflation, which could bring all of EVE into a recession like state. Producers are far less likely to produce when prices are falling, and round the economic wheel goes the other way around.

So, yes. Liquidity increases prices, but is also an economic motor as long as it doesn't turn into a bubble (which we've had enough of in RL recently).

I guess maybe the best question might be, "How would you feel about me buying a Titan via purchasing Plex with cash and then converting it to isk via the market"? I guess that is really what's driving my original post sorta. How would you feel about a person buying a Titan.

I can't fly one so no worries. lol

PLEX does devalue isk, not in the conventional sense that isk is injected in the market directly from a plex transaction but rather through the introduction of more active accounts that rats, farm L4s, complexes, sanctums, incursions, etc.

in a roundabout way, most of the time the main deterant to people doing that is often actual cash for accounts, now that people WITH cash can just buy plex dump into the market, get it bought up, fuel more active accounts that actually increase the isk faucet then in that sense it DOES devalue isk.

there are people with cash but with little ingame cash and accounts.
there are people without cash but with plenty of ingame cash and can potentially fuel multiple accounts
plex becomes the best case scenario for both groups.
isk is devalued as those with ingame cash continously feed plex to more and more accounts to do their ratting, farming etc.


TL:DR ;

plex fuels account, account fuels isk faucet, hence plex fuels more isk faucets! (hazaaaah for A-B-C logic)

Well the big difference thanks to PLEX is that those with idle isk have something to spent it on and those who don't have any isk have a fast way to aquire it.Wich in essence should make the amount of idle isk a LOT less and the isksink a lot higher then when there would be no plex wich should good for the economy.