EVE New Citizens Q&A

So hi. I'm a 50-days-old pilot, new to EVE universe and learning everyday.

I've been talking with long-time players in a channel. For some experienced guys it seemed like making billions were matters of weeks, if not days. Heck, I've met a guy who ran 14 mining alts and managed to maintain the squad's subscription with incoming PLEX.

What I don't get is the supply of PLEX and the motivation behind it. While I understand the demand for PLEX is large(understandably), how does PLEX get supplied? Perhaps I am old fashioned(likely) but I just don't see a good motivation of sustaining ISK by paying real dollars. I understand an occasional quick cash-boost, but to my experience with MMO, such quick cashes tend to make the game dull. Yes, I know there is a Buddy system but it grants PLEX only once in a life of an account.

The demand of PLEX also raises a good question. If what I've heard and seen is true, 500 million ISK seems like a negligible amount for most experienced players. Heck, I've gotten a retriever and with it, making 500 million seemed like about a fortnight's work. If it only takes me, a newly started pilot, two weeks, I can only think the price of PLEX to be affordable for most players.

With this in mind, how does experienced players justify paying for subscription?(I know what this statement seems to imply, but I'm generally curious.) For experienced players whose their assets and business earns them a 500 million in a couple of days, it just seems illogical not to spend the negligible amount for a PLEX.

The said 14-mining-alt guy said himself that he keeps all his alts on a PLEX, and it takes them about a week to earn enough to support all of his alts. This tells me either he has no life, and grind for the sake of grinding, or that the PLEX supply is ample and his income is so vast that he can support all of his alts.

I'm not trying to question the monetization of CCP, but some things just don't make sense to me, especially when the PLEX is a consumable goods from out of the economic system.

TL;DR: 1. How does the supply of PLEX maintain its stream? 2. Why do experienced players who can afford PLEX easily subscribe, if ever?

I wrote about my ISK earning capability as an example.

If I can make the ISK to support PLEX in 14 days, then for an experienced players with many other options might do it in shorter time, say a day or two. Go to the Character Bazaar and you'll see people talking in figures of Billions, Look at Contracts and you see items traded in figures of Billions.

I'm asking about the case of experienced players, and, how the demand is satisfied.

I didn't major in Economics, so this 'balance'(the inflation of PLEX over the time) is mysterious for me.

PLEX's are popular to buy and sell for several reason.
First off a lot of new players will do this just for the fast ISK (which then they use on ships and assets they should not fly yet and loose them), or they will do it to get enough ISK to buy a character because many new players are convinced that SP is "everything".
Then of course you have older players that simply do not like to grind for ISK and have more money in real life then they need, so they can justify spending X amount of real life currency on PLEX's to fund their PVP habits (or PVE if there is some really really bad luck involved im sure ).

Now for older players who dont just use ISK to buy game time.
I can only speak for my self here but i dont want to turn EVE into a job, and having the pressure that i have to make so and so much ISK in so and so much time just is not something i can see my self doing and still be able to enjoy the game.
Basically, i want to grind missions or whatever because i feel like doing it that day, not because i have to meet a certain ISK requirement.

Hope this answered your question, sorry im a bit tired so i might have misunderstood completely

Confirming that:

1.) I value in game fun/hour much more then ISK/hour. With my job it would mean that I have to find some in game activity that gets me around 500 mil/hour to be on par with my RL income.

So in 2 hours at work, I can pay for my sub for a month + get a monthly income in game of 500mil.
Why should I then waste my in game time doing stuff like grinding ISK.


2.) But most importantly...don't take the word of a player for granted just because he played a long time. People like to overrate it. Not every older guy is mighty space rich or what so ever.

Also selling PLEX is great for new players. You might not need money to make money, but it does help especially for the initial 500m. I started a successful trading business with a few PLEX which soon paid for itself when I was only a couple weeks in the game. You can also buy a tnumber of destroyers and frigates with one PLEX as a new player while still training for your mining career in someone in your situation for that first month.

Go to last post by TheSmokingHertog

Very easy let me put it in some simple words....I make about $60 an hour in RL...in eve I can make 150mill an hour. Just one hour in RL I can make 2 Bill...that is the reason plex exist. I can just log on and do what I want with no need to grind. Remember your time is worth a lot of money even during play time.

Some of these answers may have already been stated, but to answer the tl;dr questions:

1) PLEX is created when a player either buys it from CCP directly or converts a game time code into one. Therefore, it's a justified infinite supply one way or another, and requires real money to make it into CCP's coffers. I call that a fair trade, honestly.

2) Its main draw is the ability to give someone an extra 30 days worth of game time without having to pay for a subscription fee. Once a player has good enough skills to make more than the cost of a PLEX in a month, they've paid to keep their account active for another month. Also, with the dual-character training currently in testing, PLEX's demand will increase even further since it reduces the need for a second account. (Unless the player in question has fifteen mining alts set up and does nothing but vacuum up belts all day...) There's a third use for PLEX, converting them into Aurum to use on premium clothing for your character, but let's not get into that for the sake of civility.

EDIT: For the record, I'm currently making US$9/hour while training for the next couple of weeks, which'll jump up to about $11/hour with pay rate increases for meeting certain prereqs once training finishes. I'm a paid subscriber who PLEXes once in a while to fill the odd sell order. It's like a church tithe, really...

There is an element that I think is instructive to consider.

When was the last time you saw an isk seller spamming local in your trade hub?

RMT of course exists in Eve, as in every other MMO, but it seem to exist at a much lower level than elsewhere. Before PLEX were introduced, the 'isk sellers' were as rampant in Eve as they are in those other games. Local was filled with spam about buying isk cheap.

I struggle to remember when I last saw such spam.

I think this is the primary reason why we have Plex in Eve. It's not so much an economy question as a security one. Well, obviously money is involved, and now the money that previously were paid to shady operations in third world countries go to CCP instead, but when the isk sellers were active there were definite risks of credit card fraud, hacking, cleaning out of accounts, and so on.

Pretty much this. For me I don't have much in game Eve time available to me. I'm at work as I write this however, and can afford to buy PLEX when the wallet gets low so I can go back to doing what I want in game. It's all about value of time.