Market Discussions

That creates more problems than it solves.

The simplest way to mitigate speculative attempts is to simply limit the number of PLEX each character can hold (e.g. maximum 6months worth).
It raises the cost of speculation because then, you'd need an army of alts to even begin anything major. Got friends? No problem. Can you fully trust them?
Ok, you've got friends you can trust your mom/wife/kids with? You'd still face a hard limit.

Store them in floating containers? Hmm .. maybe allowing PLEXes to be transported was a bad idea after all.
Did I miss anything else?

Those things said though, I'd doubt CCP would take the trouble to stamp out the speculation until things persistently gets out of hand.
It'll usually take a major hoo-hah for them to act decisively.

The proper value has not been attained yet to release reserves. Though i would prefer 600m, it seems 480m is where the advisory counsel believes is the proper trigger. We shall see.


SH

Why are people in this thread attempting to come up with all sorts of ways for limiting how to speculate on PLEX when the answer is simple: do nothing. That's the obvious solution for a non-problem.

You're being waaay too magnanimous in that assessment...

Because I don't feel like typing it all over again, I'll just say that you can click here to read why the idea that CCP is meddling with isk prices is complete bullshit.

That'll teach me to be generous when reading forum poasts.

You've pretty much nailed it, but I'll try to clarify: The incentive for CCP is to keep plex prices low enough that a large number of players will pay for their game time with PLEX instead of credit cards.

Think about it - if you pay with a credit card you're paying $11usd to $15usd a month - if you buy a plex with isk then _someone_ is paying $17.50usd in exchange for your isk. That's a pretty clear win for CCP every time someone uses a plex to keep their subscription active.

So, to continue, CCP's motivation is to keep plex prices low enough that the largest possible proportion of plex capable players will choose to use plex rather than pay with dollars or euros and high enough that PLEX RMT is competitive with other forms of RMT.

Yadda yadda, hurd durf, et cetera and ergo henceforth.

edit: there's nothing about credibility anywhere in there - if CCP pushes plex prices down from their current level that's a good thing for them - it means more players can consume plex and "pay" $17.50 a month instead of $11-$15. CCP's issue now is optimizing the number of plex consumed per month by balancing the price of plex relative to disposable isk available per player.

Credibility is the secret sauce that makes a "High PLEX prices - A massive boon for traders" advert have an impact on PLEX prices without CCP having to set up any market orders.




Guess you can argue that any such ad makes people check out PLEX prices on the market and might lead to some opportunistic PLEX sales but imo it is mostly a friendly "I am watching this space and I don't like what I see" from CCP.
A veiled threat of direct intervention on the market which is employed to readjust price expectations, if you will.
As long as the threat is credible no further intervention is required and prices adjust.

However, at least in my eyes EyjoG's credibility has suffered a lot during the last week - and I think the market does mostly share my opinion.

PLEX prices tested the 400/410m barrier, we got some half-assed PLEX promotions, after some further back and forth PLEX prices soared free and EyjoG appeares to do nothing substantial.

In fact we got a "power of 2" promotion that did probably increase PLEX demand - which while probably not directly attributable to EyjoG directly counteracts what we believed to be his goals.

Why did he not follow up on his words with actions?

(1) He is not allowed to spawn PLEX from thin air - his means are restricted to Login adverts and (basically) revenue-neutral promotions.
The market called his bluff and he folded.
If that is the case and he intended to go on confidence alone without ever being put to the test he is stupid.

(2) He believes that PLEX prices are driven by fundamentals and not speculation. His mandate is to stabilize prices against speculative excesses, not to keep them out of equilibrium for prolonged periods of time.
If that is the case (and even if (1) is true this is a great way to save face and what little credibility can be saved) EyjoG should talk to us and explain his stance as soon as possible.


EyjoG talked repeatedly about the way EVE markets model real-life especially with regards to speculation, the role of expectations and preemptive price adjustments. That (and what we know about central banks irl) is why my interpretation of his words and actions concentrates on expectation management rather than any direct "real" effects they may have.

Nerf highsec incursions, way too many highsec carebears are making a killing from doing sites, only takes 4 hours to make a plex now so why would you pay RL money to play?

Highsec Incursions have totally imbalanced the game, people from nullsec are moving to highsec because they can make more isk since the sanctum nerf. weren't CCP trying to get people out to nullsec and not the other way around? They really f**ked this one up.

PLEX will go up down up down up down up down up. You can quote me on that.