Market Discussions

Not 2-3, but 20 PLEXes posted for sale for the same (lowest) price in 5 different systems around Jita within 10-15 seconds interval - obviously it's done either by the same person or bot. It happens when PLEX price is rising quickly. Similar situation happens with buy orders when price drop too quickly - suddenly someone is starting to buy PLEXes in hundreds way above highest "normal" buy order. I've noticed this in October and it's still happening.

How do you think - who is doing this and why? It looks like obvious and successful attempt to manipulate markets - but who may be interested in stabilization of PLEX prices?

CCP do sell PLEX from permabanned accounts (ones that are clearly beyond any appeals) on the market.

But it could also be someone taking profits as well.

Its in the Fanfest 2013 Economy talk in the official EVE youtube channel, google it ;)

The plex that CCP use for easing aren't created from nothing. They've still been paid for. Just from banned accounts.

So the numbers are limited.

PLEX is not the only item this has happened to, actually. I've noticed some very interesting order behavior with several items, consistent with the described manner. None of them as important as plex, of course, but it makes me wonder who has stacks of these things in random forge stations and the will to put up large amounts of small orders at prices lower than Jita sell...

Whilst this MAY be true we have only the word of CCP for that. Also CCP made the comment in a historical sense - CCP said that they had used PLEX from banned accounts. Any assumption that CCP still has spare confiscated PLEX is just that an assumption. I think it fair to say that CCP will probably use confiscated PLEX whilst they have stocks, but what if/when they run out?

Nowhere to the best of my knowledge has CCP made any public commitment that they will not generate PLEX out of thin air if they feel that it becomes necessary.
Should CCP in the future ( or already have ) run out of confiscated PLEX CCP has no publicly stated position.


In my opinion they CCP probably already run out a few months ago and are printing PLEX out of thin air.
There is of course economic benefit to CCP not thin airing PLEX - each PLEX represents hard real life cash paid to CCP, printing them prints game time without corresponding revenue. I think however that CCP has to juggle many factors when it comes to PLEX/ISK exchange that go beyond this simplicity. As the PLEX price in ISK rises there may be danger of players who convert ISK to game time find Eve less and less easy to pay for. PLEX prices rising too high could see those players leave because they can only afford to play Eve by paying in ISK.
Less damaging than thin airing PLEX is PLEX sales where the real life cost of PLEX drop. We have seen quite a few of these recently and those sales look to me they are evidence that CCP is trying to keep the PLEX ISK exchange rate from running away too fast. The PLEX sales appeal to two customers, those on a budget, and those with oodles of spare real life cash to blow on purples for other people to explode. I also think that Somer Blink bonus credit change ( Blink no longer allowed to give bonus credit for buying game time codes through Markee Dragon ) caused a spike in the PLEX that has yet to shake itself out. I know quite a few people who took big advantage of the 7 day grace period to stock up on large quantities of GTCs ( PLEX by another name ) and turn the grace bonus ( 1 Billion Blink credit per 60 day GTC ) into even more PLEX than they paid for as GTCs.

I do not think CCP will easily run out of confiscated PLEX. The banning of accounts is continuous process, though at a slower pace than when the anti-RMT drives were active.

And yes, I admit it. It was me who set up those orders, for reasons that may remain cloudy for a while.

CCP actually do this? I'm quite surprised actually. One of the main selling ponts of this game is the player driven market. Not so much any more it seems.

We have much more than that. CCP is a business, their goal is to make a profit.

Create PLEX out of thin air and in effect give away game time, or have $15.

Truth is self evident.

CCP's main interventions into the market are promoting PLEX discounts when prices are higher. The banned account sales are small beer in comparison.