Market Discussions

Has anyone considered that plex(and all items in eve for that matter) prices might be tied closer to real world currency prices then anything else? If one takes a real world commodity chart of something that has intrinsic value, say Gold, flips it upside down and superimposes it on the chart of a greenback one can see the direct relationships between a commodity and currency in terms of inflation. Well given that plex is a commodity bought with greenbacks(or whatever currency you happen to use) isn't it logical to conclude that there is a direct relationship between the two?

The real world will certainly impact PLEX prices in terms of ISK rather directly, though to what degree, who can say.

When real world prices go up, but real world wages remain flat, as they have, players have less money to spend on PLEX, Combine that with an ever inflating in-game money supply, and prices will trend upwards.

So I would say you are correct that there is a relationship, though am not sure the method you propose is the best way to come to the conclusion. The real world price graph for PLEX is quite flat.

All we can say for sure is, in terms of disposable income, PLEX is more expensive today than it was yesterday, even though it has a fixed price in terms of real world currency. The value of our disposable income becomes worth more, as the prices of our necessities increase, while our wages remain flat, simply because we have less disposable income.

It is simply another example of marginal utility. If we wanted a graph, for the price of PLEX in real world terms, that we could use in the method you propose, we'd have to find a way to measure marginal utility, which we just can not do.

I would think that it is relative to the employment figures.
If less people have jobs, then less can afford PLEX.
Less PLEX in the market = higher ISK per PLEX.

Although it could just be that: The majority of players that want to be space rich, have already achieved their goals.

Also: Gaming and all it's costs, are basically, 'disposable income'. People change hobbies like they change cars, so this years hobby may not be next years hobby.

There is an infinite supply of PLEX since it's a virtual item. I believe there are at least two important factors:

- The buyers who have large sums of ISK and buy one or more PLEX to pay for their game time.
- The sellers who can afford to spend large sums of real money on PLEX and sell it on the market.


The economy certainly matters. If you look at the amount of real money spent on browser games on sites like Kongregate, you'd be amazed. The fact that we can spend so much on games, means we are in fact quite wealthy. This guy could definitely afford to buy a PLEX or two: http://themittani.com/features/alod-go-back-wow

On the other hand not everyone can afford to pay for the game with real money. I have met players who grind ISK to buy a PLEX every month in order to keep playing.

Logical fallacy detected. Although PLEX is a virtual item, it has a CCP-enforced ratio to real world items (GTCs and currency).

MDD

Okay let me rephrase that. There is only one PLEX added to the game for every time one is bought, so in theory you could buy any amount of them assuming you have enough IRL cash.

Is there a certain mechanism to limit the amount of PLEX in circlulation I don't know about?

The number of people WILLING to spend their RL money? That is pretty much the limiter

That's usually someone laundering their RMT