EVE General Discussion

CCP's best interests are served when PLEX prices are high enough that people considering RMT through third parties will buy PLEX instead, but not so high that players won't fund their subscription with ISK.

There are two curves of interest: the demand curve for ISK-bought PLEX, where the X-axis is the ISK value of a PLEX and the vertical axis is the number of PLEX consumed per month at a given ISK value. The second is the supply curve for dollar-bought PLEX, where the X-axis is the ISK value of a PLEX and the vertical axis is the number of PLEX bought per month to obtain a certain ISK-value.

CCP will want to balance the PLEX value at approximately the intersection of the two curves, such that desire to supply is approximately the same as the desire to consume. If there is too much supply, the value goes down and fewer RMTers will use PLEX to gain their ISK, but that is self-correcting to some degree since as supply goes down, prices go up until the ISK-subscribers give up subscribing using PLEX, If the value goes up too high, the ISK-subscribers stop subscribing (or subscribe using other means), so there are fewer people consuming PLEX, so the price will come down.

If you plot the price of PLEX on a logarithmic scale such that a steady percentage growth in value will show up as a straight line, you'll see that the price of PLEX is roughly a straight line.

This is the free market at work, establishing a value for a consumable commodity. You'll also find wealth concentration at work, and you'll also find the "working poor" — those people whose entire play time within the game is consumed with making the ISK to pay for their game time.

If you are one of the "working poor", I have one piece of advice for you which comes in two options: option 1 is to stop subscribing using PLEX. Option 2 is to become better at making ISK, faster than PLEX becomes better at absorbing your ISK.

If you run missions in hi sec, learn how to optimise your ship for each mission. Learn which agents provide the best missions. Learn which NPC corporations provide the best rewards. Optimise your play in terms of ISK/hr. Once you have enough to buy more than one PLEX per month, you are now space-rich and can start working on the wealth concentration part of the game. After one month, you have two PLEX, one consumed to pay the subscription, the second used to seed your trading fund. Use your money to make more money.

This is how it works in real life too, and in real life you have the benefit of the tax system being written by rich people to support rich people. Once you have approximately one third of an average income stashed away in savings, you can start investing in property or capital. Then you can use negative gearing to pay for your loans, and you are effectively being paid by the State to be rich.

But I'm veering off on a tangent.

TL;DR: if PLEX prices are causing you concern, you need to adjust your handling of money within the game and learn to use your money to make money. A billion ISK invested in the market (and a decent hauling ship) will make you more money in the long run than a billion ISK invested in a mission-running ship.

So.... your point is that its not inflation because its inflation.

Gotcha.

Inflation is never a "good" thing.
Its, however, a necessary, commensurate and consequent evil.

By analogy, its not dissimilar to the human experience of growing old.
Yes, you have more value. You appreciate in terms of experience of the world etc.
But at the same time, in relation, your capacity to enact any of what you have gained, becomes smaller.
More value, less effect. Same thing with inflation. More value, but less purchasing power.

All economics are in a constant battle against inflation. Just as all people are in a battle against becoming redundant by age.

In economics, this is accounted for by a complex system of checks and balances.
It is how our systems evolve, adapt and improve to supersede the preceding models.

PLEX, in EVE, is in many ways similar to interest rates, IRL.
When there is high confidence in the system, people take many loans, and interest remains low as a function of demand.
However, when confidence drops, people stop taking loans, banks stop giving them, and interest rises to compensate for reduced demand.

If people are not buying PLEX from CCP anymore, that is a worrisome problem, with wide-ranging effects, the most immediate of which is the reduced capacity of other players reliant on them for those PLEXs for purchase with ISK, to have to reconsider whether they can maintain their accounts.

If PLEX price increased at a slow, gradual and predictable amount, it could be surmised that the economy is healthy.
But when it erratically jumps in either direction, it is an indicator that something has changed in the economic situation.

This is not a "good" thing for EVE.
Sure, some people with PLEX reserves, can benefit.
Sure, those people who buy PLEX, can now benefit more.
But it is inherently so. as evidenced by the fact that PLEX is rising in the first place, that people are NOT buyin PLEX from CCP, proportionately, at the rate that they used to, as compared to the populace consuming them with ISK.

Its bad. No if ands or buts about it.

More like it's not inflation because it's not caused by the pressures that cause inflation.
It's caused by market pressures on supply & demand.

Entirely different causes.

Yes, I was saying that Salvos was wrong. Again.

Only if you show me figures showing the difference in the number of PLEX in the market now compared to it over the last few years

I already said, find it in a previous post

Fanfest is only ONE cause of spikes. Right now, alongside fanfest tickets you have ship skins which convert a lot of plex to aurum, and this is following directly after the "activate an account and get your alts name onto a monument" burst.

Or increased demand. You seem to think the only possible way that supply can be depleted is because nobody is buying PLEX for cash. I can;t see any reason why it's not the other way, that PLEX is simply being used more, depleting the supply at a rate above normal. Get used to it though, PLEX prices have increased pretty steadily and are likely to continue to do so.

Please quote where I said that, if thats what you think I said

Are you saying there is not a reduced supply of PLEX?



It was in format and consistent with his own double-negative.