Market Discussions

By that logic exotic dancers and veldspar are isk faucets.

Not really the same thing though.

There would be no game without ships (veldspar) and you're probably the only person in EVE that thinks that 7,000 Exotic Dancers have the same practical value as 1 PLEX.


Seriously, to rephrase the question: I'm reasoning less PLEX injected into the game would mean less in-game inflation, and vice-versa. Do you agree or not? If not, why?

Your assumption regarding how players earn the ISK for PLEX is wrong. Personally 80% of my NAV is invested in long term things, the rest is used for trading to earn the ISK to buy PLEX and other stuff, although I'm pretty lazy and most of that has turned into a long term investment too . I also know players that earn ISK for their PLEX by researching BPOs they buy from NPCs, which are an ISK sink.

No, PLEX is not an ISK faucet. PLEX is another asset that you can create/trade/destroy like any other asset in EVE. In essence, a PLEX is equivalent to a ship, module, implant, whatever.

Your argument that PLEX is an ISK faucet because it encourages players to grind ISK faucets doesn't hold, because by that rational, anything you can purchase with ISK would also be an ISK faucet, since you'd have to grind ISK faucets to get the ISK in the first place.

Your other argument, that PLEX is an ISK faucet because it favors in-game inflation is also flawed. The generally accepted cause of inflation is an increase in the supply of money (ISK in this case). Since the purchase of a PLEX does not increase the actual amount of ISK available in-game, it cannot be a cause of inflation, and thus, it can't be an ISK faucet.

I too have written about PLEX => ISK velocity some times

As has been pointed out time and time again inflation is either non-existent or so small as to be unnoticeable amongst other effects (patch changes, etc) in eve. That pretty well makes both points irrelevant...except for to plex themselves, really. The first class of person might buy them as an investment above and beyond his own needs on the assumption that they continue to rise while the second grinds and lives hand to mouth. Even in that case, however, the grind activity being a faucet doesn't actually matter - all that matters is that it's money in their pocket somehow. That's why post-inferno FW caused such a large plex spike - it was ridiculously easy money in ridiculously large quantities that we're ridiculously accessible.

I see what you mean.

I find that FW-driven spike you mention very interesting! It looks like, even though no new ISK was created (actually, as we all know, npc loyalty stores are ISK sinks), the fact that large quantities of existing ISK were 're-distributed' to several 'ex-space poor' players caused an increase in PLEX demand. Cool!

LMAO

Maybe you're just too accustomed to people (especially OPs) posting to either whine, troll or desperately try to prove (to themselves) that they're smarter than everyone else in the whole make-believe EVE universe.

There are still people that just love the game, actually try to understand other people's views and enjoy learning new things about such a complex simulation.

True.

I like the 'PLEX increases ISK velocity' theory Tau Cabalander mentioned (btw, I recon Dr. E knows what he's talking about). If I understood correctly:

1) people buying PLEX and selling it for ISK encourage other players to generate ISK, whether it's from farming proper faucets or getting it from somebody else's stockpiles; presumably the other players are also better/faster at generating ISK than the average 'PLEX for $' buyer

2) most of them immediately spend the ISK they just acquired: doesn't make much sense to sell PLEX just to stockpile ISK (though the opposite is reasonable)

End result, more ISK traded, less ISK stockpiled. Which, I guess, is another way of stating the obvious: a free sub is a worthwhile thing to spend ISK on.

I hate plex.
I could have been very wealthy person isk wise now if not that.. "shiny" feeling each time I look on that golden cube and acknoledge I can purchase number of those...

:X

never again!