EVE General Discussion

You google-fu is weak then. All the things on that list can and have been adjusted, as have all the items on the corresponding item faucet/sink list. Every item is a tool at their disposal to adjust inflation, should it prove necessary. Inflation rarely reaches the levels where it's needed, though, especially since it often just evens itself out on its own by transitioning into periods of deflation.

They have changed what's available at which prices, and changed trade goods into manufactured goods.

It happens when it needs to happen, which is very very rarely since the economy is largely self-balancing at this point.

We don't. In fact, right now we have a slight deflation after a long period of very minor inflation.
You really should look up the fanfest economy presentations from the last couple of years before diving into this topic because almost all your questions and misconceptions are addressed in them.

Since you know everything - what is the current inflation in eve?

I think you've too much trust into a self balancing economy. And when I see prices a year ago and now, I doubt that inflation is not close to 15%.

And any yearly inflation is bad for an economy. Especially when you've the possibility to zero it.

All that I can read from you is that you do not know it either. I'll take a look at some prices over many years to get a better understanding of the real inflation.

One concept I think may be missing is the Velocity of isk or how many times a single isk is spent to buy goods or services over a period of time. Just because there are a bunch of people ratting (or hitting other isk faucets) doesn't mean they are spending the isk they got right away, many save it to use later. So there is a lag between when the faucet turns on and when the inflationary affects actually happen. Due to this lag and its unpredictable nature it would be very hard to dynamically adjust faucets and sinks

Probably somewhere in the region of -1–3% by just eyeing the slope of the thing.

That's because you're looking at a few things that aren't particularly relevant for the economy as a whole. PLEX, for instance, is pretty much entirely economy-neutral. It could conceivably create some velocity, but is itself mainly a hedging vehicle at this point — its price is created by a bubble from people speculating on that same price.

No, some yearly inflation is a good thing since it shows that there is growth in the economy and that there is room for more. While the current deflation is too small to be any real worry, it really would be better if we saw the same level of inflation instead.

If you look at prices over many years, we have periods of double-digit deflation. Hell, stuff that used to cost tens of millions now cost less than one. Again, go watch the fanfest economy presentations — it's all there, and it all uses proper analysis of the actual data. All of it tells the exact opposite story of what you're imagining.

How PLEX works.

Player A goes to the eve online website and purchases a PLEX and redeems it in game.

Player A then sells PLEX on the market for ##### isk.

Player B needs a PLEX to either extend an account or use it for some other service CCP provides.

Player B buys a PLEX/PLEX's from the market and Player A gets isk for said sell.

Its a transfer of ISK from 1 player to another. The only isk removed from this is from the sells tax from Player A.

…in fact, the way they're currently being used, the more accurate description would be:

Player A goes to the eve online website and purchases a PLEX and redeems it in game.
Player A then sells PLEX on the market for ##### isk.

Player B thinks PLEX prices will go up or at least maintain a constant value compared to the rest of the economy.
Player B buys a PLEX/PLEX's from the market and Player A gets isk for said sell.
Player B then feels that the PLEX prices have risen to #####+1 where it's time to cash out.

Player C needs a PLEX to either extend an account or use it for some other service CCP provides.
Player C buys a PLEX/PLEX's from the market and Player B gets isk for said sell.
(Replace player C with as many copies of player B as needed).

On average, any PLEX introduced to the market is being resold (read: marked up) at least once before being cashed out, many of them see multiple resells before reaching an actual end user.

I did not read this all so will prolly repeat:

1) A plex is bought from CCP in the forum of real money, this is then converted to an ingame item you can sell to another player, so you don't give isk to CCP* unless its the Iceland isk, then yea.

2) If you have ever watched the good Dr.'s econ presenations at fan fest you will see that eve suffers from DEFLATION not INFLATION.

3) CCP doesn't really mess with the market, except when they add or convert an npc item to one players can make and get. EvE is pretty much as close to a 'free and open market' as you will get.

4) CCP controls the flow of isk with isk sinks and faucets.

CCP doesnlt care if a certin price goes crazy hi, UNLESS it was because say a csm used inside info to gain a market advantage.

*During the dr.'s presentation at fan fest he mentioned that CCP did take measures to stop the sudden spike in plex prices in game, because they were afraid of the bubble, so the price stabilized and steadily climbed, he never said how they did it however, but I personally think that when ccp bans and account or confiscates monies that they take the plex too if its a bot account, thuse they have all these plex's they can use on accounts long dead. But that's me.

People often confuse three factors which influence prices.
Inflation is related to the supply of money.
Supply & Demand which dictates the premium/mark up that can be charged for an item, which is the prime driver of Plex & mineral prices.
And manufacturing cost changes, which is the prime driver to ship cost changes as a lot of ships now require far more material than a few years ago.

From these misconceptions you can see how a lot of people get a flawed idea that massive inflation is happening while in actuality it's a change in both supply & demand on items as well as increased costs that are driving most of the significant market changes.
As Tippia mentioned, last economic report we had deflation occurring, which given the current theory is the player base is slightly shrinking, isn't actually a bad thing. Slight inflation is normally only a good thing if you also have slight population growth at the same time.

Punitively fining "pirates" in high sec would be a GREAT ISK sink! Yay! Fatally fine the pirates!