Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You really don't get it.

A large percentage of EVE players pay no real life cash to play this game.

A smaller percentage are happy to spend more real life cash to obtain wealth in the game.

CCP has created a mechanism by which the players who won't pay are offset by those who will pay extra.

Take away plex and you drive away a *huge* number of players and quite possible kill the game by killing the revenue stream.

PLEX prices will only matter when the number of PLEX being purchased for real life cash starts to go down. Then we will have a problem.

PLEX is just CCP sanctioned RMT.

The idea of using it to pay a sub is a by product of its real intent.

Sell in game currency and make it not look like RMT.

The fact that you are getting more isk for buck is a good thing,

Unless prices for everything is creeping up then.....duh duh duh.


Take off tinfoil hat.

Recent times, more powerful rigs, same EVE minimal requirements for a long time, IS Boxer (Group Size: 256 ), multiboxing allowed, accounts promotions, changes in incursions so you can run them 24/7, increases in PLEX price more frequent and stronger.

Coincidence!!?

Because it might make it only a little more appealing. For example: PLEX gets 10% more expensive. Players decide to get 5% more ISK as a result. But, this requires buying 5% LESS PLEX due to the change in the values of the PLEX. CCP loses sales.

You can't manipulate something that has an unlimited supply.

Ultimately, PLEX prices are being driven by what people are willing to pay for them not what people are trying to sell them for. If you look at the median price on PLEX it hovers right at the Buy price versus the sell price. The volume isn't being driven by people trying to sell them for 900M isk (as an example) it's being driven by people who are willing to buy them for 830M isk. So that is what you have to question - why are people willing to pay 100M isk more today than they were a couple of months ago?

While I have no information to support this, I bet that the majority of PLEX transaction are instant buy out of game / instant sell in game vs liquidation of acquired assets.

On topic: this idea amuses me greatly. No clue whether it would be good or bad for Eve, but "Icelandic video game passes solidarity measures to combat inflation" would be a great gaming news headline.

Regardless of whether or not you PLEX your account, you must realize that many players do and that this is one of the appeals of EVE - an effectively F2P game without the F2P business model. And no, PLEXing does not require you to make EVE your second job, there are plenty of ways to make the ISK while having fun.

I really think the rising PLEX prices are going to drive new-ish players away because $180 a year is a lot to pay for any video game. Pure supply and demand has its flaws, one being that the richer players get to set the PLEX prices.

A tax? No. To be honest, I would prefer that CCP put an NPC-sold PLEX on the market at 1 billion ISK. Now, none of these would ever actually sell (because player PLEX sellers would always offer a lower price) but it would provide a hard cap on PLEX prices. This could be adjusted for inflation periodically.

The real villan here is not the market, taxation system or the "greedy" sellers, while there are people willing to pay high prices for PLEX they will continue to supply for the most profitable value.

I too would love to have affordable PLEX and be able to confortably play for free, but its not going to happen and its not the market's fault. I rather spend $15 bucks in a subscription. Its real money but I make that much faster than I can make 900m ISK, so in terms of "work time / benefict" I have no problem with that, after all, Time is the only immutable currency isn't it?

Now lets face it, how many trillionaires are there in EVE that could possibly be storing PLEX in hundreds to cause inflation? More than a few I think, but probably not so many that would cause all this.

So who else could possibly be willing to pay whatever they ask for PLEX without batting on eye? Well, bots of course!

There are bots everywhere in EVE. I have personally witnessed a fleet of chinese bots doing Incursion sites, identical ships with sequenced names moving all together like a freaking shoal of sardines.

A fleet like that can make at least a couple tens of trillions per day, and I can assure you the guy behind this is not spending $350 dollars every month to keep his 40 accounts running. This is where the PLEXes are going, and making so much money they will pay whatever is being asked.

If CCP is to do something to fix PLEX inflation, it is banning those bots.

PLEX prices are increasing because there are fewer players buying PLEX for in-game purchases and more players looking to play for free via PLEX'ing their various accounts. This is further compounded by players converting to paid subscription terms since they no longer need to buy or convert PLEX to game time. We'll almost certainly break $1-billion ISK per PLEX before the end of the year, and I think $1.5-billion ISK per PLEX for 2015 isn't entirely unrealistic, either.

If you like your PLEX care plan, you'll be able to keep your PLEX care plan.

Period.

No one will take it away.

No matter what.