EVE General Discussion

Not going to happen, the guys who currently trade PLEX may well buy more, but they're unlikely to drop the price while there are still people willing to pay the current one. Even if casual traders get in and list it at 760M, the guys that are selling at 1.2B will probably snap them up enmasse and relist them, in that respect PLEX is no different from any other item that is sold via the market.

You're underestimating the lure of profit in both human nature and an economy such as Eve's. In Eve, just as in the real world, profit often comes before morality, empathy and charity.

What you, in your considered opinion, mean is that CCP has to risk the future of their flagship product, and the company, by potentially cutting part of their main source of revenue, in the hope of attracting both returning accounts and new players. Thank Bob you're not in charge.

Some of the former group are unsubbed multiboxing accounts, they're unlikely to return unless CCP reverses the input broadcasting ban, which is unlikely. Others in the former group have left for gameplay reasons that aren't PLEX prices, they too are unlikely to return. Those accounts that do return are the ones that would have returned eventually anyway, Eve has a nasty habit of dragging some people back into the meatgrinder.

The latter group, new players, already has a poor retention rate. That poor retention rate is due to many reasons; the nature of the game, prior expectations from other MMO's, misinformation from those that delight in urinating in the newbie pool, etc, etc. Very few of them are put off by PLEX prices, few of them know what it is and for most of them it's an unattainable goal for a few months, even priced at 200-250M as it was when I started the game.

So where is this more coming from?

Depends doesn't it. If I'm using PLEX to fund a character purchase, then getting 2 billion for the same $ amount is a huge plus. If I just need a billion, yeah I might drop to $10...then again, have an extra billion as buffer...so maybe not.

It is like saying one can have too much money. If I offer you $10 million or $100 million which will you choose? If it is $100 million when $10 million will let you live a life of luxury and ease till you die and even pass on a nice inheritance to any children...I think you can see why that assumption might be flawed or not as strong as you think.

The people saying that RL plex price affects the in game isk cost only have "I'm leaving cos plex too high" posts, and market numbers and trends relating to plex supply and demand. Also it is quite obvious that the RL cost of plex must be a factor in the cost of it in game, It's the only variable that links the real world and virtual world of Eve therefore it must be taken into account.

Again, there is nothing to suggest that anything of the kind will happen.

You are assuming that people designate a specific amount of money they will spend on PLEX, rather than that they buy as many PLEX as they need to acquire a specific amount of ISK — that the decision hinges entirely on what you pay rather than what you get in return.

You are also assuming that the buyers are interested in putting as much as they can into the market, pushing the prices down, rather than offering the least amount needed to get the ISK they're after and just keep the price up. Again, the assumption is that the actual return is of a much lesser interest.

You are effectively assuming a very irrational behaviour on the part of the PLEX buyer. You're going to need a lot of evidence and reasoning to support all of these assumptions, and since the very start, you've offered the sum total of none.

…except that, as mentioned, it is not the only variable, and there is very little to suggest that the two costs are linked. So no, it is not even remotely obvious.

Remove incursions. Raw isk is no longer being dropped into everyone's wallet. Isk is worth more. Plex prices drop. Missions are completed, markets are formed, loot and salvage is stolen and most importantly; Content is created.

Rat bounties are about 3x as large as incursions. And it is not clear that even eliminating incursions will have that effect. It might...or it might not.

It depends on the need I suppose, if RL cost is reduced and isk plex price is lowered as a result the need for more plex would be required to achieve the desired isk amount.

ISD Decoy, I'm struggling to put that hairdo into context. Please help.

Exactly!

I'm not an economist, I've been having a real head-scratch about this for a while, mostly because I really like this game and want to see it (and CCP) thrive, prosper and grow...so here goes...

For PLEX to work as a game mechanic, two things need to be true:

1. The in-game price of PLEX needs to be low enough for it to be a viable way for the more hard-corps players to use it as a means to pay for their play time.

2. The in-game price of PLEX needs to be high enough for it to be worth it for players willing to spend RL cash to obtain in-game wealth.

This does seem to imply a third requirement:

3. The game has to offer incentives (=entertainment value) that makes both PLEX consumers and PLEX suppliers *want* to participate in said transactions

It seems to me that the real heart of the problem is one of content:

4. Banning input multiplexing effectively removed many thousands of accounts from the game...but this should have decreased demand and in-game price, the rising price means other factors are at play

5. The new player retention barrier is as high as ever so replacing those lost accounts is impossible without fixing NPE.

6. There appears to be no in-game content driver...shiny new ship class (sorry T3 dessies don't quite cut it) or something like that...to incentivise the PLEX suppliers to spend RL cash to go after right now.

My theory, at the moment, is that the remedy to the current malaise has to be something along the lines of a serious overhaul of NPE + something seriously "flashy" from a marketing perspective to both attract new players and help them be "sticky" and re-energize the veterans and get them more engaged in the game.

With Drifters, sov overhaul, (citadels + revamped purpose for supercaps), etc. suggests the stage is potentially being set for some of that to happen. I hope it is.