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Great post, Miss Mallow!I have a couple of questions on this:

1. Why do you think this idea would spectacularly improve retention?

2. Don't you think it's bad to offer SP-trading, but only linked to AUR? Discriminating based on willingness and/or capability to fork out extra cash on top of a sub? Milking extra money for a feature that - maybe, if you're right - will already generate money by improving retention? Why not offer a SP-trading mechanic, but without the AUR part?

Those stats don't show what you think they show. Let's look at some of these prolific posters having a "forum meltdown" from your own link.

Querns 128 posts (5.9%)
Dave Stark 95 posts (4.4%)
Tyberius Franklin 51 posts (2.4%)
Alavaria Fera 43 posts (2.0%)

These are 4 of the top 7 posters, all have been very much for the proposed changes. In point of fact, most of the disaffected users, so called "froth and tears" posts tend to post they're concerns once or twice and then leave the thread - while those 5 users post over and over how this proposed feature is exactly the same as the character bazaar. As if by repetition, they will prevent the community from seeing the obvious.



Ironically, your link shows the exact opposite of what you describe. A small cadre of users are desperate for this feature to go through, and the majority of posters (not posts) are strongly against this change.

The SP packets and the extractors can be sold on the market for ISK.

And it's here that you see the prejudice that informs this posters thinking.

I meant golden ammo, ammo, for the love of Jita monument!
I spoke with my girlfiend who played microtransactions mmo (I have no experience). Her conclusions: vets will be gone (most of them), new players will stay for a while but without being hooked (and it's hard to be hooked to EvE) will leave too. It's two way payment, subs/plex and paying for SP. SP is used not only for combat. There won't be any attachment to characters, you may rename them to: slot 1, slot 2 and slot 3. I think she's a bitter vet althought she not played EvE at all. "It's a bit too much science, I'll log D3 and chop some demons".

re: 2. you can buy aur with isk, and you can buy whatever aur buys with isk so i don't see how its "milking people for real life cash". I'm not going to be spending any extra money as long as I pay for a subscription, but I'd be interested in buying some sp for isk.

No matter how you abstract the concept it's still P2W. I can spend RL $ on a PLEX, and buy my Titan Skillbook, and Titan.

I payed, now I win. Will I appreciate the value of the Titan if I lose it? At current prices buying 6 plex packets at a time would require about 72 ~ 73 PLEXs at just over $100 each. I can buy a Titan for a little over $800 USD.

Will my heart race if I am about to lose $800 USD ? Not nearly as much if I put the effort into the Titan the long way.

Fortunately ? I don't have that cash to blow on a Titan.

Sorry but my income would be all but gone if the bazaar and SP sales were to go side by side. I generally do cheaper, what you may call starter toons of between 30 and 50 mil SP.
Unless CCP were to charge extremely high prices for the SP packages (will encourage RMT'rs) and set a limit of how many can be applied to any one character (sort of defeats the purpose) the characters I sell will never be worth enough to make it worth doing them anymore.
The current high price of plex is already having an affect, people don't want to pay more for the characters but the cost paid to CCP to trade them has gone up over 100% since I started doing it - It used to cost me 1 bil isk now it is getting close to 2.5 bil but my characters are only selling for 1 to 1.5 bil isk more than they were a few years ago. Some traders must be actually just breaking even on sales as some chars sell for little more than the cost of the training and 2 plex needed to pay CCP.
-- - -- - -- - --
Moving the bazaar to the client or at least having it duplicated in the client may make it easier for players to find but unless it is a dedicated app that has specific search functions it is not going to really achieve much. The worst aspect of the bazaar is trying to find what you are looking for. Hundreds of characters listed makes finding one that suits your needs a tiresome and often frustrating undertaking. (why some players end up with crappy names and terribad corp histories)

CCP say the auction system of the character bazaar is "awkward" (what about eve has ever been easy) but they are so wrong. The auction system is what makes the bazaar great, players will pay for what they want. There is (up till now) no real fixed price for SP, it is worth what you will pay for it. Depending on how the SP is used to a large extent will add or detract from the value of the character - CCP is looking to give SP a set $ / isk value which will kill the character bazaar especially for any character with less than 50 mil SP.

Yes Kil2, some people end up with crappy names and horrible corp histories - Bottom line, the choice was YOURS, no-one forced you to buy that particular character. You could have waited a week, maybe 2 and something else may have come along, possibly cheaper or maybe with better skills and a decent name.
So rather than break part of the game by selling SP, why not add an option to change your name - At the time of purchase / transfer - for an additional cost. This has no effect on anyone or anything, except through the removal of a name and corp history the previous owner put together.

A character newly purchased from the bazaar getting a new name could be given a specific corp history - "Faction" medical corp - to indicate it is a character that has just been purchased. This sends a clear warning to corps that mat be recruiting, that this character has recently been sold (it has no real corp history) and therefore recruiting is "at your own risk" as it may be a known corp thief changing his identity to try and rip you off - Don't give access to the alliance wallet till you get to know the player. Or it may just be some guy who wanted a new char with a name he or she preferred, without someone else's corp history.

Mmmhhh... ok, I have to think this through then...

Kindly help me on one question: can you actually convert PLEX to AUR directly? As in, destroy a PLEX and get AUR in exchange (directly from CCP)?

Also, can AUR be traded among players in exchange for ISK?


Thanks in advance

Yes you can exchange a plex for AURUM for 3500AUR per plex. I don't think you can sell AUR directly for isk although I haven't looked very hard for it.