Player Features and Ideas Discussion

How about we just sever the Character transfer for PLEX, Re-customization for plex and AURUM for PLEX connections, and have those services traded for Aurum we can buy and sell in the market?

Plex inflation is mainly driven by investor speculation, not actual use of the plex.
There are people rich enough to single handedly manipulate the EVE market now and they are the ones who drive plex prices.

Look at the number of them being traded, it's held pretty steady.

hm...

yes, plex deals
maybe new sub models
lets say:

1 year abo costs 131,40 = 10,95€ / month
1 year + 1 plex every month 262,80€ = 21,90€ /month
we can call it a fun year package

make the purchase of plex a more or less a passiv thing, this way some people may get accostomed to sell a plex every so often to wreck stuff more careless

The only thing CCP can really do is lower the OOG price. That would increase the amount sold and then lead to more being on the IG market and lower the IG price...at least for awhile.

You'll note that the IG price is trending upwards. An OOG price reduction will have a one time effect on the price IG.

As for reducing the other uses of PLEX such as character transfer that would reduce the demand and could reduce the price IG.

Of course, if a paying subscriber also buys a PLEX that is extra revenue for CCP....why you'd want to cut CCP's revenue stream is beyond me. Well, okay I have some ideas, but they don't speak well of you, so we'll just leave it at that.

BTW, I'd be curious to see the chain of reasoning here as to why higher PLEX prices are driving players away. The only reason I can see is that people are failing to grasp the concept of opportunity cost. That is, these players are the kind of people that will sit in line for a hour to save $0.10/gallon on gasoline.

Because CCP confirmed it themselves that most plex pass through several investor hands before actually being used. And that certain unnamed investors were buying and hoarding large stashes of plex, like up to a thousand or more.

And 2 trillion is well within the reach of people to manipulate.

My point is, that when PLEX prices were very low they were likely under valued. The cost of the game is pretty much unchanged. Here in the US it is about $14.95. If one insists on paying via PLEX and PLEX prices are rising it means one has to allocate more and more of their leisure time to do so. If one has LOTS of leisure time then fine. If one does not, oh well, then get out the credit card. If neither option is feasible, well then it is the case that one will probably have to stop playing.

Nobody is entitled to play Eve Online, just as nobody is entitled to cable television, an internet connection, eating at restaurants, or other various luxury items. You either pay via cash or you pay via your leisure time. If neither trade works for you then...stop playing.

And you maybe right that Eve's player base is aging and is one reason why players online if falling. Eve has a steep learning curve and that represents a high level of fixed costs (if not sunk costs) which may dissuade quite a few younger players who may not be as inclined to incur those costs (millenials seem to disinclined to do much of anything that entails high fixed costs, IMO, probably due to helicopter parents). Over coming that kind of a cultural chasm will be a difficult trick, IMO. And you will not do it via some sort of asinine "fix" to PLEX prices. Things like price caps tend to have a really ****** record as a policy tool.

I thought part of the problem stems from unfortunate RL events like certain countries citizens unable to have verified credit transactions, forcing them to play4plex.

Add to that a war on botting leading to higher mineral prices, and the quick consolidation of large null alliances( demand for infrastructure by new null groups trying to establish themselves) and the nullsec importing of low grade mins to make fun new null stuff, plus the ever popular hoarding.... There's more but I'm not an economist, I'm just wondering why people in a war driven economic simulation don't try to piece more of the big picture together.

If everybody would buy PLEX instead of a subsription, the demand for PLEX would increase and prices as well :)

Basic market rules... oh my god.

They wouldn't have to increase incentive to decrease the costs. They could just flat out make a PLEX a fixed isk value.

There isn't an acutal requirement for PLEX to be fluid in value.

Being that PLEX is on the boundary between real money and ISK there are some very reasonable arguements for making PLEX a fixed value and being done with it. It's RL money value is fixed on the reality end, there is no reason CCP couldn't fix it on the fantasy end also.

You can argue all the econoimics hoo haw you want, but at the end of the day, none of it has to apply to the cost of a PLEX on either end of a PLEX transaction.

You want the real isk value of a PLEX? Take away the resale option. Once a PLEX is purchased for isk - bind it to that account. Add a simple rule that you can't sell a character that has unredeemed PLEX on the account.