EVE Information Portal

1. Buying SP injectors is not the same as trading on the character bazaar. While both buying SP injectors and buying characters are a way to skip ahead in the wait for SP, there are major differences. These are that 1) buying a character requires a huge investment, whereas buying SP injectors can be done in small steps, 2) a bought character comes with a fixed name and reputation, which many potential buyers dislike, 3) the process of buying a character is complicated for a new player. All in all, these differences mean that SP injectors are more useable and will be used by more players than the character bazaar.

2. SP injectors change the game for new players (<3 months) in a huge way and give the impression that EVE is P2W. In the early days of a new player, every single SP makes a difference. An injection of 500k SP give him access to a new shipclass, or a new activity in industry or exploration. A new player will also not have enough ISK to be able to afford an SP injection. It’s hard to predict the final price, but it will almost certainly be more than 100m. This means that a new player has three options: 1) have a friend ingame who gives him SP injectors 2) buy PLEX with real money and 3) wait for the SP to come. Option 3 sounds like terrible gameplay and gives the impression that EVE is pay to win. Before SP injectors, a new player may have heard of the character bazaar, but due to the extreme amounts of ISK needed (from his perspective) it was never an option.

3. For intermediate players (>3 months but less than 12 months) SP injectors focus their attention on ISK. At that age SP is of course still extremely important. At a few months into EVE, intermediate players start to gain access to decently profitable ISK farming. With their attention focused on their SP count, they are incentivized to spend all their playtime farming. There’s a huge risk that they will not take the time to explore PVP, join a corporation or generally wander around the universe, trying new things. And that is where many will eventually quit because they perceive EVE as a grinding game.

4. On the other hand, new players now have a way of taking control of their SP development. Waiting can be very frustrating. If I tell a friend that it will take at least a few months until he can play a meaningful role in PVP, he will not join the game. Now I can offer to give him a few boosts, or point to profitable activities ingame.

5. Selling SP extractors gives CCP another way of making money. This is actually a good thing! As long as the company is healthy, EVE will continue to be developed. It’s just a question of whether selling SP extractors is the least painful way the playerbase can pay CCP.

I continue to believe that this is an extraordinarily bad idea and will have negative consequences for the game. It is indeed a pay-to-win "feature".

A fair number of players are likely to create farms of alts for the sole purpose of skill-point farming, and I think this is exactly what CCP wants. More accounts, more alts = more money.

This is not likely to encourage more players to join the game. People don't decide to play games based on whether or not they can rapidly catch up with their friends' skill point levels. They decide to play a game because they enjoy it. There is enough flexibility in the game as-is for new players to join their friends in most aspects of gameplay. In the few areas where there may be exclusion for a while, it is definitely temporary and they will need that time to learn how to play the game anyway.

If CCP proceeds with the horribly bad decision to add this feature, you can expect gankers to start shaking down players for skill points. Miners, haulers, and small corps are likely to see increased harassment. This time, however, it won't just be ISK you'll be asked to pay but rather the life's blood of your characters: skill points.

If the latter happens, that seems pretty unhealthy for the game aside from just the sleaziness of skill-point farming. A lot of newbies are already turned-off by EVE due to the current level of ganking activity in highsec. I don't see how a ganking-for-skill-points game environment will help attract new players.

Maybe CCP already understands these risks and this feature is being added solely as a scheme to milk more money out of the existing player base. It may do that to some degree, but I think it is likely to alienate more than a few players.

Your logic (...) is dumb as hell, but thanks for playing.

Don't forget the impact on the economy! If i can maintain an account just by selling the SPs, i get a non-skiller account for free ... so why i shouldn't make an additionally mining account ... every single m3 Veldspar is profit ...

So you sell a company! Create an User-Bubble and max the profit of one good year (at cost of alle the following years) ... poor investor :)

Well, i don't see many people blowing up monuments in Jita over this, so i guess it's been accepted by the masses.

You see it as a good thing that the masses of players who have spoken against this can't even be bothered to protest? I see it as a sign that the existing community are losing the will to care. That is most definitely not a good thing.

What happened to PLEX last time they introduced something into the AUR store? I thought prices went up?

How do you convert PLEX into AUR?

Market, Aurum tokens.

This is also why the "logic" some people use about how it can't be converted (and thus couldn't be used in rmt) are mistaken, either because they don't know how it works or because they're just doing their PR shill talks.

Actually this I knew. What I did not know, is that there is a direct conversion method as well (1 PLEX into 3,500 AUR) .
You learn something new every day even after years of playing.