EVE General Discussion

For you to play the game for free, means fundamentally someone else has to pay for you. You are looking directly at the limits of how much they ware willing to pay for you and what they want for it. IMO it also ultimately distorts the ingame economy so I'd not shed a tear if you and some of your ilk go. There is no other solution for plex prices other than some of you stopping doing this, just like there is no other long term solution for car traffic other than some people taking the train.

CCP does have issues with plex, in that if ingame plex isk prices get too high people need to buy less plex to complete any individual project (like buy a rorqual) and that will eventually outweigh the finite number of people that will buy plex, at which point the price runs away, but I also imagine they work on figuring out where that point is.

How many large MMOs allow you to earn something ingame that will pay for the full game experience?

If that's your yardstick for enjoying a game, I think you're going find few options, other than EVE.

No other solution? Maybe nerf the ISK faucets so that we dont get 60 trillion extra ISK per month? Where do you think all this extra ISK goes? There is very little destruction, so nothing to replace and the material deflation caused by Rorqual makes PLEX the only good gold item. There are players who hoard millions of PLEX.

Another solution would be to nerf SP farms, because they consume large amounts of PLEX, but CCP wont do this because they earn twice as much with an SP farm account than with an regular account.

But why do this? PLEX hoarders and SP farmers, who only log in once a month, are more important than active players, right?

I don't play much these days but I do a bit. And I am Alpha, max Alpha. And I just consider it playing eve on hard mode.

I said its essential for some players, not people. If PLEX gets too expensive, they have to unsub.

You are quite correct with this being the sole exception. CCP is compeletely insulated from the in-game movements of PLEX prices because of the way the system is designed. The $/month income which CCP derives from EvE Online is driven only by the number of subscribed Omega accounts. Regardless of whether those accounts have been activated using in game PLEX or with real world money. At some point someone paid real money for that PLEX - so if you are PLEXing your account, you are basically spending your game time working so that someone else can pay for you to play.

Once you understand how this game economy works you'll probably get less precious about PLEXing your account. If you were to spend your time more productively you'd be better of simply paying the subscription fee, and using all that extra time to do something more productive with your life...

Life is too short to be wasted on playing a video game. So if it isn't fun, don't do it.

Oh what I would give to see a graph of subscribed accounts from beta until now.

When I played this game, I plexed three accounts doing things I enjoyed doing. When those things became less profitable and the PLEX price still kept rising, I quit and moved over to other games. It is a game, if you don't enjoy it, stop doing it.

You have to look at what the people who are fine with paying 1.5b for 30 days are doing to make isk, and either keep up with that, or quit if subscribing is not an option.

One standard response to these threads, besides the ones already here, used to be "you can make that easily 30 minutes per day AFK in an Ishtar". I guess an hour per day doesn't sound as easy, so people don't say that anymore?

Are we past the point where the slightly-above-average player can at least in theory afford to PLEX, or have people just forgotten how to do plex price threads?

Consider PLEX as a luxury, and approach EVE as a subscription game.

Once you internalize that, you can rationalize your plans in EVE without feeling like you are being screwed.

I know this is painful for players that managed to setup multi-account operations that where previously successful, but you have to adapt to PLEX price. Whether that means playing more, or more efficiently, or changing activities or cutting back accounts for now is up to you.

That is part of the fun and challenge of EVE.
You constantly have to find new ways to play, to survive, to adapt.
That is a very good thing.
Everyday in EVE is a new day, with new obstacles to overcome.
I spend substantial parts of my time commuting daydreaming, plotting, researching and planning my next move in EVE.
I wouldnt exchange that for anything. That intellectual content/fun is invaluable to me.

Ive had to change operation models several times in my relatively short period of time in EVE.
Ive also had to unsub accounts because they no longer paid out enough to be worthwhile.
But they arent lost, one day I hopefully will find use for them again as EVE continues to evolve.

Consider it like a business owner battling against market changes.
You have to adapt to a changing environment.
If you dont, you are gonna have a bad time.

Its not a mind****, per se, though it might feel like that at first till you get over the conceptual hump.
Its realizing the true status quo of EVE

Take my word for it.
You will be much happier once you swallow that pill.

PLEX when you can and have had a good month.
Consider that a real achievement and be proud of it.
Have a good time and enjoy a celebratory beverage and snacks when you managed to buy PLEX by earning enough isk to not spend cash.
You've EARNED that.
You played hard/smart, you did good. It was a good month.
Non-EVE players might consider this a frivolous, pointless achievement, but **** them.
All EVE players, we in this community, know the value of that. Feelsgoodman.

Sub when you cant, but dont feel bad about it.
You sub so you can do better next month, or whilst your plans culminate.
Its just the nominal cost of participating in EVE.
EVE is cheap for what it offers. Its a good deal.
You get your moneys worth in spades.

I have never regretted subbing, especially cos I know my money is helping support the continuity of a game I find absolutely irreplaceable and which I love to hate to love.

CCP is not putting a gun to your head to coerce you into buying the PLEX with isk.
As long as the PLEX will be a useful item people will buy it, until the price will go above its actual value.

Its capitalism at work, its beautiful. How much more are you willing to pay for your plex? Looks like not a lot more.

Remember like in real life, its not consumption that creates demand its work.