EVE General Discussion

This is the first reasonable thread opener I've seen so far in terms of the whole PLEX price drama. If it were up to me, we'd just get rid of PLEX entirely, and go back to trading game time codes on the forums. It's not, though.

If I recall correctly, GTC cards were sold as goods on Amazon and scuh. People bought them and sold the code on the forum or on ebay.

Since PLEX started as a Pilot Licence EXtention and morphed into in-game gold, I imagine GTCs would have had the same progression eventually.

But we can always dream.

Mr Epeen

Won't work. Every item that can be legally bought for real-world currency and be sold for in-game currency will gravitate towards the same isk/$ ratio, regardless of what it is or can be used for.

e.g.

• a Plex costs 20$ / 500 units, and sells ingame for 1.6B isk / 500 units, used ingame for 30 days of Omega time, or all kinds of other things.
• You propose that an alternate item Plox exists, that also costs 20$ / unit, but sells ingame (e.g. on forums) for only 800M isk / unit, and that can be used only to buy 30 days of Omega time.

A person looking to $ into isk — the only reason to buy plex from CCP AND then sell it on the in-game market (as opposed to buying Plex from CCP and then using it to buy services or nexus store items) — can now choose to either

1. get 80M isk/$ by buying Plex and selling it on the market, or
2. get 40M isk/$ by buying Plox and selling it on the market (or on the forums as you so fondly remember, with increased hassle).

No-one is going to go for option B until it offers the same (or better) isk/$ ratio as option A. This phenomenon is what prompted CCP to merge PLEX and AURUM in the first place.

You seem to think there will be this item Plax, that sells ingame for 800M isk / unit, and can be used to buy 30 days of Omega time. The phenomenon described above indicates this is only possible if CCP sells Plax for only 10$. This item would have conversion parity with Plex, and therefore be viable.

In summary: every request for an alternate currency that is

• bought from CCP for real-world currency,
• can be traded to other players for isk, and
• can only be used to buy Omega game time

basically boils down to asking CCP to reduce the number of $ player A has to pay to allow player B to play as Omega for a month.

Just campaign for CCP to reduce the number of Plex needed to buy a month of Omega time then, instead of these convoluted schemes that won't work anyway.

Excuse me but you do realise that GTC where available from the start of eve? I'm not suggesting creating any thing new at all. The fact is plex is overvalued purely because it has multiple uses and not just for adding game time
However I bet the majority of people.use plex.for adding game time.rather than dual char training. I personally don't care for that added value.and the extra cost it's giving me
I just want game time. Using GTCs will allpw.people to buy and sell and ofc that CCP still profits. The prices should drop significantly. PLEX should then be used for everything else. Therefore the price of PLEX reduces also. As people will only buy it for ingame commodities.

Yeah, GTC price was steadily going up.

I did a quick google search and this thread came up from 2011. (450m for 30 day plex)

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=29438

That thread is pretty much identical to what we have now. You know, the best solution is just sub with real cash and not affected by this.

You can cancel a recurring sub anytime.. just some of us and even myself forget to do it, then find a 6 month sub for 3 accounts just gone out of your bank

On another note. Well prices alays fluctuate, its inflation. You dont pay the same price for a car or house that you did 5 years ago do you? No ofc not.

I think the point in simple terms if we could just have GTCs for game time then the price of that would be maybe what 600mill for 30 days game time perhaps.

i could then choose to buy plex for in game commodities. Now if PLEX was purely for that and remove the game time element, then those prices should lower too. So plex should be cheaper.

The fact is plex are 1.6 bill becuase
You can add game time
You can multi char train
You can buy skins/apparel
You can buy them for injectors etc

Its a bloated price because of that, if we split game time with commodities, then i have a choice on what i want to pay for game time or commodities. Thus bringing the costs down.

it cant continue like this for just game time

The main problem is not the price of PLEX, but the whole EVE market.

If you want to understand what is going on, the first thing you have to keep in mind, that the PLEX is a trade good. It is supplied by gamers. As the trade good it is subject to the market mechanism (supply and demand).

Now lets assume that all the plexes are supplied by a small but stable group of players who each month buy 1m PLEX units and sell them on the market.

The price of PLEX (as we know it is the trade good) is created by relations to the other in-game goods. Its value in ISK only shows this relation, right? So - if we in this economy model will add an another parameter like increased supply of the all other goods, the price of PLEX will raise, right?

Recently in EVE we have have expirienced a few important changes, which were created pressure on the PLEX price:
- alternate ways of using plex (extractors, skillpoint trading etc.)
- splitting PLEX to 500 microplexes which are very easy to acquire. They are perfect to use as a capital deposits, because their price is still climbing up.
- increased supply of the all other game goods. The rorqual change is the most significant factor. Since last year the price of the capitals dropped by 30-50%.

What does it mean for the players? In the simplest words:

IF YOUR EARNING CAPABILITY INCREASED THIS SAME WAY AS THE SUPPLY OF THE GOODS DUE TO CHANGES OF GAME MECHANICS, YOU ARE STILL ABLE TO FARM PLEX IN THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME. IF YOU STAY AT THE SAME LVL LIKE ONE YEAR AGO, YOU HAVE TO FARM MORE OR BUY A SUBSCIPTION. THERE IS NO PLEX PRICE PROBLEM, THERE IS PROBLEM TO SOME PLAYERS, THAT THEY ARE NOT EFFICIENT IN COMPETITION LIKE OTHERS.

There is a bright side of the situation - now the price of the Titan is about 1000 USD in microplexes, while 2-3 years ago it was 3000 USD. All in-game items are cheaper in real world money.

And please, don't tell that PLEX is "inflated or overinflated". We see the inflation of ISK in relation to the PLEX price.

Wrong... most used aspect of PLEX is skill extractors for the multiple hundreds if not thousands of farms. (I am counting the PLEX that goes towards omega'ing those farms as well) Solution is to double the isk cost of Extractors and grab the popcorn as dozens of skill farmers scream and unsub their worthless, economy ruining accounts.

ermm get it right PLEX was STILL USED for everything else, and aurum was just for clothing... jeez...