Market Discussions

That splash-screen marketing window caught my attention also, but first of all I guess we need to remember that it is marketing ... designed more to self stuff than be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I'm not sure what you're getting at but I thought PLEX was **the** CCP-approved RMT vehicle?

You pay real money to buy a PLEX, or a dozen PLEXes as you see fit, and then you can use that PLEX to either extend your game time or to get yourself some more ISK my selling it ingame. From the other end of the arrangement you can gather lots of ISK and use them to buy a PLEX ingame. AFAIK that's legitimate use of PLEX ... I certainly hope so coz that's what funded my first POS setup.

If your concern is the apparent disparity between PLEX traded and the likely number of accounts being extended using PLEX then I guess ppl are probably stockpiling their PLEX ... perhaps as a hedge against future PLEX price rises or, just the opposite, anticipating extracting a profit from those same future rises.

Considering I alone trade (read; buy/sell -repeat) few thousand plex a month that I don't use, it's not 50T worth of plex used!

It's called trade for a reason.

Even if you are making the market, that is every plex buyer sells to a sell order and every plex buyer buys from a buy order that is still 50,000 accounts worth of plex a month.

Why are you worried about an illegal scheme, are you the police, interpol, fbi? If not then you really aren't qualified regarding the legality of any scheme nor do you have any standing to even suggest a whiff about money laundering. CCP hasn't implemented a reverse redeem policy so there cannot be money laundering. Money laundering consist of money exchanging from hands A to B who then exchange to C and C back to A. The point is for Party A to get the money to exchange enough hands and come back to A as "clean". You can do this if there is reverse redeem but that doesn't occur here. All money exchanged occurs out of the game from party A to CCP for a tangible (digital at least) item; it is a straight purchase regardless if you purchase directly from CCP or an affiliate. All PLEX originate from CCP.

Isk that is 'sold' from ingame to out of game is beyond the control of CCP regarding both parties actions. The currency never leaves the game so again no money laundering. Party A contracts to Party B; Party B pays party A for the isk. Even if Party B gives money to Party C there is no link between Party A to Party C and therefore cannot be considered money laundering in any regard. Party B is likely to not receive money back from Party A as that doesn't make any sense. Party A can be a bot for party B or a player who has tons of isk, they are simply the in-game vehicle for party B to get the isk and resell it to other parties. No direct connections between the parties and no money returning back to one party in a washing method.

Now could people pay others with ingame isk for out-of-game actions? Sure but that isn't anything illegal and kinda foolish that someone wants a virtual currency that is limited to one game.

Now take the example of "internet tokens" for gambling sites. These are/can be money laundering. Party A buy's tokens from Party B (token service). These tokens have real cash equivalent and are reverse redeem. So party A can then redeem his tokens from party B after it exchanged hands and was "washed" once. Party B makes a fee and party A has a solid statement for where they got to token (but very bad washing method). Instead this is what occurs. Party A buys tokens from party B. Party C buys tokens from party C. Party A & Party C then engage in a token swap via a mechanism (such as gambling site) to make the exchange appear legit. Party C then loses and loses and loses to party A, who suddenly has many tokens. Party A cashes out the token from party B for real cash. Party A and party C meet in parking lot and exchange money. Party C has now "clean" money.

Notice the difference between the scenarios. There is no money laundering going on with Plex.

"That people are purchasing Plex from third parties and reselling to orders placed by those third parties. Basically discount plex = illegal RMT" You are so wrong on this logic. What you are saying is that Party A purchased a plex from party B out-of-game. Party B also has alts that have Plex buy orders on the market, say Jita buy. party A sells PLEX to buy order and receives isk and Party B now has the plex again. This is not "illegal RMT" this is trade. Party A wanted to get in-game isk, the only way to do that is to sell to a buy order or place a sell order. The fact that Party B also places B orders doesn't mean anything and is standard trade as the Plex doesn't leave the game. Party B is not doing anything illegal and CCP still received payment from the PLEX via the affiliate association that allowed Party B to sell the plex in the first instance.

Now if you are suggesting Party B also has an illegal plex site where they sell already-ingame plex then that is a different issue. However, what person is willing to buy an in-game plex hoping that the item will show up via contract? Someone who is probably about to lose money and who will they complain, CCP?

You will find that most people who bought PLEX for RL money are selling them in game to buy orders. Most people who are selling PLEX on the market are speculators. After that, I would be surprised to find that a PLEX isn't doing two or three cycles through speculators' hands before landing in the lap of the capusuleer who actually applies the game time to their account.

What Akita said and......

The majority of EVE player are not efficient players with respect to isk(either due to time constraints, ignorance or stupidity.)
That means the 10%-25% of players who take advantage of everyone elses inefficiency have lots of isk to burn on plex.