Market Discussions

EDIT: The revised version of this article took out both of these quotes at CCP's request. So it looks like a false alarm.

It's worse than I ever thought it could be:

"At launch, EVE Online players' contact with DUST players will be limited to contracts, which allow EVE players to hire infantry to fight for them in DUST. However, players should certainly expect more interaction between the two titles to be added in the game's future."

and

"And while ISK will not be shared directly between EVE and DUST, the contract system will allow EVE and DUST's economies to influence one another while still allowing CCP a modicum of control over the economic balance between the two."

I will wait to hear what Dr. E and Eino Joas have to say about this at Fanfest, but I think they are making a huge mistake.

The easiest time to combine the two economies will be on day one, so the Dust economy will grow in the shadow of Eve's. If you allow Dust to grow independently then you can never merge the two currencies without a huge disruption. If it doesn't happen at launch, it will never happen.

Goods, implying a barter system perhaps? But generally, I'd agree with Claire - after all the fanfare about integration with EVE it sounds like Dust and EVE will barely be on talking terms at the start and later integration will come with all sorts of problems.

They do not want the richest players in EVE to be able to dominate the Dust economy on day 1.

I am sure that this and the "we don't want rich Eve players to dominate the battlefield" alternative were the reasons, but that is pretty lame. Look at Eve, the guy with the biggest wallet doesn't always win in space or on the market. It simply means he can afford to lose more often

If Dust is any different, then the game is broken and restricting the flow of isk won't fix it. They have said that Dust will not be pay-to-win, but perhaps they don't really believe it. And if the market can be dominated then it means that there is a artificial shortage (items, slots, etc.) that can be exploited

They have had plenty of time to work out a robust connection between the economies with redundant economic checks and balances in case their initial model was off. What this tells me is that they never had a complete vision of what they promised at the beginning and they were just hoping that a solution would come along. They hired a second economist and he didn't work out any better than the first guy

I can imagine how this went at a high level CCP meeting 3-4 years ago
"So we're working on this sci-fi MMO FPS and it looks like there will be a bunch of similar games coming out around the same time. We need some way of making ours way more awesome than the others."
"We've already got one sci-fi game, why not tie it to Eve? How does this sound: 'Two Games - One Universe'?"
"We could tie together the industry and economies and it will be way awesome!"
"Wait, how is this all going to work exactly?"
"Let's not worry about that now. Let's all go get drunk!"
"Yeah, awesome!"

The "one universe" tag-line is a mirage, and always has been in my opinion
I hope they will prove me wrong, and so I am crossing my fingers until Fanfest.

I don't see the problem, especially on CCP's end. They're fans of huge disruptions. And limited interaction limits problems as well as benefits. For example, if an isk dupe bug is found in Dust, you don't want that overwhelming the Eve economy.

Imagine you're a Dust player and you've been playing in the kiddie pool for six months and have maybe 100 million isk saved up. Then they open the Eve flood gates and your isk is basically worthless. That's not a "disruption" that's quitting time. If you are going to connect the economies, the sooner you do it the better. It's bad enough that we play for "play money" but Dust players playing for "play money" to our "play money" is reason to go find another FTP MMOFPS and there will be others out there when that "disruption" occurs.

That said, until we get more detail on exactly why they are doing this and their time-frame for merging the economies maybe I should hold off on passing judgment, but if they are thinking about doing it "down the road" I think it will be a disaster, not merely a disruption.

I would ask why you didn't get paid by Eve players. If you're bad, you shouldn't get paid, unless its as a buffer to delay someone...who knows if that kind of warfare will be in game but...yeah. Point stands, if Eve wallets open up, money will rain on good players.

In a shooter, who cares about the bads?

No...seriously.

Your quote was, "And while ISK will not be shared directly between EVE and DUST, the contract system will allow EVE and DUST's economies to influence one another while still allowing CCP a modicum of control over the economic balance between the two."

This is what lead me to ask about Aurum. Was this a misquote, did the article get changed?

The article was word for word as Claire said when I read it just after she posted.

I'm tipping contracts for Dust corp hits in exchange for items only obtainable in EVE - no ISK transfer.

Prevents a massive flow of ISK into Dust and the items can be somewhat controlled in the EVE universe. Even if they are hyper-inflated in EVE the impact is lessened in Dust.

And if they create the contract mechanics correctly Dust corps will actually have to achieve something, not just accept the item.

Not perfect but my tip.

Won't matter though, Dust will be niche, then nothing.