EVE General Discussion

1. "You can assign them to tasks you couldn't realistically ask of a fellow corpmate …"

2. "The portion (tiny, probably) of the playerbase that would rather roleplay a single character does not have access to the same convenience…"

3. "After all, this is a roleplaying game, and players should be allowed to play a single role…"

4. "Ingame means could be developed for most of those: traffic info for Empire gates, Interbus hauling, black market haulers shopping for you in Empire... the afk isk grind would remain, though, which would only enhance the P2W issue."

But they can't, because given equal numbers

OMG there is so much stupid in this thread.

No Plex are not and never have been PTW. Pay to win mean specifically to spend Real life money to have the game maker spawn **** into existence that would exist otherwise.

Everything involved in the Plex system (well except for Arum which is why we had a massive riot last yer) is generated in game via game mechanics. If you buy a plex it doesn't automatically convert into ISK, You have to sell it to someone who generated their isk using existing game mechanics.


Here's a way to think about it , Imaging you have a buddy who plays EVE. He doesn't have a lot of money but he does have a lot of free time while you may have plenty of money but you lack free time, So you and your buddy come to an arrangement where You pay for his account while he gives you a portion of the isk he earns while you are at work so that when you are able to get online you don't have to spend your limited time grinding isk.

Plex just abstracts that so that you can reach such an arrangement with complete strangers.

Another important difference between P2W and the plex system is their purpose in existence. Plex was introduced originally to combat the problem of 3rd party RMT while P2W is implemented specifically to generate additional revenue for the company, Consider the difference between the plex for isk system and the Plex for Aurum systems.

In the case of a plex for isk, Until such time as someone applies the time in that plex to an account that plex actually represents a liability on CCP's balance book. Because eventually that plex will be used by someone to pay their subscription fee for a month. Their price is also determined by the supply and demand. Notice that in no part of the process of trading for Plex does anyone bypass the in game mechanics for generating isk or acquiring the items said isk can buy.

Contast this with the Plex for Aurum system where if you convert a plex to Aurum CCP does magic an item into existence (Aurum) as well as all the items in the form of our character customization (outfits and monocles)

See the difference? The normal mechanics of the game are not bypassed by the plex system.

Character sales work the same. If you decide you want to buy a Titan pilot you can't just spec one out and have one poof into existence you have to find one that someone spent the time training and hope that it matches your specifications. If you want an Avatar pilot but the only thing for sale is a Erubus pilot you are **** out of luck.

The reason Plex is not Pay to Win is because everything involved in the transaction are things acquirable via normal game play that is available to all subscribers evenly. This is unlike Freemium games such are WOT where the expenditure of real life cash buys objects and abilities that can not be obtained via normal game play.

Plex is also limited by the in-game market, If that theoretical rich kid decided to drop 100 grand on plex to outfit his alliance the very act of doing so would reduce the isk value of those plex as the demand for plex wouldn't have changed while there would then be a surplus of supply.

And no having alts is not pay to win either whether they are spies or boosters or any other purpose because they don't represent something that can only be purchased with RL cash, because anything that can be done by an alt is something that could be accomplished by a another player.

…but since that advantage can be had in numerous other ways, it's not an advantage that you have to pay for, thus no P2W.

But it is an advantage that you can pay for, and thus p2w.

…except that it doesn't lead to any “win” because the same advantage is available to those you're competing against, and they didn't pay for it.

It's very easy:

One team consists of 10 pilots flying an assortment of ships.
The other team consists of 10 pilots flying the same assortment of ships.

Which of these two teams have paid for anything? Which of these two teams will win?

But it's still an advantage that you pay for. Not only that, but paying for it gets you the advantage more quickly than earning it in game does (unless you're making more isk/time than you get by spending a few minutes on the website making the purchase) which is a unique advantage in and of itself.

If some fool wants to pay for something I get for free so be it. I dont see any advantage they can buy that I cant get for free.

I made 2 billion isk while at work not playing EVE today.

And you could have made 2.5billion if you had spent the extra 2 minutes to purchase a PLEX.

You have to include the alts in the numbers. If you have two teams one that has 8 actual players and 1 alt neurtal scout an 1 alt off grid booster compared to a team that has 10 actual players including an out of corp scout and an off grid booster (believe it or not people do fly T3 boosters in fleets as their mains) be edge would actually go to the team with 10 real players because non of them would be having to switch their attention between different accounts.

Tell me which do you really think is more effective, a Falcon played by someone who's having to also manage another ship in the fight a Falcon played by a player who's only paying attention to managing his jams?