Market Discussions

Prices are starting to go back up. PLEX holiday is over I presume. Saved 119M on the 12 that I bought with the current price(up 2% since purchase).

I think we are on the same page. My point was PLEX prices are influenced by forces outside the game economy, CCP attempts to curb PLEX inflation, seasonal shifts in activity, and players attempting market manipulations. I think we agree on this.

The OP stated that PLEX is like gold in the world economy. While the state of the world economy affects the price of gold, PLEX is not influenced by the game economy. I believe the price of PLEX is completely independent of the game economy. They just seem to correlate in that they are both influenced by some of the same outside forces.

I disagree on two levels.

1) Gold is so coveted because it's THE safety. Gold has always been the coveted material that keeps value in any case. Sort of a gold meteor crashing on Earth, there's no sh!t that it will become worthless on any time scale, even centuries (central banks, those holding a lot of gold, don't reason in the terms of weeks or months). Gold cannot vanish, it is here and it will be here.

PLEX on the other side is in a relation with ISK but also with US dollar / Euro and it's a fiat money. It can be created out of thin air, it exists only as long as EvE exists (but seen from the inside of an EvE inhabitant, PLEX would last as much as his universe), its value fluctuates like a currency and its quantity (unlike gold) is manipulated by CCP.

There even used to be a website showing USD/ISK currency pair, USD/PLEX would also be an interesting view.

Those really willing to tie themselves in something resilient to any ISK variation have to pick BPOs instead.

Those really willing to tie themselves in something resilient against any ISK *intrinsic value* variation must hedge and without options nor derivatives it's not easy. See the Samroski thread who did a correlation analysis starting from another thread of mine for more information.

Beware, it's though stuff to digest.


2) Price of PLEX is not independent of the game economy. If it was, then CCP would not have to hedge PLEX by incrementing or decrementing their quantity and velocity. Any time some broken expansion creates an excess of ISK, PLEX is the first indicator of something going south. PLEX is extremely sensitive of the game economy.

Does CCP have shares? I have been under the impression that they may have issued bonds or partnership contracts as they do have at least two listed investors, but I haven't seen any "shares". Would be fun to own some. Do you have a link?

That source is a start. There is more recent information available online.

Do not confuse "publicly traded" with "shares." They are not publicly traded. You cannot buy "shares" like an exchange-traded stock. You could probably buy secondary stakes from the private equity firms that own them, but only if you had quite a bit of free nosh. The employee stakes (i.e. "shares") would not be available in any circumstance, except to standing or future corporate buyback offers.

My guess at a corporate valuation on the order of several tens of millions. They would argue it is several hundreds of millions. If you were willing to pony up real working capital, say EUR10million, I am sure they would be happy to talk about equity participation. I would be happy to introduce you.

THIS is what CCP cares about. Whatever price of PLEX maximizes shareholder value is the price it WILL be. See my first post.

And what if the maximum returns are found to be created when PLEX is allowed to be part of the in game economy? Just because they can control a thing does not mean that they do, nor does it preclude the idea that the ISK price for PLEX is at least in part defined by in game events.

Yeah, I just read through your first post again; you say yourself that as long as everything is fine revenue-wise CCP will be happy to let in game events drive the price of PLEX.

Then you go on to talk about shareholders and boardmembers like they are all modern day captain Bligh, I know a few game dev's, they are great people and they don't worry too much about "cracking the whip" because they are very bright people who can make a good living anywhere they choose.

As for investors with solely financial concerns; as in life you hire experts and let them do their jobs. If these investors wanted to run a game company then they could go and do that. They do not, they keep their hands in a bunch of interesting enterprises and double down on the best ones. Their decisions are made after the fact based on audits and long term prospectus. They don't call CCP on a daily basis and insist on PLEX sales.

And in terms of the PLEX to play player base; I know a few of those guys who just started funding their accounts with real cash again because Eve is a game and meant to be fun. Its a few bucks a month, a six pack of good beer, or 1 pizza. These addict players you talk about exist I'm sure, but if the price of PLEX gets too high there are also a lot of players who will just start paying to play out of pocket.

Do your co-workers have a good understanding of Eve, Are you sure they were laughing at Vaerah?

Too funny.

Yes, dear, I am sure you are right, the world IS run by those with good intentions.

The stakeholders in CCP are happy to let management run a company that doesn't maximize return. There is global warming to stop.

LOLOLOLOL. Just adorable.

Do you work with mortgages?

Your not omniscient, your views on the world are correct in some cases and incorrect in others. I don't know what kind of people you have to deal with on a regular basis to make you this way, but there are alternatives.

The nastiness is your idea of everyone acting out of this LCD survival of the meanest self interest. Life is just not like that, at least not the real people that I know and interact with.

And it is rotten out today, just above freezing and hard rain these past few hours. I'm staying right here.

God loves you to.