EVE General Discussion

As a business CCP should focus on retaining paying subscribers, not appeasing freetards who think grinding a few rocks afk entitles them to a free lunch.

You can afford a PC, you can afford the electricity for that PC, you can afford the internet for that PC. You pay for all these things, why should CCP give you its product for free. Do you expect to go to the Cinema for free?

If you are plexing your account you are the hired minion of a player who is prepared to pay for your gametime in return for your game resources, how much they expect for that exchange is down to what the funder is willing to sell for, not CCP and not the magic plex fairy.

I do see where you are coming from where the connection of PLEX to the ingame economy creates a very real tangent to the financial class distinctions of the real world; where the ultra wealthy (that have some sense) can manipulate the economy in EVE in an artificial way by using mass amounts of their disposable economy to monopolize objects in game. In this same field of competition there is little hope for players with less income rates because more disposable income can just be pumped into the game offsetting whatever wealth you gain by using your own wealth.

PLEX prices in EVE work very much like oil prices, being that they are both commodity items with universal value. The problem with PLEX getting more expensive is that players are becoming wealthier and wealthier and can afford to pay more ISK for them. All in All, I can see OPs concern. PLEX prices can be very oppressive to people who have neither the time nor the funds to afford playing the game for much time, and that is not fair. This could lead to an odd distinction where players in countries (or states) with better economic conditions have a blatantly more privileged game experience, and suddenly there becomes a social gap between the wealthy and impoverished in the game where the impoverished just can't afford to do anything in game; largely because the wealthier not only have more time to play and then proceed to destroy the wealth of those with less time and funds, but also because they have better equipment and social connections to do so.

I am not an economic analyst, but I can see EVE devolving into generating a series of misfortunate real world parallels largely to the economies connection to PLEX.

On the other hand, unlike the real world, EVE doesn't have implicitly placed glass ceilings or awkward social barriers that hinder progress in game, does it? Ultimately, noblesse oblige solves all of these problems, (albeit while creating dozens more) but that is as likely to occur as it does in person. Right?