Player Features and Ideas Discussion

In its current state corporation stock is completely broken and the game dynamics don’t actually allow for a fixed version to be implemented. What I mean is that unlike the real world where there is the SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the market and prevents mass fraud, EVE does not have this which makes a stock market unrealistic. To counter this and attempt to create a pseudo stock market I have a few ideas that may be able to help.

1) Corporations cannot just start selling stock. The CEO needs the convert the Corporation from a private to a public sector Corporation. This can be down through the IPO skill which each level will increase the number of public shares the Corporation may sell. Going public also makes it so a corporation cannot have a 0.0% tax rate and also makes it mandatory to have % of the Corporation income be set aside for a dividend which will be paid out on regular intervals which can be set by the CEO within a predetermined range of options.

2) Once a Corporation goes public, the public shares, or non-owner shares, will automatically be generated based one the CEO’s IPO skill with more shares automatically being generated as the CEO increases in skill levels. These shares will have a total value equal to the value of the corporation at time of listing, not sale. A corporation may place buy or sell orders for its own stock in this market but not the stock of other Corporations. This would be done through a Corporation management window that would have a stock buy-back program option in which a Corporation could set a value that would allow any stockholder the option of immediately selling the Corporations stock back to the Corporation at said value a sell button which will allow the corporation to sell a certain number of stock at face value.

3) Stock ownership would be limited to Omega clones only. This will prevent accounts from buying stock and then stop playing leaving the stock floating in limbo. Any account holding that goes alpha while holding the stock will have the stock automatically revert back to the corporation in which it belongs. This will ensure the market is always thriving with stocks moving based on how well a Corporation is doing and none of the stock will disappear indefinitely if people stop playing who own shares.

4) There will also be a Debt investment skill for CEO’s that will allow CEOs who don’t want to go public with their Corporation to sell a certain amount of debt based on the skill level in the form of a public bond. This will be sold on the same market as the stocks but will operate a bit differently. These will only exist for a set period of time. The value can be set by the CEO within a range which can be increased by the Debt investment skill. This means a CEO can have more debt to equity per skill level allowing Corporations to better leverage large operations.

5) Bonds, like stock, will have a set % return in investment, but because of the limited time frame of the investment investors will only be able to achieve a certain % return on investment. This makes it less secure then the stock option but opens up financial options to smaller corps and Alpha players, who will be able to do debt investment but not stock.

I believe this will open a whole new market within the game and is balanced to let both large and small corporations as well as Alpha and Omega players to participate.

And what happens when the Tadakastu-Obata Corporation shuts down five minutes after I buy some of their stock?

ETA: When two people simultaneously have the same idea on how to break your new mechanic, it's kind of a glaring flaw.

but having a huge pile of isk in your corp wallet isn't actually a good measure of how wealthy your corp is.

Like, at all. Which is the wealthier corp, the one with 50b in liquid isk, or the one with a keepstar and a trillion isk in market orders?

This is very true, but buy using liquid Isk in the wallet you are sure the money is already there to back the stocks value. this will actually drive down the cost of shares because most good corporations do have a larger portion of the value tied up in the market and assets. Thus people trying to jack up the value of their shares to run off with your Isk will likely over value their shares and not be able to move them against the other Corps. It's kinda self regulating like that. Granted it's not full proof but its better than nothing.

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You obviously have no clue how stocks and investments work. Having lower share price is an incredibly bad thing. And having lots of liquid ISK is also a very bad thing for a for-profit corp. ISK in your wallet is not generating wealth, and everything outside of a modest pool to cover operating expenses (citadel fuel, etc) should be invested in something that will generate more wealth. A corp with a ton of ISK in their wallet is a lazy corp that isn't going to generate dividends.

The one that I'm a member of.

For the last itme this isnt an actual staock market. The lack of a SEC agency to protect the individual to some extent make a true stock market unattainable. This is just a psuedo market that works on similar principle. Using wallet valu keep stock prices down making scamming harder because you cannot make big payouts do to over valuing the stock. dividends as mentioned though would still come based on a % of Isk earned by the Corporation making residual income from Solid corporations a real possibility driving more people to buy the stock. Now some stock may sell for more then face value just like in the real stock market or less because companies that have regular stable payouts will be in higher demand. this makes trading viable between individuals.

It's not perfect but unless you have a better system why not try figuring out ways to fix it rather then just saying how you think it wont work or how its not a real stock market.

My better system is to stop wasting time on a stupid idea. Stocks don't work in EVE, period. And we don't need a broken mess of a pseudo-market just for the sake of saying "HAY GUYS WE HAVE STOCKS IN THIS GAME". Let the idea die.

Wow, so you just throw in the towel simply because it doesnt fit your playstyle or what you want for the game. The stock market could be very lucrative for a Corp that knows how to use the system. like the market in Jita A corp can set a low buy back program sor people who just need to liguidate their shares for the Isk and then resell them at a premium thus generating income. it is a perfectly feasible system just needs to have the kinks worked out like any other. Just because you cant comprehend how this will work doesn't make it unfeasible or pointless.

Same reason people are able to buy low and sell high in the same station. People who need quick cash can liguidate there shares the corp then list them at a higher sell price and waits. if their stock is valued because of regular dividends then people will eventually buy it. no if someone else wants to buy low the may place a buy order thats just a bit above the corps buy back. you see it would work just like any other market. Corps could also go public and then maybe issue out shares to mambers and then the members could keep them for the dividend or sell them on the market or trade them back to the corp. whatever they se fit.