Market Discussions

Let the market deal with it.

Why is it a problem?

I am too sexy to worry about plex prices.

Is not really an argument is it more of a generalisation of what the general view is.

I don't really understand why people were so adverse to discussing this it seems alot of people disagree for the sake of it on here.

I can't speak for everyone, but you personally lost all the respect I could give you when you started painting unsubstantial, unrealistic doom scenario’s like a religious zealot.

You started with an argument, people pointed out your argument was flawed. A few posts in you go into a cycle of regurgitating that people leaving the game is bad. Which people rightly pointed out is a silly counter-argument since their argument isn't about people leaving or staying with the game, but that if PLEX rose to a price where a substantial amount of players could not pay for it, price would eventually drop. You continue to spout that people leaving the game is bad. Discussion lost, thread lost.

You said it yourself: there's a recession on.

Fewer players are willing to spend an extra $30 to save themselves grinding up for a new Tech3 or Machariel or whatever

More players are unemployed or have reduced RL incomes, and have nothing better to do with their time than spend a few hours saving themselves $15

PLEX supply falls, PLEX demand increases; the ISK price inevitably rises. QED.


People already in posession of PLEX stockpiles see this inexorable and inevitable price increase, and they hang on to their PLEX as a risk-free, zero-effort way to increase the ISK value of their assets.


Trying to enforce price controls on PLEX will simply lead to a black market and a further decrease in supply (ask people who live in ex-Communist countries about this) - and once you're stepping outside the rules to trade in PLEX, you might just as well go the whole hog and simply buy ISK from RMT sites.

The other alternative would be for CCP to subsidise PLEX sellers, either by lowering GTC prices, or by increasing the perceived value of a GTC by eg: giving 2 PLEX plus some straight up ISK/AUR/other consideration.

A third alternative would be to realise that there's no inherent right to play for free. CCP's income is equal to the number of subscriptions people are willing to play for plus the number of GTC people are willing to buy. The absolute number of players isn't directly relevent, nor is it directly linked to the number of accounts (although I agree that it's objectively good for the game to have more players, the likely consequence of having higher PLEX prices is that people will let that 3rd or 4th account drop rather than stop playing altogether)

Now this wouldn't be bad idea. I don't know if you could really retroactively add an expiration date. But in general this would certainly help the issue.

And it isn't too far fetched. When I sell my clients pre-paid blocks of consulting hours they have to use them within 12 months.

plex price will go down when the global economy goes up

Doing this would make each PLEX a unique item. It would then be incompatible with the EVE market. Your only options for trading them would then be through contracts and trade windows. In my experience, items that cannot be traded on the EVE market are much easier to manipulate.

Aside from that pitfall, how is this actually going to solve your perceived problem?

At present the PLEX price is high (compared to six months ago at least) due to the scales of supply and demand tipping towards the demand side. You could argue many causes for this, but some compelling ones are:

1. Supply is low because of real life belt tightening.

2. Supply is low because CCP front-loaded the PLEX market with cheap PLEX offers.

3. Supply is low and demand is high because people are buying and holding PLEX in fear of, expectation of, or giddy salivating joy over the likelyhood of higher PLEX prices in the future.

4. Demand is high because more people can afford PLEX and are therefore subbing additional accounts with PLEX or are switching existing accounts over to PLEX.

5. Demand is high because people are using PLEX to buy fanfest tickets, pay for character transfers and get NEX store points.

Neither (1) or (2) are going to be helped by an expiration date, or any measure that results in a reduction in PLEX price, because a reduction in PLEX price will result in reduced supply and increased demand.

(4) and (5) are both counter to the story you are telling, which is one of short supply rather than high demand. In any case, you aren't going to fix either of them by adding an expiration date.

So all we have left is (3), which appears to be your core issue. You believe that market manipulation is the cause of this evil that will bring down our ivory towers. An expiration date may crash PLEX prices in the short term, but making PLEXes a contract-only item, with no market data and time limited stockpiles will make it much easier to manipulate. So you would be worse off than you are now.

Fortunately, the core of your argument is a total fantasy and we don't have to worry about any of this.

The big point that is being missed in this thread is buying power.

The OP is worried about people being able to get 2 bil worth of stuff instead of 1 bil worth of stuff for the 2 plex they bought. ((Not the case))

He is also worried that players who once payed 1 bil for 2 plex now have to pay 2 bil for 2 plex and will leave the game.

Your viewing the numbers but not what is creating them.
Some people are saying it's supply and demand.
Low supply and high demand.
This is only a very small factor.



When isk is being injected into the economy of eve a few things happen:

Make more isk per hour then before.
This can be done directly by doing the activity that is the source of the injection. (( Incursions ))

Prices rise.
Make more isk per hour then before.
It can also be done indirectly by selling all your eve made goods at higher isk prices and/or playing the markets for the same percentages as before just more isk involved.

End result is that buying power doesn't change much. Your plex price doubled? If everything else goes up the same you get the same ship with the same fittings from the same location for the same ammount of U.S. dollars as you would have before.

Plex price buying power wise has not gone up as much as you fear. It may have out paced the market and gone up a bit. Don't use the isk to plex ratio to determine how much it has gone up. Use ingame buying power of that plex to determine it's price increase and decrease.

The largest factor that determines plex prices is the amount of game time people will spend in order to get the plex they desire. That amount of time can only produce so much product.

In short if a plex can get you a medium price of a cross faction ship: It doesn't matter if your plex is worth 1bil or 200bil if the ship prices still matches what the plex is worth. Isk is the lube not the engine of the eve economy!