EVE General Discussion

1, 11, 13. No, that wasn't the purpose of the store. That's just what it does, and the purpose of introducing it was never explained. This is particularly highlighted by the fact that you think it's for buying clothes when it's actually for removing PLEXes. The actual purpose of the NeX is to be a PLEX sink. The (poorly) communicated purpose of the NeX is to be an MT store. Being able to buy clothes does not require the NeX — the two have nothing to do with each other.

2. …which doesn't explain the pricing structure.

3. Customisation has nothing to do with testing and gathering feedback, and while some or even a lot of people might want customisation, the kind of customisation people want is not in the store. More to the point, though, the store is completely unnecessary (and, in fact, rather counterproductive) for any kind of customisation option in EVE.

4. Again, you're not addressing the point you listed. How you buy clothes has nothing to do with the complete lack of capabilities of the store and the fact that everything it does is already done better by existing stores.

5. The code needed for that already exists within the game — the NeX is not needed to do what you want, and the NeX just adds stuff that doesn't work as well as that pre-existing code. In fact, the whole IW Scorp débâcle was due to this unfinished state of the store.

6. PLEX have nothing to do with the industrial cycle of EVE. Spawning stuff out of thin air does.

7. Time spent copying existing features, but making them less capable and less integrated is the same thing as doing nothing.

8. …which doesn't change the fact that the NeX wasn't properly integrated into the game. They did not create the promised market. They did not create the promised professions. They did not create any competitive elements. They did not even fulfil their own stated goals with the NeX or AUR. So no, after the failure to integrate the NeX, you can buy clothes. You'd be able to do that if they integrated it properly as well, since the goods' existence is not a factor in the store's integration.

10. Actually, no. AUR was introduced to be a micro-PLEX currency that was common with Dust, but there was no reason to have it in EVE since you might as well use ISK. Nothing of what AUR does requires AUR to be in the game. You could remove AUR today and nothing would change in EVE.

12. …which doesn't change the fact that the reason MT works is because the “micro” part removes price from the decision-making process. CCP did the exact opposite, which means it fails at being an MT store.
You completely failed to address any of the points you listed, and you are actually quite wrong in a few of your answers. So no, you didn't, nor did you need to, but congratulations for missing the point so thoroughly.

No, defining a purpose of a game feature is not contrary to the sandbox concept. Quite the opposite: defining a purpose is critical to making an addition worth-while, in any kind of game. Dumping things in with no plan just to see what players do with it is a recipe for disaster, and just because they might do something you didn't expect with the feature you designed doesn't mean the feature shouldn't have a well-defined purpose before you drop it in.

What is the purpose of cobble blocks in Minecraft? To use as building blocks or as materials for crafting (and to eat up your coal or make you wish for Silk Touch, should you want to use plain rock). What is the purpose of LSL in Second Life? To allow for user-scripted interactivity. What is the purpose of the NeX? To sink PLEX and reduce liability for services not rendered in CCP's books.

…and this is where the “no clearly defined“ part comes in. If you say the purpose of the NeX is to sell clothes, then the NeX is pointless. Clothes could be sold through NPC stores, LP stores, player-driven industry from BPCs or random drops or gifts from heaven. CCP mumbled about how the purpose was to generate a secondary market and a flow of ISK, PLEX, items, and AUR, but none of that happened due to the limitations of the store, the limitations of AUR, and the pricing structure.

The purpose of the NeX is to appease the CCP accountants and make their financial statements look good for investors. This was not clearly defined to the players, who were instead fed a bunch of unnecessary nonsense that failed to happen. I'm not using it as a criteria for success — I'm using it as an explanation for why it failed: because it didn't do what people though it would because they were never told what it was supposed to do.
…except that we already have a “penny” for those smaller transactions on the NeX side — one that offers roughly 100,000× the granularity of AUR: ISK. We also have another “penny” for those smaller transactions — one that offers maybe 5,000× the granularity: LP. You could remove AUR today and it would make zero difference because its functionality is already covered by at least two other pre-existing currencies (which, as an added benefit, already have plenty of mechanics surrounding them to make the shopping experience far better and more versatile than what the NeX can offer).

I'm offering both since you argue that CCP needs to be able to control the currency in order to ensure they get paid for the NeX transactions, and LP would do that just as well. In fact, it would do it even better due to how much more fully-featured the LP store is. But that still assumes that the goal is to maintain an MT store as a source of income, which I would dispute due to the simple fact that they've abandoned it and aren't even trying to make back the money they've spent — they have finished content in the store that they haven't released and which just wasted effort.
No, I'm not picking and choosing. I'm saying that, even within the realm of space barbie, the NeX did not integrate into the core gameplay, i.e. the industry and the market. It offered no useful secondary market. It offered no expansion of the industry. It offered no competition. It offered nothing of what makes EVE EVE. I suspect that you're interpreting what I said as “it doesn't offer P2W”, but that's not what I mean — I mean that they offered this image of how the NeX would be a new trade area, with all the gameplay additions that come with that. It didn't.o slightly) reducing their liabilities through it, but in doing so, they've hurt the game and the community. Had they had a less unhealthy view on EVE and managed their development efforts and spending habits, this liability would not have been an issue to begin with.

Unless it was changed, one glaring aspect to items from the Nex store was you could not loose them. Bought a monocle and suit, get podded, and wake up with the same goods in another station without worry of transporting said goods around.

Shall me and you just call it a draw? cos we are just going to keep saying the same things to eachother until one of us comes to the other ones house and eats all his soup.

I dont agree with you although i can see why some people dont agree with nex. But in my eyes its pretty harmless other than the plex rise....you gotta want the monicle though.

**** off with your ****** micro-transaction ideas, they should never be in a game we are paying full price for.

And Jimmy hats.

I bought a jacket with my free Aur that I got from CCP because other people did the stupid facebook crap for it.


I don't even want the jacket, it's in a container or random station somewhere.

Nexx store is dead, until or unless they offer ship paintjobs.


I would pay real money for custom paint.

I would probably not bother with premade skins though, because everyone would have one of the same N possible skins, so whats the point?

It's not that the NeX store failed. It's that WIS failed.

If they'd open the door and make available all the NeX items sitting in the data base, things would be flying off the shelves.

Mr Epeen

One day I'm sure you'll become wiser to the ways of business and you would see that things like the NeX are a negative to the long term future of EVE.

Not a cancer you say, have a chat to the veteran players of LOTRO or wait and see what is going to occur in WoW as they lose more subsribers, you will see additional things in their cash shop that will start affecting gameplay, not just yet another $25 mount.

Also of note is Blizzard cutting 600 jobs due to their bottom line taking a hit from having less subscribers, they will try to maintain the same return for shareholders with jobs being the obvious first choice and then additional revenues from thier cash shop being the next obvious one. As this occurs you will see an accelerated rate of people moving from the game which will mean Blizzard trying to monetize WoW more any way they can. In other words Blizzard is reliant on the revenue they were making prior to their loss of subscribers.

The reality of it being cancerous in EVE is that CCP will start to rely on any additional revenue made and will then try to maintain it through adding things they know players will buy eventually, especially items that give any sort of advantage. Wont happen you say, sorry but that's not how businesses work and the rationale of senior management and investors.

The one thing the NeX store does well and that's lessen potential gameplay in EVE. Give players more things to do, not one off meaningless shinies.

For it to be "successful" they have to at least make more money than they spent on the work to code the store and model/texture everything inside of it along with any advertisements specifically for the thing.