Curzon Dax
Caldari Deep Core Mining Inc.
|
Posted - 2006.11.28 01:20:00 -
[1]
Hey folks!
I'm not a mathematician, but I was watching GTC sales and decided to do some math to compare profitability of GTC selling and the complaints about their rising cost.
1.) Let me preface with a laurel: I'm not an ISK buyer or seller. I *do* track their trends for my own personal agenda. If I measure my in-game wealth against real currency, I don't feel as bad about the amount of time I spend playing a video game. Second, in every MMO I've played (Ultima Online, Asheron's Call 2, Lineage 2, Everquest 2, World of Warcraft) I've been at or near the pinnacle of wealth. Everquest 2 for example...when SOE introduced Station Exchange, I utilized it, sold my assets and bought a new car. 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder convertible (manual of course.
2.) I was initially attracted to Eve on the recommendation of a friend for its unique blend of PvP and economics; I've been playing for six months and have amassed (and mostly spent) some 30 billion or so ISK -- most of which I've subsequently spent on too-expensive modules and financing my (thus far) unprofitable hot-dog chain enterprise in Jita, so started comparing efficient $$ -->ISK methods.
3.) Keep in mind that regardless of individual feelings for the secondary market for virtual currency, it isn't going to disappear because its as player driven as the game's success itself is. Both CCP and SOE have taken a step in a good direction in putting a handle on it, and reigning the "black market" trading for in-game currency and items into their own arena, where they can control it to some extent.
With all that said, I went to quite a few websites offering to sell ISK. My standardized unit of comparison is "Millions of ISK per $USD." I'm not going to list websites that sell ISK here because I'd get smacked with the ban-stick so hard that I'd wake up the in age before TomB acquired his nerf-bat.
The BEST ratio that I found online was 10.52 (million ISK per dollar), with a mean among all sites averaging at about 9.80. IE, your typical $1 will buy you 9,800,000 ISK. Compare that to the mean price of time cards. 30 day time cards average 12.0, and 90 day time cards average 10.25.
What this means for people who want to get ISK is that you'll make more ISK for your dollars buying Game Time Cards and selling them in the forums. What that means for people who want to turn their ISK into dollars...well, I don't know what to tell you. Give your spare ISK to me. But as of this writing, selling Game Time Cards will get you more ISK per dollar than buying ISK online. Which...is likely why the price of ISK online has dropped so sharply over the last many months. Not enough business for the farmers?
The economic implication for players who choose to buy game time cards for ISK is that the price of Game Time Cards is likely to continue to grow (inflation in an MMO is infinite) but will increasingly slow in price-growth as online secondary market competitors find a competitive mean for people looking to acquire ISK. For Gametime Sellers and those who don't support the secondary virtual market out of game, you can continue to sabotage its success by hunting down and podding farmers. :)
Just my two cents for the day.
|