Cergorach
Amarr
Black-Sun
Pitch Black Legion
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Posted - 2009.08.13 21:08:00 -
[1]
Let's start by saying that it's CCP's game, their servers, and they decide how things are done on their servers. So if they don't want others profiting from their hard work, they have that right, just as you have that right with your IP. So if CCP doesn't allow RMT, the you'll have to accept it or risk losing your isk, your character or even your account(s). What CCP does allow is the buying and selling of PLEXes for isk, you can buy PLEXes from CCP and GTC (which you can transform into PLEXes) authorized sellers. CCP sells gametime, which might be traded for isk (and in some cases for something else, like tickets for fanfest). Sure CCP gets better from it and might be considered by some to be RMT, but it really isn't. CCP has an finite amount of players that have accounts, sure some will want more accounts if they can 'buy' gametime with isk, but there is a limit on how many PLEXes/GTCs/Subscriptions CCP will sell. Moving some of those subscriptions to PLEXes/GTC makes CCP lose the subscription sale and gain the PLEX/GTC sale. Some people are saying that CCP is making way more money with PLEXes then with subscriptions, but the subscription sales receives CCP directly, while most of the PLEX sales CCP receives through an authorized reseller of GTCs, who also needs his/her cut. As we do not know how big that cut is, we don't really know if PLEXes are better or worse for CCP.
Also bad assumptions:
- Doing calculations with yearly subscription prices. Sure lots of folks go for the yearly subscription, but many do not because they don't have the entire amount lying around or want to have the flexibility to suspend the subscription when they want.
- Doing calculations in one currency. You might have noticed that the $ vs. Ç is good for Europeans, it's bad for the US. But CCP forces you to pay in your local currency, GTC sellers don't. So most Europeans look at sites such as Shattered Crystal to buy their GTC => PLEXes ($35 => Ç26), instead of CCP (Ç35), so CCP loses twice (once to the dollar and once to the reseller cut).
RMT isn't illegal, but it isn't allowed by the EVE EULA, so CCP can hit the ban button when you do RMT. I do find it a bit annoying that CCP keeps trying to connect RMT with illegal activities such as hacking accounts, credit card fraud, etc. There by suggesting that RMT is illegal. I just can't see the majority of the RMT sellers stooping to such illegal activity, it's bad for business! Word would get around fast when a big seller was stealing CC information, totally destroying any further business they would have. The same goes with account hacking, it's to easy to counter and reverse, thus costing your customer isk and loosing that customer for ever. I see the whole illegal mumbo-jumbo as a big PR attempt to paint RMT with a bad name, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, just not as often as CCP suggests...
That of course doesn't mean I condone RMT, I'm totally for the whole PLEX thing!
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