CapnKellTainer
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Posted - 2010.12.13 19:04:00 -
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The blog is weak. On the other hand, CCP needed to get something out there to prove that they are, in fact, listening. They probably don't know what to do about it, to be honest.
The problem as I see it is as follows:
1) EVE has a relatively small subscriber base, providing CCP with a relatively restricted cash flow.
2) Resources, as with all things in this world of ours, are finite.
3) PLEX can only be used for subscriptions and Fanfest tickets; sadly, Fanfest is in Iceland and it's cold and expensive with relatively limited facilities, so not that many people use PLEX to go to Fanfest.
4) The overall market for subscriptions is relatively limited.
5) Keeping all these things in mind, the supply of PLEX is relatively low (though increasing lately), but the demand for ISK is very high.
There are a few general ideas for how to ameliorate the problem with relatively little pain. It will never go away as long as this game remains even slightly healthy, but you can make it better.
1) Lower GTC prices, increasing the competitiveness of PLEX with purchased ISK.
2) Run a statistical analysis at downtime (or after; whenever) to identify characters that are exceeding reasonable human limitations on gameplay. If Dotlan can get halfway there, I'm confident you have the logs to get the rest of the way there.
3) Offer for a fee a Blizzard-style authenticator. People with the billions of ISK that render them juicy targets for hacks would probably pay a $5-$10 premium to safeguard their assets and ability to play.
4) Look into the feasibility of implementing a Punkbuster solution to prevent external applications from reading and modifying game code.
Each of these, however, has an opportunity cost. 1) would definitely make it less profitable to enter the RMT trade, but it would also drive PLEX prices down, as more people would choose to purchase GTCs and expand a supply that according to the QEN is already well above where it should be. I'll grant that then more people would choose to fund their accounts that way, eventually driving prices back up and expanding the overall subscriber pool. However, there's still an immediate loss of $5 on every transaction. 2) requires that you have Dr. Eyjo or a cheap American college grad with statistics experience expend labor on a task - meaning that you'll have to pay whoever you get to do it. 3) requires some initial capital, although I imagine if they go with the $10 price point it will become a minor revenue stream. 4) requires licensing costs, or requires the expenditure of man-hours to do the programming in-house.
The question is, are any of the proposed solutions worth it? With a subscriber base that doesn't even crack a million, and given that there are already a lot of expenses associated with the game, it's hard to justify additional expenditures, especially as CCP is allocating resources toward the Vampire: the Masquerade MMO (Insert joke about sparkly Twilight vampires and/or teenaged girls here).
The only way to get these changes to occur is to prove to CCP that they can make more money, or lose less money, by implementing them. That requires either statistical evidence of increased income, evidence that subscriber numbers will drop without the implementation of these or other measures, or both.
TL;DR: So, I say, get to work, folks. Draw up those charts. Crunch those numbers. Talk to your CSMs. Talk to each other. Talk to CCP. If you want something done, you need to go beyond the usual grumbling and make this a real conversation.
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