Originally by: Adunh Slavy

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Originally by: Spurty

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Magically appearing like rats and their bounties

Magically appearing like big isk drops from anoms

There's an awful lot of magic in this game but it's best not to talk about it or the trolls will ethug you on the forums with their twisted loic as to why some magic is good, but other magic not so good especially as they aren't using that magic.

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This is not a reply in opposition, so much as an opportunity for me to ramble and perhaps shed some light to whomever bothers to read my esoteric ramblings.

It's not magic, not like MTs are magic. To get the loot drops from rats, to get the ISK bounties, someone has to go put in the time and effort to do it. ISK is an expression of time and effort, of labor. ISK, since it bears no burden of debt upon its creation, is a commodity money.

This is quite important to this entire discussion about MTs versus PLEX, buying skill points, ships magically created out of thin air, "convenience" services sold by CCP to make your game play "easier".

Understanding that ISK is a representation of time and effort, we must consider that MT created items are also an expression of time and effort. They are the time and effort NOT spent collecting ISK. So the net effect of MTs is to create an "inflation of time". This will push down the value of ISK in the game and lead to a distortion towards PLEX.

We know this because we know ISK is a commodity money, an expression of labor, time and effort. So all that "time" stored up in ISK now has to compete with all the "time saving" that comes from MT. All the "effort" not being done due to MTs removes all those game play opportunities.

This concept, this understanding of what ISK really is, is paramount to understanding how the entire sandbox works. Reread Malcanis' very good OP that does a walk through, and keep these concepts in mind. You may read it, and understand it more holistically than before.

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