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Skex Relbore
Gallente
Red Federation
RvB - RED Federation
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Posted - 2011.09.02 17:08:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Skex Relbore on 02/09/2011 17:11:32
What ignorance. Plex (and GTC's before them) are a brilliant solution to a wide number of problems that MMO developers face.
First there is the issue of RMT, a practice that has existed in every MMO that has ever existed. Of course RMT is a "solution" to part of the other problem game developers have it just has many drawbacks that aren't acceptable to game developers or most players.
Here is the issue that a subscription game faces, There is a large segment of the potential player base who have a lot of time to play but insufficient money to pay there is another smaller subset who has plenty of money to pay but insufficient time to play. The former represents a large potential to fill the servers with "life" that is being missed out on (after all what's the point of a massively multi-player game if there isn't a massive number of people playing it.) Larger populations generally promote more successful MMOs.
The later represents a lot of potential money that the developer is not getting their greedy little paws on.
Problem 1: some players have time to play but can't afford to pay.
Problem 2: some players have plenty of money to pay but don't have the time to play.
Now what if the second type of player could pay the former to play for them?
This is what Real money traders do, they play the game for those customers who have money to pay but no time play. So the customer who has plenty of money but no time buys some "gold" to improve their character, in level based games they may even pay a service to level their character for them so they can maximize their enjoyment during those times they can play without always feeling left behind.
The problem with this from the developers point of view (In addition to all the customer service and credit card fraud headaches that some of the less scrupulous RMTers engage in) is that they aren't getting a piece of that action.
So what if there was a legitimate avenue through which the time poor but money rich could directly pay the money poor time rich for those services that would cut out the middle man and give the developer a cut of the action?
Enter the GTC plex system. From the developers point of view who pays for an account is irrelevant as long as someone is paying for it.
I mean you could just as easily buy a GTC for your buddy so he could play for you the Plex/GTC system just creates a market that eliminates the need for that personal relationship to enable the transaction.
So instead of paying for your buddy's account in exchange for them playing for you, you simply pay a stranger to do it. Normal micro-economic mechanisms go into action and an exchange rate of time(isk) vs money(GTC/Plex cost) is set and voila the developer get all those greenbacks from the time starved money flush in their bank account, and they get to keep those cash strapped players that keep the game population healthy.
In addition since there is now a legitimate risk free avenue for "gold" buyers to pay people for their time it undercuts the RMTers who now have to sell their "gold" far enough under the market rate for their customers to be willing to risk their accounts which will make many of them toss in the towel and move on to another more lucrative MMO.
The plex concept is total epic win and quite possibly the most brilliant idea CCP ever dreamed up.
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Skex Relbore
Gallente
Red Federation
RvB - RED Federation
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Posted - 2011.09.02 17:16:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Dane El
Granted not all PLEX funding activities help the Eve universe. Those that suck on an isk faucets drive inflation. Bots get involved sometimes. But those activities are not engaged in solely to get a PLEX. Those players would probably still be doing what they're doing in the absence of PLEX. It's their source of ISK, what they spend it on doesn't really matter. People don't just rat and mission for PLEX. They do it for ISK.
THERE IS NOT AND CANNOT BE INFLATION IN EVE.
ISK is not currency in the same sense real life green backs are, it's just another resources that people harvest. If too much isk is being generated people will move to other activities and it will balance out.
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Skex Relbore
Gallente
Red Federation
RvB - RED Federation
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Posted - 2011.09.02 17:43:00 -
[3]
Originally by: Verone
PLEX have pretty much made moneymaking in Eve obsolete.
Entire nullsec alliances are funded on real life money now, so I'm not surprised that people who enjoy 0.0 sov warfare are packing their **** up and leaving.
Yeah because all the isk being used to buy those plex is spawned magically by the ISK fairy, Do you have any idea just how stupid your assertion really is?
Someone has to engage in that money making you claim is obsolete or there wouldn't be a market for the plex in the first place.
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Skex Relbore
Gallente
Red Federation
RvB - RED Federation
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Posted - 2011.09.02 19:49:00 -
[4]
Originally by: Bootleg Jack
Player buys PLEXs
Player sells PLEXs
Player buys 10 ships for PvP
Players corp made up of PLEX players steamrolls sov
Who really gives a damm that a botter in some system on the other side of EVE "earned" the ISK?
EVE is supposed to be as much about player enterprise versus player enterprise as it is pew pew, player enterprise is basically pointless.
Without the enterprise this may as well all be ported to a console app.
One, I seriously doubt the major Null sec players are paying cash for all those super caps. Botting maybe, buying plex to get the isk? I seriously friggin doubt it. Oh I'm sure there are a few out there but in the volumes you're talking about, no way. People with the kind of scratch to do that have better things to do with their time than play video games.
Nullsec SOV holders are most likely in the buying plex for isk side of things, These are generally people with plenty of time and you can be pretty certain the bulk of them have enough time in the game to as well as time available to have worked out their isk flow.
For the most part I suspect Plex sellers are people like me, folks who have families and full time jobs who don't have the time to log in to grind isk but can afford to drop an extra 35 bucks here and there for a GTC to buy some isk. which we then use so we can actually do something we enjoy in the game for the 2-3 hours we get to play rather than spending it trying to earn some isk.
It's not any different than if I offered a to pay a friends sub if he'd pass me a few hundred million isk now and then.
Hell functionally it's no different than if the plex seller had an alt account they paid and played themselves to fund their mains activities.
Different security levels are irrelevant nothing stops a nullsec player from having a money making alt in high sec. In fact many if not most do (particularly after the anomaly nerf).
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