Gentlemen

http://evenews24.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/pinkwidow_azajigga_issue.jpg

People need to pull out the thing up their rear about Aurum. Every MMO has something similar now.

And while companies like Blizzard have turned to "$60 to bump your character up to level 90", CCP is doing it only for vanity stuff.

While I think a LOT of players want ship skins, especially custom ones we can 'make' ourselves with a paint bucket tool, I don't see a $2 per ship price scheme doing very well. More than likely, people will purchase 1 or 2 skins, maybe even lose a few and then buy 1 or 2 more, but after the initial interest dies down, so will sales.

Why instead not make the color scemes themsves something you purchase the rights to, at a higher price point (say, a few thousand aurum) and you can then apply that skin to any ship, with no limitations.

Combine that with a large selection of preset skins, as well as the ability to make up a paintjob youself from templates, and I think you would generatr not only more interest, but also more revenue.

Being different doesn't mean EVE is a charity. And if CCP's going to work on vanity items in ADDITION to regular game development, they need ADDITIONAL funds. Otherwise they have to cannibalize other things to work on vanity stuff.

I gave Blizzard as an example of the worst case. Literally pay for max level is insane. But every online multiplayer game has microtransactions now, that's the state of the industry, and like it or not, it isn't changing back. It's something you have to HTFU and learn to live with. And then push for responsible and reasonable use of MT (like vanity items).