Andreus Ixiris
Duty.
4574
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Posted - 2014.04.28 12:49:00 -
[1] - Quote
Some people, apparently OP included, don't quite seem to grasp how PLEX actually works. I will attempt, then, to explain it without sounding too patronising.
1. I, spending roughly -ú15 of my actual IRL money, buy a PLEX from CCP. It appears in my in-game redeemable items.
2. I redeem it, thus creating a PLEX item in the game world which can be traded, sold, transported and indeed destroyed just like any other in-game item. It is a unique instance of the PLEX item tracked by EVE's databases.
3. I decide to put it on the market and sell it for the price of 700m ISK, at which point Urist McSpacePilot decides to buy it from me.
4. Urist McSpacePilot redeems the PLEX, adding 30 days of game time to his account. The PLEX item disappears permanently. That specific instance of PLEX In the database will never be issued again.
Essentially, then, what has just happened is that I have paid CCP -ú15 on behalf of Urist McSpacePilot to give him 30 days of game time via a method approved of via CCP, and Urist McSpacePilot has given me 700m internet spacebucks for that privilege. Once CCP has received my -ú15 they don't actually care what happens to the in-game item - that isn't their concern, as long as I'm not using it in an attempt to launder illegally-acquired RMT money. They are under no obligation to ensure that I get a fair deal for it - Urist McSpacePilot could have paid me 200 billion or swiped it out of a corp hangar I'd left it in for all they care. They don't even care if it's ever redeemed or not - in fact, if it's destroyed, that's money they've obtained that they then do not have to spend on providing server space for the individuals that bought the PLEX. Equally, neither I nor Urist McSpacePilot actually care about each other whatsoever - I only want someone to pay 700m for my PLEX and don't care who it is, and he only wants a PLEX to give him 30 days of game time and doesn't care who he gets it from.
At no point does CCP ever lose (or, more correctly, fail to gain) money from this - everyone character's game time has been paid for by someone in real life cash. CCP's revenue stream remains intact, and it remains a simple, easy method of exercising control over EVE Online's "secondary market" - i.e. third-party trading of its in-game currency. As long as there is a legal, CCP-regulated, relatively simple method of translating real life currency into ISK, people will generally prefer it to unauthorised RMT.
Mane 614
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