Perhaps CCP needs to adapt to the modern market and stop trying to peddle a product that is quite niche.

I was thinking there's some validity to that statement about wider appeal. I made a suggestion about offering a real money prize for the Alliance Tournament, funded by vanity or special edition item sales. I agree with the statement about mainstream appeal because current tournament prizes are in-game items which to an outsider are unappealing for being part of a closed system.

Offering real money is superior because real world currency is something everyone can relate to.

EVE could stand to be more relevant, and a great way to do that is offer tournament prizes that outside gamers and non-gamers can understand.

No. To provide hipsters a game they can claim to play that is not mainstream.

There are so many better things to do with ISK than sitting on high value per unit items like PLEX. Even if it goes to 2.2 Bil that's a 100% return but EVE will also be dead.

I think clothing should be bound to a character like SKINs. I also think apparel and SKINs shouldn't have market item entries. They should exist in account management only. That is, if it comes from the NES.

The move could be messy because there are stockpiles of apparel and SKINs. NES items could be refunded for their AUR value to keep the transition clean.

There's then the issue of AT and special event prizes that are coveted for their resale value. I will go back to my suggestion about shifting that paradigm to a general sale strategy. Instead of giving out limited edition vanity items and SKINs to a select few, offer those assets for real money to the general playerbase, and use the proceeds as prizes instead. Money has more appeal, to players outside EVE.

The NES and its items have the consistent trait of sabotaging their own values by existing on the in-game market. If they're affecting PLEX as well, perhaps it's time to do something about a system that harms the game with its life cycle.

There are items without AUR values that would be impractical to have several copies on one account. Phancas, for example, and promotional SKINs. Those would need to be reabsorbed into the redeeming system and treated like GTCs (I suppose), and traded on the forums.

Finally, remove the PLEX-> AUR conversion option since letting it stay leaves this hole in the **** wide open. Reverse it, even, allowing AUR to be redeemed for PLEX. Maybe even stop offering direct PLEX sales, straightening the flow of value to: Real Money -> AUR -> PLEX.

The only route to obtaining ISK for real money would be PLEX, like it used to be.

//this sounds crazy now that I've said it. I am assuming that AUR is affecting PLEX prices, and that it is harmful to the game. If those assumptions are wrong, my suggestion is excessive if not invalid.

I know why, it's because nobody including myself is generally willing to even remotely back down from their side of a debate. They get more and more dead set that they are right and other people are wrong that they won't budge. Worse, it's not even good enough if the other person walks away, they need to feel like they've defeated their opponent.

Honestly... the numbers do look like they've stabilized in the past three months. So maybe the situation isn't quite so dire. It's certainly not past salvaging. CCP just needs to be very careful about what they do.

******* over vets and going for the mythical new players is what SWG did. The game flat lined in a month and never recovered.