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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 8 post(s) |
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kieron
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Posted - 2007.02.27 20:25:00 -
[1]
Whether you realize it or not, Real Money Trading has an impact on nearly everything you do in EVE and ISK buying is a major contributor to the inflation in EVE's economy.
To give you more insight into the impact of ISK buying on EVE, the community, customer service and potentially your account, GM Guard has a new and rather lengthy Blog with that information and much more. Check out The Price of ISK.
kieron
Community Manager,
EVE Online |
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Eldo Davip
Forum Moderator
Interstellar Services Department
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Posted - 2007.02.27 20:39:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: GM Guard
Recently we busted a blueprint conglomerate that was set up just to skim ISK off the top. That extra ISK was then sold for real life currency. The players involved bought a large number of expensive blueprints over a long period of time with the purpose of monopolizing the market on certain items. They attempted to drive prices as high as possible so that they could skim more money off the top and sell more ISK on Ebay
Damn. Hope's they are some good BPOs so they get reseeded
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EvE +NLINE - T+TALHELLDEATH SUPPORTER
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GM Guard
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Posted - 2007.02.28 09:22:00 -
[3]
Hi and sorry for my late appearance in this thread.
Many of you have rightfully pointed out that by allowing the sale of game time codes for ISK, we are in essence allowing a form of real money trading. Our goal was of course never to support any form of RMT and the only reason we allow this form of business with it's inevitable side effects is because we wanted to give players a chance to pay for their subscirbtions with isk and thereby in essence making some other EVE player pay their subscription cost for them. We allowed this in order to allow more players to play. We want more people playing EVE. In fact we want all people to play EVE! That is the only gain we saw by allowing this and the only reason why we have stuck to it despite the myriad of problems we have had to deal with because of it (GTC scam cases make me weep in my bed at night).
It is true that this opened a loophole for a certain form of RMT but that business is small and measely in comparison to the all consuming monster that is the ISK selling business(TM). One player on this thread rightfully pointed out that RMT through GTCs is limited in the sense that there is a fixed number of game time codes in circulation at any time. That is a very good point and explains the vast size difference between the GTC for ISK business and the ISK for $ business. Also, with the new secure game time code system, the business of GTCs for isk will become even more limited as a money making tool than before.
Some call us hypocritical for allowing one thing and banning the other while preaching purity and good virtues. I can understand that point of view in part, especially if people also believe that we are allowing GTC selling for isk to make tons of cash as isk sellers and that we just want to push the other isk selling gangs off the market so we can make even more cash! As I hope most of you will understand that is not the case. We have only one goal and that goal is to watch EVE grow and prosper. We truly want the ISK selling business with all it's devilry and witchcraft out of the game and we will continue to work towards that goal. The purpose of this blog was mainly to point out the downsides of the ISK selling business and the negative effects it undeniably has on the Eve world. Most of you never directly witness these negative effects so I wanted to relate them to you to give you perspective. Every day we in Customer support have to deal with several players who have bought isk in good faith because they truly didn't know it was against the rules, only to receive isk straight from a hacked account that has been phished by agents of one of the ISK selling websites. We hate seeing people in trouble and we want to be able to provide the best service possible. We also want players to know the potential consequences of dealing with these people and to know what they are supporting by doing so.
Best regards
Senior GM Guard
EVE Customer Support.
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GM Guard
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Posted - 2007.02.28 10:00:00 -
[4]
The suggestion that we should sell GTCs directly for ISK is flawed although I must admit that for a short second I thought to myself..."Hey....why didn't we think of that!".
It is true that this would eliminate any possibility people have of reselling GTCs for ISK but it would also elminate the possibility of CCP getting any subscription fees. While we don't need revenue from isk selling as some have suggested we do need your subscribtion fees to keep things going. Hence game time codes need to generate cash for CCP.
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GM Guard
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Posted - 2007.02.28 16:09:00 -
[5]
Originally by: Herculite
Hypocrisy 
As long as you support GTC sales, the game is corrupted in terms of isk. What you are really saying is you don't want OUTSIDE people making money off isk, if CCP does then its ok.
Also unless there are some solutions to things like macro miners (and do NOT think these guys are only in high sec, low sec is full of them, fully supported by alliances who get a cut) what difference does it make? That blog posted what every thinking player who has played more than a few months knows. What I want to see are solutions.
ISK that can be bought for GTCs is a very limited supply. Only a portion of our playerbase uses GTCs so selling to them is the only way to aquire ISK through GTCs. Once their demand for GTCs has been met there is no more isk to be had from them.
ISK you can buy for cash is however an unlimited supply. The more demand there is for bought isk, the more problems will flood into EVE in the form of macro miners, hackers and scammers. If I conjure up a hypothetical situation and imagine that every player in EVE suddenly decided they wanted to buy a billion ISK but that they were going to pay for the isk with GTCs. Only a small portion of the players would be able to buy their billion because the demand for GTCs would run out. Also for each GTC sold the EVE world would gain the presence of a character for it's duration (which is the purpose of allowing people to pay their subscribtion by proxy)
If we on the other hand imagine that every player in EVE decided to buy a billion for cash...that demand would be met and it would be met by any means possible. You would see a sharp increase in the number of similarly named miners sucking up every piece of mineral out there and the EVE world would experience problems of previously unknown proportions. The RMT business is far bigger than EVE and will do its best to meet any demand for bought isk. It is this demand we wish to keep to a minimum in order to keep the troublemakers out. That is why we want to appeal to the community and raise awareness to the fact that every billion bought, needs to be macro mined, stolen or scammed. The best action that can be taken to battle macro miners for example is at the disposal of the players themselves. They can simply not do business with them. They will not keep macro mining if nobody wants their ISK.
You can call us hypocrites for allowing GTC sales for isk but that still doesn't nullify any of the points that have been made about the dark sides of the RMT business. The dark sides we are trying to keep at bay.
P.s. Thank you all for taking the time to read the blog and for commenting. There are differences to be found but your feedback is always appreciated.
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GM Nova
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Posted - 2007.02.28 18:49:00 -
[6]
Originally by: isAzmodeus
This has been said before, but it should be said again as no one seems to listen. CCP does not make money off of GTCs. Yes, they make money off the sale, but they lose the same ammount in someone's subscription time.
Person A spends $ for 30 days.
Person B spends isk for the GTC.
CCP loses the $ B would have spent on 30 days subscription.
Wow, so we actually lose money when players subscribe?
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GM Nova
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Posted - 2007.02.28 18:49:00 -
[7]
Originally by: isAzmodeus
This has been said before, but it should be said again as no one seems to listen. CCP does not make money off of GTCs. Yes, they make money off the sale, but they lose the same ammount in someone's subscription time.
Person A spends $ for 30 days.
Person B spends isk for the GTC.
CCP loses the $ B would have spent on 30 days subscription.
Wow, so we actually lose money when players subscribe?
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GM Nova
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Posted - 2007.02.28 20:33:00 -
[8]
Let's get real here people. There is a fundemental misunderstanding as to the motivation behind CCPs decision to allow and support GTCs for isk.
We are supporting this trade in order to allow players to subscribe, who do not have access to the available payment methods. There are currently alot of countries where access to credit cards is severly limited. We want to allow them a chance to enjoy EVE. If there are players who have the means and are willing to pay for their subscription in exchange for isk, we fully support that.
The demand is fixed. You can't endlessly sell GTCs for isk unless there is demand for it.
In any case, the blog is not about GTC sales, it's about selling and buying ingame items for real money. I find it alarming if players do not agree that this is a problem which needs to be addressed.
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