Dear CCP re: Omega Prices

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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I posted this on Reddit and I’m reposting it here in the hopes that someone at CCP reads it with an open mind.

I’m writing this post as a follow up to the adjustment of Omega prices in non USD regions a few months ago. In retrospect I have some thoughts regarding the price of an Omega subscription in general.

Taking into consideration the current state of online games and the amount of valuable play time that Eve offers your average player in the first year of their Eve career, I think that Omega is overpriced. Here are my reasons:

From the perspective of a relatively new player in Eve your early game experience consists of a lot of waiting for skills to train or spending real money to inject skills. I’m going to ignore skill injectors as a factor for early game fun because I see those as optional and should not be considered essential.

Another factor is Eve’s strange culture that encourages Omega alts. This means that most guides recommend paying for multiple accounts from very early on. No other MMO that I’m aware of encourages, or even allows multi-boxing to the extent that Eve does.

From my experience, most people that seem to not have an issue with Omega pricing are people who have been playing for so long that they have the ability to Plex for ISK. This is really not an option for your average adult player in the first year or two of game play.

For me, I was paying the equivalent of about $8-$10 dollars in my local currency on Steam before the adjustment. Considering that most of my time was spent maintaining my Skill queue and then playing for many hours on the weekend only, this seemed like ideal value. I also look at Eve’s monetization structure and see a lot of alternative revenue streams for CCP that most other subscription based MMOs don’t have. This adds to the impression that your Omega price is too high. I don’t pretend to have insight to how much you make off each stream but I ask you to evaluate this internally and consider how your Omega pricing is effecting new player retention.

I also want to mention that as someone playing from a third world economy Eve is a great MMO because it is less effected by latency and runs better on cheaper computers than many other MMOs. This should not be underestimated as a factor for bringing in fair money from developing countries. However, long term affordability becomes a large factor in those communities. A little bit of targeted online marketing with a lowered Omega price in developing countries could bring you a lot of new players. To clarify though I am not suggesting only lowering the Omega price in some regions. I believe the game would benefit from a global adjustment to come in line with the value given in most other MMOs today.

I truly enjoy all the aspects of Eve that I have experienced and want to see this game do well. I see thread after thread on Reddit of people calling it a dead and dying game and I hate to see those sentiments. I’d like to see CCP consider the following to encourage better new player retention:

Lower the one month Omega price to $10 with discounts for longer subscriptions bringing it down to around $8. Alternatively follow what games like ESO and SWTOR do and include a nominal amount of Plex with your subscription every month, perhaps 200 a month or so. This would add value and also perhaps help with the rampant inflation of Plex prices in game. Do not adjust your Plex price and do not change the amount of Plex needed for Omega. CCP makes more profit from a person who Plexes using ISK than someone who has a 3 month sub. People who have established themselves in game to Plex with ISK on multiple accounts will likely continue to do so and players who cannot do this will be more likely to keep playing until they can. Between Skin sales, Plex Omega sales and skill extractor sales I would imagine that your bottom line will not be harmed much in the short term and that bringing in and keeping newer players would translate into greater profitability in the long term.

Please consider my rambling thoughts with the good will that they are intended. From a person in a third world country that loves your game and wants to see it continue to succeed.

If CCP responded to this thread that would be amazing and I’d love to answer any further questions anyone that CCP might have. To those that have read this far I thank you. o7

Edit: Changed 1 point for clarity.

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That’s where you are wrong.
Just because someone else paid does not mean YOU paid. On the opposite.

Note that this does not invalidate the fact that CCP gets more money from plex, for ONE ACCOUNT, than from subs. But in reality how many players plex and how many use subs ?

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I don’t know the numbers, CCP does and I’m asking them to look at those numbers keeping newer players in mind. The point I was trying to make is that CCP still makes money from people that pay for Omega with ISK, it isn’t a “free” sub to CCP.

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Be thankful that CCP haven’t changed it in line with inflation.

Something that cost $14.99 in 2003 would cost $20.90 today.

Thanks inflation.

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It’s free when you don’t pay for something.

So yes it’s free by definition.
It costs people time, but it does not cost them money : money-wise, it’s free.

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Cry to steam not CCP. CCP didn’t changed prices.

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More money in fact, as 30 days subscription via PLEX costs more than a sub when purchased from CCP.

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Actually this was a move made by CCP not Steam and it isn’t the point of my post.

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It isn’t free when someone pays for it, and someone definitely did. Just not the person buying it for ISK. I have encountered people who mistakenly believed that ISK Plexing makes CCP no money, that’s why I mentioned it.

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what? plex price and sub price is same for years. Steam changed prices on their own platform “because they can” and CCP has nothing to do with it. Go read how steam works.

TLDR; price is the same for years.

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CCP Responded to it at the time saying they adjusted regional pricing on Steam. Please don’t use your opinions as facts.

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If you look at general market value of sub based MMOs that would overwrite inflation. Looking at ESO, you pay $15, get all the benefits of the sub plus $15 worth of cash shop currency. In the modern MMO environment having a virtually mandatory $15 sub in a game with things like skill injectors and premium currency just seems a bit too much to me.

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Then don’t play and don’t compare EVE to other crappy MMO’s that has nothing to do with EVE.

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People are complaining about dwindling player count and lack of new player retention and here you are making it worse. I don’t understand your hate. I’m suggesting something for CCP to consider that might help the game in the long run that will absolutely not effect your gameplay experience negatively. Why is this a problem for you?

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You wat?
I must be a cash shop rich and never noticed.

It really works that way?

Oh wait their cash shop is all horses and chairs, isnt it?

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Right, but what would that get you, in-game, if we factored in in-game inflation? I am inclined to believe prices for PLEX in-game should also be MUCH, MUCH higher, because mostly, all the money that has been created stays in the system, it just changes hands within the system. Where IS all that money if not exchanging hands from Player A → Player B so that PLEX can change hands from Player B → Player A (i.e., inflating prices)?

Tens of trillions of ISK are instantiated every month that aren’t erased by fees and taxes to NPC entities, and they don’t disappear because people buy PLEX. Where are they? ← This is not a rhetorical question.

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Because now people pay full price like others an yet you whine? CCP didn’t changed prices for years and bad decision was to make steam cheaper.

I get it, you don’t like your country because you earn way less compared to dollars or euro. I have same thing. While one month of omega for US guy is pack of cigarettes, here it cost one week of food. But crying on forum won’t change that. One price for everyone is more fair.

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Yeah it does, there’s also loot boxes XD… I never suggested it’s a perfect or even better system but it does go to show that there are ways for CCP to add value to the Omega sub to incentivize more new players to get Omega. At the end of the day I’m only trying to get CCP to consider my ideas as potential solutions to apparent problems.

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Yes it is, when this someone is someone else.
If I purchase a cake and give you a part : for you, the cake is free.

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But the baker still got paid.