But how are they a problem?
Like it or not, CCP took the decision several years ago to make the game free to play. There is no point whining about Alphas whom CCP decided are allowed to play free, any more than whining about the people who proudly proclaim themselves Omegas but never once open their wallets, instead relying on sadly sitting at their PC for hours on end to make enough ISK to plex their Omega status.
Once you have your nut and can play the economy game, omega is a few minutes a month to maintain.
Not a punishment, it makes you choose how you mine. And with double the amount of ore in the rocks as before the change, you arent losing anymore than before the change
But why is it unfair to have Alphas playing free, as opposed to plexing Omegas playing free?
Just leave Alphas alone.
They aren’t playing free. Someone bought the plex. CCP has recieved the money for it. The omegas who buy their plex in the market are relying on the people who have more wallet IRL than in game or people wallet warrioring things that they can’t afford in game to pay CCP, and then get paid in ISK. The wallet that the cash came from is fungible.
The individuals ARE playing for free, just exploiting other people who have splashed cash on Plex. CCP do not care, as you say they get money. But equally, CCP are happy for other people to play for free as Alphas. If CCP are happy, what is it to do with you? It is none of your business. They are providing you targets, sources of industrial material, context whilst you roam about as an Omega.
As was observed up-thread, Eve would be a lot smaller without Alphas, and not for the better.
Okay. Let’s break this down. It’s a currency exchange setup. None of this is free, every aspect is a transaction.
Whale 1 pays for plex in USD and sells it on the market.
CCP has gotten USD, whale 1 has spent USD
Veteran 2 buys it on the market for ISK, and whale 1 gets that ISK.
Veteran 2 has paid ISK. Whale 1 has gotten ISK.
Veteran 2 uses that plex to become Omega
Plex has been consumed. Whale 1 has gotten ISK for USD, while Veteran 2 has gotten game time for isk. CCP has gotten USD for gametime.
CCP got paid. Veteran 2 made the wallet warrioring of whale 1 possible because they acquired isk inside the market, while whale 1 made the isk for gametime possible by paying CCP to create game time. CCP profited, and if whale 1 and veteran 2 feel the prices are even somewhat reasonable, they have both profited.
I was thinking the other day that all alphas should get another 1M SP added to the cap so its 6M and not 5M. They are already restricted in what skills they can train, so why is there also a SP limit… But to be honest the whole Alpha/Omega system sucks. It creates a two tier player system and it sucks
Player A (alpha clone) buys 500 plex to sell for isk. Buys an LSI or several alpha injectors
Player B (alpha clone) subsequently buys that 500 with isk so they can become Omega for their first time.
I dont have any issue considering how long players have been able to plex to (sub) or become omega from alpha.
But thats the soft training cap. Alphas are capped at 20 mil. Anything after 5m they have to purchase injectors.
While LSI give less than 400k after 5 mil sp, the alpha injectors give 50k with no reduction.
10 alpha injectors=500k and are several hundred mil cheaper than 1 LSI
1 LSI =400k
Neither do I. I simply object to people who think that plexing their Omega to play for free is morally superior to people who play for free as Alphas. All that @James_Baboli is wittering on about is the financial transaction which means CCP gets money from a different avenue than subscriptions. He misses entirely the point that CCP has received that money and banked it before his morally superior Omega buys the plex with ISK.
I just wish people would stop fixating on Alphas as a wicked mistake. Only CCP can know whether they made a mistake or not in allowing them. And that is CCP’s business.
They’re not a “wicked mistake”. The ability to fly battleships as an alpha is an error, and the whining about buffing alphas is proof that the restrictions are working. I think they need to ratchet them up one or two notches is all.
And as I said before, more fool the Alpha flying a battleship instead of a battlecruiser.
At one time, alphas could run L4s so. If anything the navy/faction ships should have been removed from alpha access (my opinion). This is coming from someone with multiple alphas who fly gilas only to run the soe arcs to share faction standings
The Alpha/Omega system does not work. The player count and interest has not increased since it was introduced. But im starting to think it was created so CCP can more easily spoof player server count in which case its working as intended.
You got ANY evidence at all? Or is this more speculation found via speculum?
Because people think omega=p2w
Or that alphas are not f2p because they dont have access to omega stuff.
Then you got the crowd from other mmos that separate pve from pvp and thinks eve should be the same.
Come to a FW Battlefield during prime time. You will understand
How is it spoofing player count? Alphas are real players.
If you mean in terms of company performance as seen by owners such as Pearl Abyss, they will be more interested in, and have access to, such very minor details as revenue, number of subscriptions, money paid for plex, etc… You know, the things that determine commercial viability. It is players who obsess about the number of other players.
I will admit that that is going out on a tangent. But CCP also recieves millions in funding from Iceland Government, and being able to say “We have 30,000 players online during peak” is their Ace up their sleeve. Do you know what i mean? Everything matters when you are lobbying government for subsidies 
Other clues are that Faction Warfare battlefield which are very lucrative, only have like 8 players in them, when there is supposedly 30,000 players online. The forums also only have like 20 active people. So something just doesn’t add up? Who knows.