Let's talk about what no one touches. PLEX'ing Subs

Communications Center General Discussion
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Once upon a time, the game was a subscription-based game. Players paid a sub per month to play. CCP then added PLEX in 2008. From 2009 to 2012, EVE numbers grew to the highest they’ve ever been, averaging at one point 45k to 50k accounts online at once. However, as we all know, this isn’t actual PLAYERS playing the game. The average EVE player has at least two to three accounts; and it is common for some players to have 5 accounts or more. This is easy to do, as it’s easy for a veteran to make enough money in-game to PLEX their account. Get to Level 4/5 missions, get mining up to get a barge, work up industry to sell T2/faction Ammo and ships, explore, abyssals… There are a LOT of ways to make enough money, not even playing 2 hours a day, to pay off two to three accounts minimum.

As a result, though we don’t have the actual numbers(I’m sure CCP does), I would bet that at least half the accounts in the game are alts, and most of those are PLEX’d accounts. That is a lot of money in-game that CCP never sees in their wallets. So they started selling cosmetics in the Market. Then they started selling Skill Injectors, the big money maker for them. The problem is, they cost PLEX, which players can earn easily; and some industrialists created skill farming accounts to make and sell skill injectors. Every time CCP came up with a way to earn money through the PLEX store, keeping in the in-game economy, EVE players found a way to ■■■■ it up.

So now we’re at this: starter packs, and now the first mid-tier ship. Yes, part of this is to help newer players get into the mining industry; but it highlights the main issue; that it’s hard to make money in a game where money is easy to earn. EVE is becoming, due to the amount of cash you can earn in-game, free-to-play. Every free-to-play game ends up with two options: grind to play content, which we’ve had forever; and pay to advance in the cash shop. You can even join an alliance in nullsec and be able to PLEX your account with even greater ease in one of the big blocks. Run sites in nulsec and you’ll never sub with RMT again.

So CCP has to create a balance between earning a profit and getting new players; and not pissing off their player base, many of whom have been in this game for ten years or more. Eventually, they have to go down this road, not because they want to turn into a pay to win game; but because they have to earn money. The cosmetic shop won’t work when the only time you see your character is when you log in, and when the only time you see your ship is spinning in station, as you have to zoom out till your ship is a spec if you want to play right.

What is a solution that doesn’t go down the path? I don’t know. We all have to share the blame for why we’re in this situation, however. As soon as the first account was PLEX’d, the clock to P2W started ticking.

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If this is any indication, it’s much more than half. Thanks to injectors we have a whole lot of farmers with hundreds of alts each.

Not claiming this guy is a farmer. Just an example of how many alts are out there.

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plexed accounts do give money to CCP… somebody had to pay for the plex to add it to the game.

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PLEXed omega accounts allow the following transaction:

  • Players with too much spare time get Omega from players with too much money
  • Players with too much money get ingame value from players with too much spare time
  • CCP gets a cut, rather than some shady third party RMT bot farm

True, RMT and bot farms aren’t completely gone, but because of PLEX players with too much time and players with too much money can trade with eachother legally to the benefit of CCP (who gets a cut) and to the benefit of us all (because we’re dealing with far less bots than we would have if PLEXed accounts didn’t exist).

Is it bad that PLEX allows players to ‘pay to win’? Maybe.

But it’s much much better than the alternative.

I think CCP was the first to introduce this system that allows players to earn ingame time by buying it from other players with ingame money. It was a genius move and has been copied by many other games, including some games that I was playing at the time when I didn’t play EVE yet.

If you are suggesting PLEXing subs should be removed, you clearly have not thought of all the benefits this brings to the game.

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Yeah THE TOPIC.

But, you need to understand PLEX is only inject into the economy because somebody bought it with real money.

The fact there are so many PLEX around is more of a cash flow problem than no money injection. It’s like politics, always push the debit to the next candidate.

Now CCP needs other forms of cash inflow. I do not have the data, but my 2 cents are newbies and null corps are the ones buying PLEX.

Most HIGH/LOW people are just eating those PLEX, which is not a problem, but also a necessity. So CCP gets a huge incoming every time somebody starts a farm, but in the long term it’s a shot in the foot.

Stupid greed, now deal with it. I bet the old CEOs are very happy with their bonuses, now every day is going to be a struggle.

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I on other hand, would bet that you don’t have slightest idea how plex works and how it appears in game.

Are you on crack or something? Rating got nerfed to the ground…

But everyone is saying to CCP they would shove dollars into their ass just to buy decent cosmetics…

You mean first GTC sold? Or all of RMT before that? You don’t even know why plex exist…

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Oh….my……god…. Please take a couple minutes to learn how Plex works before going off on some ridiculous rant on the forums. CCP would love it if even more accounts were plexed. How many times do people need to point out that they make even MORE money from a plexed account than a normal subscription? Now if you want to argue that PLEX should t exist because it just lets you buy SP and isk, fine. But don’t pretend it’s some weird system that is cutting into CCPs profits and it’s our fault they have to resort to even more extreme methods to make money.

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It also allows some players to be able to go omega that otherwise couldn’t. The price of subbing in some countries is apparently really high thanks to unfavorable exchange rates. And I even heard a few guys complain that they lacked a financial mechanism for paying. In fact, a whole lot Russian players are probably turning to plex right now.

And, of course, I’m not exactly sure why OP thinks that Plex hurt CCP bottom line. His argument is like the inverse of the South Park underpants gnomes.
CCP Introduces Plex → ? → Lost Profit and P2W

By the way OP, you do understand that no revenue is lost if someone switches from a sub to plex, right? In fact, CCP makes even more money because a month’s worth of plex costs more than a sub does.

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7/10, OP. You managed to reel in some of the regulars.

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The usual combination of doing skill extraction and multiboxing farms, to pay for most of the cost of PLEXing omega subs on those farm accounts, is a fun topic.
Separately, they are not all that huge, but together they are a beast.

I wonder if this system is going to run up to natural limits and crash.

Once the initial hurdle is taken, the farmers can continue to scale up accounts and grind more and more ISK per hour.
Basically you have two types of farmers:
1 more miners, PIs and FW-farmers only negatively affect other miners, PIs, FWs and item hoarders, while
2 more ratters create harmful ISK push-inflation for everyone.

The second type can work against some deflationary effects of the first type. Taken together, they should make it take longer to make in-game progress per account in various fields. More time is wasted per account.

For the farmers, both their source of PLEX and demand for their skill injectors come from whales who are often new players.
Established players get less and less out of skill injectors, both in absolute numbers and in practical application, while new players get more and more discouraged as their time becomes less and less respected by the game market.

You’d expect PLEX and injector prices to keep rising, but skill injectors compete unfavorably with Omega subs, which is always sold directly at $15 per month, or less, so there should be a limit.
I reckon at some point, the potential PLEX sellers and buyers simply won’t reach an acceptable price point on the market anymore and the trade would come to a halt.

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My wife’s friend has a dog that chases its own tail, around in circles, for hours.

This is a very comPLEX subject…they’d better shut it down!!!

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Guess I’m playing wrong.

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#METOO

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Today I noticed there is a free Kestrel skin when we plex our account.

It looks like Kestrel Matigu Seabeast SKIN

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I don’t think skins apply, as we (players) don’t make those.

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Been gone for many years and decided to stop by to see what’s going on. I see people are still having issues understanding that PLEX has to be bought with real currency to be in game…

I can’t even.

I’m guessing that the OP wasn’t around prior to plex because they should remember the incessant gold spam and RMT that went on. Plex pretty much killed that over night and while RMT is still a thing it’s a pale shadow of what it was.

People also don’t seem to understand what boxing a large number of accounts entail. People just seem to say “well one account can earn this so 200 accounts CAN EARN WAY TOO MUCH!!!” without ever stopping to think about the time/effort required to set those accounts up and to manage them. Excluding botters because automation can make such things trivial but that’s against the ToS and as such bannable.

I used to run 14 accounts and the amount of time I spent just on maintaining the email addresses and mundane stuff like skill training or even moving around was mind boggling.

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It’s been a while since we’ve seen Kinete Jenius — their last post was 1 year ago.

:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

Mr Epeen :sunglasses:

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My last post was in 2020.

I quit the game in 2016.

If you want to be pedantic feel free I did leave room for interpretation for “gone”. Although my intent for “gone” was the date I quit the actual game.

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Eve has made us “bitter vets”.

Please continue.

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I’m catching up and sorry for the delayed reply.

I look at items like that and place them in the same bucket as pilot clothing where we can decide if we want. I am hoping to see more items added from time to time to persuade subbing via plex as this I think adds to the market exchange from isk along with funds to a persons account.

It is though an item that can be purchased on the market for est (24mil if it is the same lime green one) but to some who already plex their account it is an added bonus.

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