This is the first in a, hopefully, long line of essays on things that I find interesting about our game.
I’m a, mostly, Hi-Sec care-bear, so my views will be bias that way. This is a cyno alt.
First topic is the price of PLEX.
So much nonsense has been written about this recently. Let’s look at the facts.
The in game price, in ISK, of PLEX is rising steadily, simply put this means more people want to buy it than want to sell it. Whether the buyers are “plexing” their accounts or buying it to sell at a higher price later doesn’t matter for this article, at least not until the conclusion.
On a completely side note, if you can make enough ISK to actually afford to speculate on the price of PLEX why would you bother? You already have more ISK than you could ever use, and the ability to get more at any time. (At this point the people may see where this whole post is going) Therefore there must be another reason to need that much PLEX. Possibly something to do with market/CCP manipulation?
People want PLEX and they can afford to pay ISK for it. The only way for PLEX to get onto the in game market for those people to purchase is if another player buys it for real money (£££). Yes I’m from the UK.
This means fewer people are buying PLEX for £££ than want to buy it in game for ISK. Not entirely true because I buy PLEX for £££ occasionally to run dual training, but this PLEX doesn’t make it on to the in game market so isn’t relevant for this argument.
If CCP wants to stop the inexorable rise in the price of PLEX, in game, they have two mechanisms to change, either make fewer people want it for ISK or more people want it for £££.
Who buys PLEX for £££ and puts it onto the market? The answer is new or casual players. New players buy ISK to “catch up” and casual players buy ISK to save time. We have a lack of new players in the game and casual players leave Eve when things “go wrong”. And as we all know things “go wrong” a lot in Eve.
So that is the £££ side, what about the ISK side? I subscribe all my accounts, but with a little bit of work and a few efficiency changes I could “plex” them, in Hi-Sec. So is it any wonder that it is so easy for people in Null and Wormhole space to “plex” theirs?
CCP have made it easy for new and casual players to make ISK, to get them into, and keep them in the game, this has made it really easy for committed plays to make LOTS of ISK.
There is too much ISK in the game, it is too easy to acquire for long term players. Quite simply EVE has come to the “loot bloat” stage of its life cycle. A lack of new blood and the haemorrhaging of casual players is making the issue worse. (Did you see what I did there?).
The price of PLEX, for ISK, will continue to increase and can’t be stopped until it becomes too expensive even for the Null-Sec 'botters to afford. At which point anyone who brought and hoarded PLEX will make a killing, the price will fall and the process will begin again. Welcome to life.