There is a difference between “willing to sell for ISK” and “willing to buy for $”.
It has been proven by many other (heavily monetized)games: if player spent some money on the game - they are more likely to do that again in the future and while whales exist longevity of the game depends on enticing new players to spend their money. Higher in-game Plex prices just might be a reason enough for someone to buy Plex and sell it for ISK for the first time.
Ok, some interesting discussion.
Can I direct the discussion to ask:
What intervention strategies could CCP employ on a short-term and long-term perspective?
PS. Loved the SUPPLY CHAIN GRAPHS.
We could lower the price of plex but create a certain cost to use.
Say plex prices in store are lowered to $15, but in order to “activate” 500 plex you would need to pay $5 to do so. All current plex can be converted to “activated” plex, and “activated” plex cannot be traded or sold, only used in the NES or for a 30 day omega.
That way, supply will increase and plex prices will decrease ^.^
Also as a bonus we get the tears of poors
Because they’re pretty simple terms?
That would effectively disable whole PLEX for Omega system, because those who can or are willing to pay are already subbed anyway.
I’m trying to figure out how my account got 850 PLEX when I never bought any. Ever.
When the new Plex was brought in (old Plex were 1 Plex = 1 month of playtime, new Plex are 500 for 1 month), they also converted your Aurum reserves to Plex so there would be one currency. So people who had Aurum from various sources ended up with Plex. Also, potentially from Referral/Friend programs.
You are making what appears to be a mistaken assumption here. Players do not sell Plex in order to sub, so ‘playing for free’ is irrelevant. Players sell Plex as a fast way to score a lot of ISK rather than grind for it.
If the price of Plex in ISK goes up, normally that would increase the attractiveness of Plex for the ‘ISK now!’ crowd. However, as has been pointed out, there have been fewer Plex sales lately, so that is likely affecting the issue as well.
Because if I can sell that 500 PLEX and pick up another 2 billion and the price goes back down to say 2.8 million or even 3 million I am up at least 400 million ISK. Meaning I can buy fewer PLEX in the future or buy more stuff in game right now. Also, at the higher price a player who was not inclined to buy PLEX for cash and sell them for ISK may be inclined to do so.
Your argument is that “after I pay for food, shelter and some clothes, I don’t need any more money, so I stop working.” You can do that, but by continuing to work you can buy other stuff, maybe even save in case you lose that job and/or retirement.
You are assuming satiation…that’s cute, but generally it isn’t something that economists assume except maybe locally (i.e. you might become satiated after your 6th donut, but then there are a plethora of other goods and services you can spend your money on).
Yes, so much better were the effective price is infinity.
Let me explain. With a fixed price, there will be excess demand. That is there will be more demand than supply. But since the price cannot rise some people will simply have to do without PLEX…no matter how much they try and buy it for. The price is essentially infinity–i.e. for those unlucky enough to not get a PLEX there is no amount of ISK they can offer to get a PLEX.
Not necessarily. Yes, somebody who has a fixed ISK target could buy more PLEX and sell them…but this ignores opportunity cost completely. The more money I spend on PLEX the less money I have to spend on other things. And so it is not at all clear that people are simply going to fork over more money.
This is like saying if we cut workers wages in half they’ll work twice as many hours to earn the same amount.
It is idiotic.
You get an F on your microeconomics exam.
Short term they’d sell PLEX via accounts that CCP has seized via botting and RMT. This would increase the supply and lower the price. CCP can do this because they can keep selling no matter how low the price goes…they don’t care about ISK in their in game wallet. They’ve got plenty form the same accounts they seized.
Long term, not much. Why is the price going up right now? No idea. Markets can have traders who exhibit either technical trading strategies or they can exhibit rational expecations/efficient markets behavior. The latter is very boring. There are few trades and there is little volatility in the market. With technical trading it is the opposite. There are far more trades and far more volatility including bubbles and busts. I would say we are in the world of technical traders, that the people in the PLEX market are trying out new and different strategies. As such, there is unlikely to be any real long term solution.
You’d first cause an immediate reduction in supply and a sharp increase in price as the PLEX currently in game is suddenly unable to be traded. This would thin the market out. Think of the supply curve shifting inwards (to the left) given the demand curve we’d move up the demand curve to a new and higher prices as there would be excess demand.
You are beating around the bush 
Just follow the money …
From January there are enormous buy orders for PLEX
Who have unlimited source of ISK ?? ( How: just in “monthly report” write my account ratted XY 000 000 000 000 isk in null )
When “my account” spend XY 000 000 000 000 isk and sterilize YZ 000 000 of PLEX ( because PLEX is a credit ) price of PLEX rise, there is less PLEX ingame and players buying more PLEX FROM CCP FOR REAL MONEY
simple as that, scum old as a money market …
AUR was exchanged into PLEX a long time ago. Pretty sure everyone was gifted AUR at one time or another.
tell me where I am wrong :
People purchase plex from CCP.
Those plex are converted for ISK.
People use those ISK to buy ingame consumable items.
If the plex/isk ratio(PIR) goes down, that mean people buy the same amount of items for less plex.
So in turn those same people who buy plex, need to buy LESS plex if the PIR ratio goes down. Assuming their need in consumable is the same, that means they buy LESS plex
If people buy less plex, there is less plex to be bought, while demand is the same. So the PIR goes down.
So : if PIR keep going down, that means it will put itself to going down and make CCP sell less plexes. Of course, that’s assuming people will not decide to purchase plex from CCP instead of farming in Eve.
You aren’t wrong, for some situations, however the quoted section is the key point. Most people do not operate from the standpoint of “I need a Nyx, and a Nyx costs X billion, and so I will buy however many Plex I need to get X billion. Oh, Plex price has doubled? Great, I will buy half as many and stop there!”. (Although they may operate that way in the very short term, say, ‘this week’)
Most people work from a budget. “I have $50 to spend, what’s the best deal I can get on Plex. Oh, here, AllYourEveStuff has a sale. Great, I’ll buy 1,400 Plex on this offer. Now, how much ISK can I get… wait, Plex is up? I can get 5.3 BILLION iSK for my Plex? That’s awesome! I should buy more! Well, when I get some more money, that is…”
At the moment, supply is at historical lows (some people say, due to lack of sales, other people say, because ISK farming is way up, most likely several reasons all happening together). Supply cut back a couple months ago and so more and unmet demand has been piling up ever since. A lot of that demand on the charts is simply old orders at lower prices that haven’t been removed/updated yet.
That is what I try to explain to local clowns with ‘A’ in real life economy. PLEX supply does not go up if prices go up. If you enlarge the time span to maximum on this graph , you will see, that sinse the september price go up but trade volume goes down. There is only that much players willing to pay real cash for items (not subscription) and that number does not change in any sugnificant rate.
source ?
Also yes, I’m assuming a lot of different things, eg no inflation, the game does not get destroyed by star citizen, earth is a cube, etc.
So far to me there is some “local” inflation thanks to the new expansion “rorquals online” but besides that not something that important. And Star Citizen is not released yet.
Anderson … that’s common sense combined with practically understanding people at least a little.
If you need further help, consider that actual Whales are a minority in every game and that the vast majority of people only spend small sums, while Whales have no issue stupidly dropping thousands into games.
If the vast majority of people played like it’s quoted above, then there would be no game left for them to play, because anyone who plays that way - as a new player - gets bored quickly (or loses his ship and ragequits), because instant gratification is in no way or form satisfying.
I hope that helped …
You talking about common sense is a waste of time.
Just like a child saying why santa claus is this or that.
Common sense dictates that data without sources are just as useful as a gun without bullet. You can show them off but if someone looks at them they will laugh at your silly face.
So : I asked for sources, not for an opinion. I ALSO did not give an opinion, just asked for sources for such a strong notion.
Well then nobody. Nobody has an unlimited source of ISK.
Another poster assuming global satiation…
Any economics textbook.