Earlier on, I talked about CCP considering allowing PLEX to be used to pay the way for fan events. Well, only being about, oh, nine and a half months LATE, it turns out CCP is already fine with players using PLEX for fan events. Specifically Fanfest 2012, where PLEX could be used for access passes of various style, plus fanfest events of many kinds, including a hoity toity dinner and a chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of CCP itself.. What I should have said, is that PLEX is considered being allowed to pay for PLAYER created/run events, like Eve Vegas, or ones anywhere in the world that are quasi, or fully, CCP sanctioned.
On one hand, it's cool that CCP allows players to subsidize a fanfest event by working on the cost in-game. At the same time, it takes an in-game resource that was intended for subscriptions, and drives the price up because more uses for the PLEX increases the demand and increases inflation. increasing the PLEX prices to the point that players are no longer interested in, or no longer have the time to earn the isk to pay for the PLEX, means they will either pay for PLEX with real money, or stop playing Eve. People who heavily rely on PLEX for subscriptions, will opt for not playing anymore. Pretty much defeats the purpose of PLEX in the first place. PLEX for subscriptions should be a CCP priority. PLEX for extracurricular things should be a very distant second. If CCP stays greedy and allows PLEX for anything and everything, they'll eventually pay with subscription loss.
Accepting ISK, on the other hand, or partial PLEX and partial ISK for non-subscription things, means they still make extra money off the PLEX, they might be able to manage PLEX inflation, keep subscriptions and they would provide a big ISK sink for Eve.
EDIT: Also, just noticed, but PLEX are not $15 each, but $20 each. Not sure when the price went up, but it's been a while since I bought any with real cash. That's an extra 25% increase in the money CCP gets every time they spin a PLEX-for-something plan.
Showing posts with label PLEX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLEX. Show all posts
Monday, November 12, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
More CCP pay-to-win
When I did my last post on what I think/feel/believe is a pay-to-win scenario that already exists in Eve, I had it on a time delay for posting. In the mean time, one of the items I mentioned, the latest open tournament, has had some changes.
First, the entry fee of 20 PLEX was reduced to 10. Apparently this was in partial response to complaints from players that the entry fee was too high. If true, that's a step forward from CCP.
At the same time though, word from CCP was that there were anywhere from 60 to 80 teams who signed up for the tournament. That number depends on the quality of your rumour connection I guess, but a number in the 60's was apparently put forward directly by CCP. Amazingly, more than half the signed up teams bailed on the tourney before the bidding for spots would start, though. That's crazy, right?!?! Now, the conspiracists would proffer that there never were that many teams that signed up, and that the number of teams claimed by CCP was a very pathetic and douche bag attempt for CCP to try to get player groups to bid more PLEX for the 32 team spots. More PLEX bid means less PLEX in game, which means PLEX prices will rise (as they are doing), which means more PLEX will be bought to replace tournament PLEX and sold at higher prices. Can't really see who would benefit from all that PLEX selling, except of course CCP, oh, and the richer Eve players.
So, move ahead a bit to the point where the bidding is done, and they couldn't get enough teams to play in the tournament. Of the only 27 teams that actually bid for a spot in the tournament, only 3 teams bid 10 PLEX, and the top teams bid over 40. Of the 27 teams, 575 PLEX were bid. Once players found out that there weren't even enough teams that bid for spots, some wanted a complete refund and were ready to bail out. At that point CCP decided to give everyone back their extra PLEX, and so all 27 teams were in the tourney with a 10 PLEX bid. Hopefully, that's 300 PLEX that might end up back in the hands of players to help stave off more PLEX inflation.
More tin foil time though. It is rumoured that there was some behind the scenes shit going on with some CCP devs trying to entice certain players into the tournament. Now, with their denials about the whole T20 incident, and then their recant of the denials when the CCP dude admitted that he was a cheating fuck, but they still didn't a) fire him or b) re-instate the player's accounts that outed the mess, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an honest answer out of CCP if a couple of their devs WERE pulling strings. The whole "pro-Eve tournament" thing would be another potential cash cow if CCP could siphon off a bunch more PLEX. The tinfoilers would also be remiss if they didn't point out that 2 of the three 10 PLEX bidders also got a bye for the first round. How many OTHER alliances/groups (with perhaps tournament participation history) did CCP contact with possible enticements for the tournament? Were the two 10 PLEX bidders given a little nudge nudge wink wink and a bye if they decided to join the tourney?
Personally, I don't give a fuck about the tournament, or whether CCP has a couple devs doing shit in the shadows. I'm more concerned about how much more lag or bugs they'll inject, or how they're going to fuck up the UI. If CCP wanted ALL players involved, CCP could have accepted ISK for entry fees as well. After all, they've already been PAID for every PLEX that's in the game. Apparently though, they only want the "most dedicated teams to enter and compete to be champions". Uh, yeah, ok. Mainly though, the teams most willing and able to pay CCP with real cash to let them in the tournaments. Pay to win, much?
But wait! There's more! :)
In more pay-to-win news, CCP is thinking about accepting PLEX as a form of payment to attend fan events. Good for them, bad for players who buy PLEX with ISK, but then, like so many "programs" amd "offers", CCP is only interested in the players who can AFFORD to do that. PLEX is a cash cow to be milked. Fuck the fact that PLEX for ISK was implemented to HELP players pay for their subscriptions.
Additionally, according to David Reid (CCP's marketing dude), they were SO happy with the whole video-cards-for-PLEX thing, that they want to do it again. Now, why wouldn't CCP be happy when they can offload a hundred video cards (that cost them less than 200 bucks) for $300 worth of PLEX each?? Again, good for rich players who can bankroll that amount of ISK to PLEX at the drop of a hat and definitely good for CCP.
Last point, according to our very own Alekseyev Karde, you know, the CSM dude, the guy who represents players? Well, according to him and his buddies, any player that complains about the inability to use PLEX to pay for their subscription, (which is why it was instituted in the game) is a whiner. Nice. Good thing Alekseyev is thinking about ALL the players, or maybe he's only interested in a select subset of players, like the ones who have enough disposable income to pay for subscriptions and PLEX with real cash. Start at 20 minutes. That's some fairly elitist bullshit, but at least then he casually wonders what effects it will have on the people/plebes that he thinks are whiners. Yay player reps!
Tournaments, CCP convention tickets, video cards? My, my. So MANY uses for people who can afford to throw PLEX around. I guess the dumb-ass, whining players who actually use PLEX for what it was intended for will have to HTFU, or go play something else. Go pay-to-win! ;)
First, the entry fee of 20 PLEX was reduced to 10. Apparently this was in partial response to complaints from players that the entry fee was too high. If true, that's a step forward from CCP.
At the same time though, word from CCP was that there were anywhere from 60 to 80 teams who signed up for the tournament. That number depends on the quality of your rumour connection I guess, but a number in the 60's was apparently put forward directly by CCP. Amazingly, more than half the signed up teams bailed on the tourney before the bidding for spots would start, though. That's crazy, right?!?! Now, the conspiracists would proffer that there never were that many teams that signed up, and that the number of teams claimed by CCP was a very pathetic and douche bag attempt for CCP to try to get player groups to bid more PLEX for the 32 team spots. More PLEX bid means less PLEX in game, which means PLEX prices will rise (as they are doing), which means more PLEX will be bought to replace tournament PLEX and sold at higher prices. Can't really see who would benefit from all that PLEX selling, except of course CCP, oh, and the richer Eve players.
So, move ahead a bit to the point where the bidding is done, and they couldn't get enough teams to play in the tournament. Of the only 27 teams that actually bid for a spot in the tournament, only 3 teams bid 10 PLEX, and the top teams bid over 40. Of the 27 teams, 575 PLEX were bid. Once players found out that there weren't even enough teams that bid for spots, some wanted a complete refund and were ready to bail out. At that point CCP decided to give everyone back their extra PLEX, and so all 27 teams were in the tourney with a 10 PLEX bid. Hopefully, that's 300 PLEX that might end up back in the hands of players to help stave off more PLEX inflation.
More tin foil time though. It is rumoured that there was some behind the scenes shit going on with some CCP devs trying to entice certain players into the tournament. Now, with their denials about the whole T20 incident, and then their recant of the denials when the CCP dude admitted that he was a cheating fuck, but they still didn't a) fire him or b) re-instate the player's accounts that outed the mess, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an honest answer out of CCP if a couple of their devs WERE pulling strings. The whole "pro-Eve tournament" thing would be another potential cash cow if CCP could siphon off a bunch more PLEX. The tinfoilers would also be remiss if they didn't point out that 2 of the three 10 PLEX bidders also got a bye for the first round. How many OTHER alliances/groups (with perhaps tournament participation history) did CCP contact with possible enticements for the tournament? Were the two 10 PLEX bidders given a little nudge nudge wink wink and a bye if they decided to join the tourney?
Personally, I don't give a fuck about the tournament, or whether CCP has a couple devs doing shit in the shadows. I'm more concerned about how much more lag or bugs they'll inject, or how they're going to fuck up the UI. If CCP wanted ALL players involved, CCP could have accepted ISK for entry fees as well. After all, they've already been PAID for every PLEX that's in the game. Apparently though, they only want the "most dedicated teams to enter and compete to be champions". Uh, yeah, ok. Mainly though, the teams most willing and able to pay CCP with real cash to let them in the tournaments. Pay to win, much?
But wait! There's more! :)
In more pay-to-win news, CCP is thinking about accepting PLEX as a form of payment to attend fan events. Good for them, bad for players who buy PLEX with ISK, but then, like so many "programs" amd "offers", CCP is only interested in the players who can AFFORD to do that. PLEX is a cash cow to be milked. Fuck the fact that PLEX for ISK was implemented to HELP players pay for their subscriptions.
Additionally, according to David Reid (CCP's marketing dude), they were SO happy with the whole video-cards-for-PLEX thing, that they want to do it again. Now, why wouldn't CCP be happy when they can offload a hundred video cards (that cost them less than 200 bucks) for $300 worth of PLEX each?? Again, good for rich players who can bankroll that amount of ISK to PLEX at the drop of a hat and definitely good for CCP.
Last point, according to our very own Alekseyev Karde, you know, the CSM dude, the guy who represents players? Well, according to him and his buddies, any player that complains about the inability to use PLEX to pay for their subscription, (which is why it was instituted in the game) is a whiner. Nice. Good thing Alekseyev is thinking about ALL the players, or maybe he's only interested in a select subset of players, like the ones who have enough disposable income to pay for subscriptions and PLEX with real cash. Start at 20 minutes. That's some fairly elitist bullshit, but at least then he casually wonders what effects it will have on the people/plebes that he thinks are whiners. Yay player reps!
Tournaments, CCP convention tickets, video cards? My, my. So MANY uses for people who can afford to throw PLEX around. I guess the dumb-ass, whining players who actually use PLEX for what it was intended for will have to HTFU, or go play something else. Go pay-to-win! ;)
Thursday, October 25, 2012
By the numbers, fanboy style
Fanboys, gotta love 'em . . . mostly. They're certainly good for PR and CCP isn't going to be breaking any radio silence to correct the more rabid and optimistic mathematicians and accountants in the player base.
The fanboys I'm referring to are the ones that mention that Eve has numbers ranging anywhere from 200,000 players up to 400,000 players. Apparently differentiating between "accounts" and actual "people" is a rather pointless endeavour. Another optimistic example is the people who talk about how ~60,000 players voted in the election!! Again though, people don't seem to be overly concerned about the difference between an "account" and an actual skin bag, filled with mostly water. AKA, a "person".
My thinking about the numbers worked sort of backwards, in time, that is. In doing my usual listening-to-podcasts thing while doing the despicable mining-thing, I listened to the latest Crossing Zebras podcast and they had their new Gentleman's Agreement alliance CEO on with them. He was talking about his alliance size and what his recruiting plan was. He mentioned that he has over 1500 CHARACTERS in his alliance, but he figures he actually only has about 300 players. 300 people. That's pretty amazing, but not surprising, to me, anyway. As one of those multi-account dudes myself, I slowly saw/realized that multiple accounts allow you to more easily play Eve. More accounts allow one to accomplish more, not only with parallel training, but making exponentially more isk. At some point the income vs account curve might flatten out, but at what point that is, I don't know. I do know that more accounts means you HAVE to play more, or enough to fund all those accounts, especially with regards to using PLEX.
So anyways, working backwards, from the recent podcast; the CSM 7 election. So there were 59,109 votes cast by "eligible voters" says CCP. That right there, is some pure bullshit spinnery. "Eligible voters" my ass. In plain English, 59,109 ACCOUNTS voted. Some important stats, thinks I, are the fact that the average account age is 2.89 years. Anyway, time to strap on my tinfoil hat here. . .
Older accounts, older (likely) players, and also likely aware of the meta game's influence as well as a number of the issues being addressed by the candidates, in all sec areas of the game. Last time CCP did a quarterly report of what the account numbers were for each zone, null netted something like 12% of the active accounts. How accurate that number is now is anyone's guess, but at 2011 published numbers by CCP, they claimed 325,000 accounts, and that's what MMO data still says too. That might have been optimistic on CCP's part and was definitely before all the banned bot and rmt accounts, but they say the voter turnout was 16.63%, so that's still around the 355K accounts level. We'll run with that for now. So possibly around 45,000 accounts are being operated in null out of the total subscriber-ship. That's a big number if you consider them all to be people, but at GAA's ratio, that's only about 10,000 (or fewer) real players in null. How many null PLAYERS actually voted? With a 60k total vote, a large list of candidates and so many null sec players getting so many of those 60k votes, what is the REAL player vote? 30,000 players? 20K? Less? I wouldn't be surprised if the real number of players voting was in the 15 to 20k range, but that's just me.
Now at an advertised active account level of around 350,000, again, how many real people does that actually represent? Not everyone has 55 accounts like a certain indy guy I know, or the ratio is as lopsided as the GAA's, but I bet there are a shit load of players with at least 2 accounts, and likely a very large number with 3 to 5. Not being a statistician, I wonder if there are enough players with multiple accounts to bring the accounts to players ratio up to 2:1? Maybe even between 2 and 3:1? So really, maybe around 150,000 actual players? Less? I seriously doubt there are 200,000 players (excluding the Chinese servers who apparently have about 100k accounts.) CCP knows exactly what the ratio is, but you can bet their ass, your ass, or your cat's ass they won't tell. Encouraging their customers both commercially and technically (via the software) to operate more than one account is a smart business move. More bucks per player. It's also a bad move, especially when the subscription numbers are mostly stagnant or when they pull a bonehead update and piss players off. In good times, each player is worth multiples, but in bad times, every player that leaves takes multiple accounts' revenue with them too.
No doubt CCP realizes that there are some very clever numbers dudes in the player base, and that's why they stopped publishing the quarterly reports. Having the extra power in the customer's hands is bad enough (especially when they multi-boxing), but giving them the numbers so they might be able to actually calculate their advantage, well, that just moves CCP from the position of driving the cart, to pulling the cart.
Older accounts, older (likely) players, and also likely aware of the meta game's influence as well as a number of the issues being addressed by the candidates, in all sec areas of the game. Last time CCP did a quarterly report of what the account numbers were for each zone, null netted something like 12% of the active accounts. How accurate that number is now is anyone's guess, but at 2011 published numbers by CCP, they claimed 325,000 accounts, and that's what MMO data still says too. That might have been optimistic on CCP's part and was definitely before all the banned bot and rmt accounts, but they say the voter turnout was 16.63%, so that's still around the 355K accounts level. We'll run with that for now. So possibly around 45,000 accounts are being operated in null out of the total subscriber-ship. That's a big number if you consider them all to be people, but at GAA's ratio, that's only about 10,000 (or fewer) real players in null. How many null PLAYERS actually voted? With a 60k total vote, a large list of candidates and so many null sec players getting so many of those 60k votes, what is the REAL player vote? 30,000 players? 20K? Less? I wouldn't be surprised if the real number of players voting was in the 15 to 20k range, but that's just me.
Now at an advertised active account level of around 350,000, again, how many real people does that actually represent? Not everyone has 55 accounts like a certain indy guy I know, or the ratio is as lopsided as the GAA's, but I bet there are a shit load of players with at least 2 accounts, and likely a very large number with 3 to 5. Not being a statistician, I wonder if there are enough players with multiple accounts to bring the accounts to players ratio up to 2:1? Maybe even between 2 and 3:1? So really, maybe around 150,000 actual players? Less? I seriously doubt there are 200,000 players (excluding the Chinese servers who apparently have about 100k accounts.) CCP knows exactly what the ratio is, but you can bet their ass, your ass, or your cat's ass they won't tell. Encouraging their customers both commercially and technically (via the software) to operate more than one account is a smart business move. More bucks per player. It's also a bad move, especially when the subscription numbers are mostly stagnant or when they pull a bonehead update and piss players off. In good times, each player is worth multiples, but in bad times, every player that leaves takes multiple accounts' revenue with them too.
No doubt CCP realizes that there are some very clever numbers dudes in the player base, and that's why they stopped publishing the quarterly reports. Having the extra power in the customer's hands is bad enough (especially when they multi-boxing), but giving them the numbers so they might be able to actually calculate their advantage, well, that just moves CCP from the position of driving the cart, to pulling the cart.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Pay to win, CCP, A-OK!
With DUST nearly ready to come out of the oven (supposedly), and its future reliance on RMT for CCP income, I got to thinking about pay to win.
I've always been of the opinion that pay to win was already in the game, and was easy to see and use from the first few days of me playing Eve. I'm talking about PLEX. You can train skill points at the same rate as the next guy, but if neither of you has earned enough ISK to buy the item/module/ship you'd like to or need to, the person who can buy a PLEX will get a jump start that the other poorer player might not be able to afford. If you both can train cybernetics skill up to be able to use level 5 implants, but neither can afford them, the player who can sell a couple PLEX for the ISK to buy the set will get, and keep, a permanent advantage over the player who had to grind out the ISK, in-game, the hard way. At any rate, I found it curious how so many people lost their shit when rumours of special boats and "golden" ammo were floating around. Curiously limited scope of view, they had, thought I.
So, what got me thinking was a while ago when CCP had 100 wicked awesome video cards that they were "giving away" for 20 PLEX each, to the first 100 people that showed up. This is from well back in the spring, so no news flash here, but I have a "life" (TM) so often some of the meta content/bullshit gets back-burnered til more off-peak mental load times arrive. So anyway, for 20 PLEX, or a little over $300, you could have gotten one of these ~$250 (retail) video cards if you jumped at the offer in the less than 2 minutes it took to sell them out. It's also important to keep in mind that no company is going to pay, or going to be required to pay, full price from a video card company when they take 100 of them. So how much did CCP pay for the cards? $200? $150? Less? Cleverness on the part of CCP to accept PLEX that players have bought off them, watch as the PLEX prices raised for a period of time as 2000 PLEX were removed from the game, their price in isk rose, which sucked even more isk out of Eve than the amount used to buy the PLEX for the video cards, and then make a tidy profit on the video cards that they got from the manufacturer for a (probably) huge discount in the first place. So, rich players can convert ISK/PLEX into a video card without breaking a sweat, , not to mention CCP selling even more PLEX to fill the hole left by the 2000 used for the video cards. If that's not pay to win, I don't know what is.
Then, there was the alliance tournament. Again, PLEX was the currency of choice instead of ISK because CCP said it's "just easier to manage and allows us to create some revenue to fund this and future tournaments". Players pay the bill to run the tournament . . for the players, but not all the players, only the ones who could pony up at least 10 PLEX for the first 32 auction slots, and then another 10 PLEX for the last 32 random draw slots. 640 PLEX guaranteed, ~$10,000 US, and word is/was, that there were some pretty epic bids by the richest alliances to guarantee their slots. 1,000+ PLEX is likely a more accurate guess as to how many were bid or used for tournament slots. Maybe considerably more than that. Likely considerably more. Soaks up a lot of that ISK in an ISK-flooded economy and CCP gets paid twice. Once when the PLEX were bought, and the 2nd time when new PLEX were bought to replace the ones burnt up for the tournament. CCP could have accepted ISK in lieu of PLEX, but ISK isn't worth shit to CCP when they can get the players, the rich ones, to cough up $150+ per team. So, really, could any alliance have entered, or just the ones with the money to pay to win?
Now, there's the New Eden Open tournament. Again, PLEX are the entrance currency. LOTS of PLEX. This time it's 20 PLEX for the minimum bid, so like $300 per team, more expensive than the last one, but in the end, the absolute minimum of PLEX down the pipe, taken out of the game, is 640. I think it would be very safe to assume that with $10,0000 in prizes, bids will be even more epic than tournament ten. That's at LEAST $10,000 US that the players will take out of the game economy and gave BACK to CCP. Huge ISK sink for the richest players in Eve, good for CCP sopping up more ISK from the game, getting funded by their own customers, twice, like before, and the anti "golden ammo" crowd aren't saying a word.
Word was, one of the CCP devs said that all the PLEX that were confiscated from the banned RMT and macro/bot accounts were going to be put back into the economy. No number was put on the PLEX that have been confiscated, nor was there any mention of how CCP was going to put the PLEX back into the economy. Now, the new word is that confiscated PLEX will be given away in the tournament. Not back to the general customer base who would appreciate the extra PLEX reducing the cost of the ever climbing PLEX prices due to the FW ISK fountain-fuck-up, pumping out more ISK than every high sec incursion in the game ever did. So the richest players are the ones with the highest chance of getting some PLEX back who can use them or sell them at inflated prices due to the high PLEX demand. Pay to win?
Now, CCP says that the PLEX entry fees are also to help pay for the logistics and costs of setting up and running the tournament. Well, the way they're doing it, yeah, it'll piss a bunch of money up against the wall, but rest assured, CCP will make out like bandits just like they did with the $300 they were charging for the video cards they got for less than $250. Considering that the MINIMUM amount of money players will pay CCP to enter their tournament is $10,000, there are very simple ways for CCP to cut costs if they really want to, and it won't compromise tournament coverage.
They don't need commentators to be taken to Iceland. CCP needs to Google existing tech like Skype and USB video cameras. Plug a Skype conference call and video feed into their little alliance tournament screen and no one needs to be IN Iceland. The software and studio are set up, but all that's needed is to plug the audio and video into the tournament display and their job is done. They can rent their "studio" out to the Icelandic shopping channel or something. The cost of the tourney is reduced, more people can enter and/or entrance fees can be dropped to include non-rich alliances.
So, are the players dumber than chickens that they don't see the pay to win? Or is the anti-pay-to-win crowd silent because the common rabble are kept in their place? If pay-to-win is modest and accessible by almost all the player base, apparently, Eve players lost, and will lose, their shit. BUT, if pay-to-win is only accessible by a small minority of the richest players and alliances in the game, apparently, pay-to-win is A-OK. I guess CCP and the "right kind" of players understand that when everyone is super, no one is super, and that, like in real life, is not acceptable.
I've always been of the opinion that pay to win was already in the game, and was easy to see and use from the first few days of me playing Eve. I'm talking about PLEX. You can train skill points at the same rate as the next guy, but if neither of you has earned enough ISK to buy the item/module/ship you'd like to or need to, the person who can buy a PLEX will get a jump start that the other poorer player might not be able to afford. If you both can train cybernetics skill up to be able to use level 5 implants, but neither can afford them, the player who can sell a couple PLEX for the ISK to buy the set will get, and keep, a permanent advantage over the player who had to grind out the ISK, in-game, the hard way. At any rate, I found it curious how so many people lost their shit when rumours of special boats and "golden" ammo were floating around. Curiously limited scope of view, they had, thought I.
So, what got me thinking was a while ago when CCP had 100 wicked awesome video cards that they were "giving away" for 20 PLEX each, to the first 100 people that showed up. This is from well back in the spring, so no news flash here, but I have a "life" (TM) so often some of the meta content/bullshit gets back-burnered til more off-peak mental load times arrive. So anyway, for 20 PLEX, or a little over $300, you could have gotten one of these ~$250 (retail) video cards if you jumped at the offer in the less than 2 minutes it took to sell them out. It's also important to keep in mind that no company is going to pay, or going to be required to pay, full price from a video card company when they take 100 of them. So how much did CCP pay for the cards? $200? $150? Less? Cleverness on the part of CCP to accept PLEX that players have bought off them, watch as the PLEX prices raised for a period of time as 2000 PLEX were removed from the game, their price in isk rose, which sucked even more isk out of Eve than the amount used to buy the PLEX for the video cards, and then make a tidy profit on the video cards that they got from the manufacturer for a (probably) huge discount in the first place. So, rich players can convert ISK/PLEX into a video card without breaking a sweat, , not to mention CCP selling even more PLEX to fill the hole left by the 2000 used for the video cards. If that's not pay to win, I don't know what is.
Then, there was the alliance tournament. Again, PLEX was the currency of choice instead of ISK because CCP said it's "just easier to manage and allows us to create some revenue to fund this and future tournaments". Players pay the bill to run the tournament . . for the players, but not all the players, only the ones who could pony up at least 10 PLEX for the first 32 auction slots, and then another 10 PLEX for the last 32 random draw slots. 640 PLEX guaranteed, ~$10,000 US, and word is/was, that there were some pretty epic bids by the richest alliances to guarantee their slots. 1,000+ PLEX is likely a more accurate guess as to how many were bid or used for tournament slots. Maybe considerably more than that. Likely considerably more. Soaks up a lot of that ISK in an ISK-flooded economy and CCP gets paid twice. Once when the PLEX were bought, and the 2nd time when new PLEX were bought to replace the ones burnt up for the tournament. CCP could have accepted ISK in lieu of PLEX, but ISK isn't worth shit to CCP when they can get the players, the rich ones, to cough up $150+ per team. So, really, could any alliance have entered, or just the ones with the money to pay to win?
Now, there's the New Eden Open tournament. Again, PLEX are the entrance currency. LOTS of PLEX. This time it's 20 PLEX for the minimum bid, so like $300 per team, more expensive than the last one, but in the end, the absolute minimum of PLEX down the pipe, taken out of the game, is 640. I think it would be very safe to assume that with $10,0000 in prizes, bids will be even more epic than tournament ten. That's at LEAST $10,000 US that the players will take out of the game economy and gave BACK to CCP. Huge ISK sink for the richest players in Eve, good for CCP sopping up more ISK from the game, getting funded by their own customers, twice, like before, and the anti "golden ammo" crowd aren't saying a word.
Word was, one of the CCP devs said that all the PLEX that were confiscated from the banned RMT and macro/bot accounts were going to be put back into the economy. No number was put on the PLEX that have been confiscated, nor was there any mention of how CCP was going to put the PLEX back into the economy. Now, the new word is that confiscated PLEX will be given away in the tournament. Not back to the general customer base who would appreciate the extra PLEX reducing the cost of the ever climbing PLEX prices due to the FW ISK fountain-fuck-up, pumping out more ISK than every high sec incursion in the game ever did. So the richest players are the ones with the highest chance of getting some PLEX back who can use them or sell them at inflated prices due to the high PLEX demand. Pay to win?
Now, CCP says that the PLEX entry fees are also to help pay for the logistics and costs of setting up and running the tournament. Well, the way they're doing it, yeah, it'll piss a bunch of money up against the wall, but rest assured, CCP will make out like bandits just like they did with the $300 they were charging for the video cards they got for less than $250. Considering that the MINIMUM amount of money players will pay CCP to enter their tournament is $10,000, there are very simple ways for CCP to cut costs if they really want to, and it won't compromise tournament coverage.
They don't need commentators to be taken to Iceland. CCP needs to Google existing tech like Skype and USB video cameras. Plug a Skype conference call and video feed into their little alliance tournament screen and no one needs to be IN Iceland. The software and studio are set up, but all that's needed is to plug the audio and video into the tournament display and their job is done. They can rent their "studio" out to the Icelandic shopping channel or something. The cost of the tourney is reduced, more people can enter and/or entrance fees can be dropped to include non-rich alliances.
So, are the players dumber than chickens that they don't see the pay to win? Or is the anti-pay-to-win crowd silent because the common rabble are kept in their place? If pay-to-win is modest and accessible by almost all the player base, apparently, Eve players lost, and will lose, their shit. BUT, if pay-to-win is only accessible by a small minority of the richest players and alliances in the game, apparently, pay-to-win is A-OK. I guess CCP and the "right kind" of players understand that when everyone is super, no one is super, and that, like in real life, is not acceptable.
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