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Here's what I don't get...
KoalanKnight
Member Posts: 26
in EVE Online
Isn't ISK buying (aka. real funds for virtual funds) disallowed by the EULA of EVE? Everywhere I go, I see "Cheap ISK!" ads.. and I'm all like.. man.. don't these people have something better to do? Go farm WoW gold and get banned over there.. oye.
Comments
Frankly, I think it's pretty weak that CCP feels the need to allow even this.
It all comes back to the companies doing whatever it takes to make a quick buck.
Actually if you track them back to the source it's for the almighty Won, Yuan, TWD or Yen...
Very few of these ISK sellers are actually american "companies"
the nice thing about EVE is there are fewer and fewer of them trying it because the GTC market is devaluing the ISK verses the "dollar" so it's really not worth it for them to do it anymore. which is good for the game. While I'm not a huge fan of GTC market I am glad it's there if for no other reason than it is slowly driving the ISK Sellers out of the market.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Frankly, I think it's pretty weak that CCP feels the need to allow even this.
It all comes back to the companies doing whatever it takes to make a quick buck.
I don't think it's weak. Only legit players and CCP benefit from it. Farmers get the shaft since there is no legal way of turning the isk or timecodes into hard cash again.
Some players don't like having to pay their bill, they might be tight on money.
Some players don't mind paying someone elses account for an isk exchange.
Both sides are happy, and since nobody is mining billions of trillions of isk to spend on timecodes every month, economy doesn't go out the window.
CCP makes the same amount of cash, and no third party makes a dime off their material through this method.
If you ask me, it's a win win win win situation.
(And as far as i'm concerned, that 150 million isk could go up in flames the next day. The month of time on my account though, can not.)
Frankly, I think it's pretty weak that CCP feels the need to allow even this.
It all comes back to the companies doing whatever it takes to make a quick buck.
Yes, it's really bad! I mean how dare they even try to keep the money for themselves?! Do they think they own the game or something!!
-iCeh
Yes, these are both true, and given the game's efforts to steer the focus AWAY from items and towards both representative and real reflexive skill, I can see why they would allow it to go on... assuming ALL of the ISK was going straight to CCP and not to some other player who may or may not have purchased the code themselves.
I was simply remarking on the hypocritical nature of allowing players to purchase money in-game with "tokens" that they buy from the company, yet furiously attacking players who buy the same money directly with a credit card.
By allowing for a 'legal' way to buy ISK, CCP accomplishes two things:
1) Reduces the incentive to buy ISK from illegal sources, since it is easily available through legal (if slightly convoluted) means.
2) Regulates 'RL' currency/ISK exchange ratio quite successfully, since the strong in-game economy effectively creates supply-and-demand directives for ISK/Game time pricing that prevents 'wholesale' or 'deflated' ISK prices. Time is money, in this case in more ways then one.
If in addition to this it creates and additional revenue stream to an independent (if well-off) MMO developer company, who's to say it's a bad thing? EVE's marketplace is relatively flexible and resilient to outside influences, thanks to the well-designed free economy system.
Capitalists in Space?
I would like to reiterate the point that they are not a pargon of morality or good sense. They design video games for a living.
Yes, these are both true, and given the game's efforts to steer the focus AWAY from items and towards both representative and real reflexive skill, I can see why they would allow it to go on... assuming ALL of the ISK was going straight to CCP and not to some other player who may or may not have purchased the code themselves.
I was simply remarking on the hypocritical nature of allowing players to purchase money in-game with "tokens" that they buy from the company, yet furiously attacking players who buy the same money directly with a credit card.
Because they're supporting a completely different kind of method for making that isk. That's all people really care about. There's no hypocrisy in it at all.
You're basically comparing lots of normal players doing their thing, to mass macro strip miners emptying hi sec space for a dollar.
Meanwhile they have warehouses full of "workers" running missions endlessly producing more and more ISK they just throw into system buying more time cards or selling outright, over and over.
If stupid people would stop trying to "buy" online game currency, no matter what the source, then games like this would be much better off. But people will never stop being stupid and greedy I'm afraid.
Meanwhile they have warehouses full of "workers" running missions endlessly producing more and more ISK they just throw into system buying more time cards or selling outright, over and over.
If stupid people would stop trying to "buy" online game currency, no matter what the source, then games like this would be much better off. But people will never stop being stupid and greedy I'm afraid.
Wrong:
Trial accounts cannot sell GTC's for ISK. Might want to learn the policy before making a fool of yourself next time. Only an actively subscribed player can sell GTC's for ISK. If you buy from a player under 30 days old you are violating the established process and can not only be banned but are also not protected from scams by the devs.
also: re-selling a GTC for $15 doesn't serve much purpose, does it? Since a player can buy one legitimately for $15 anyway why would they buy it from ebay? Hmm? Oh... and if you obtain your GTC from anything other than a CCP Approved vendor and it doesn't work? CCP won't help you. Period. So nobody does what your theory says is going on.
Bottom line: The ONLY real HARM the GTC selling for ISK causes the GAME is this:
Some alliances have players who 'pitch in' a couple dollars a month to "broker" GTC sales. this in turn allows the alliance to earn billions of ISK it could otherwise not afford. Thus allowing them to POS Spam to capture territory.
In the end those corps/alliances will collapse because players will REALLY get pissed, and leave the alliance, when they start losing assets that they paid real money for instead of assets they got with 100% in game efforts.
Spending ISK to get a GTC to sell the GTC makes no sense because it's a fixed rate transfer.... $15 for 200misk
200misk for $15
Err... what's the point? It's a fairly closed system.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Well, of course they can't resell the timecode for $15, but they can certainly sell it for $10, or even $14. If whoever is endlessly farming ISK and buying timecodes sells for under the base value, people will undoubtedly buy from them.
In short, this does provide an exchange rate for ISK-to-cash (200misk for $10, in this example). Don't get me wrong, I think the program is a great idea, but you can't just say that there is no way for someone to farm ISK and make cash off of it.
If they buy a timecode for $15 and then resell it for $10 they are LOSING money. That makes no business sense what so ever, especially when the value of isk in RL $ continues to go down. Used to be $150 million isk would buy you a timecard, now it's $200 million +. If it keeps getting less and less profitable for isk sellers to try and sell isk to players, they will leave for greener pastures.You've missed the point, the ISK seller isn't buying a timecard for cash, he's making ISK in-game (through macromining, or whatever), and buying timecards, thus exchanging in-game ISK for something with real-life value ($10 - $14). He doesn't have to straight-up sell ISK to players, the ISK-for-timecards system has already established a way for him to easily change his ISK to cash.
Whilst the ones against it are trying to prove that uinder any circumstance if the developer creates a market for official ingame to real money exchange is a blasphemy, whilst they do not see that through the GTC all the profits go to CCP via the real money, and the isk buyers are succeeding buy acquiring isk via buying the gtc from CCP, if you dont understand that your complete out of the picture.
And to the "bougt with a fake credit card statement - Anything ca be done with that, it is fraud, anyone can do it in anyway- your argument is just useless and so irrelivent. You can't say that a certain frauder who bought the gtc counts as a true hole in the CCP gtc for isk system. you can do it for any means, go buy a car with one then. FFS some people don't know relivence.
and to add at the end - Doesnt Sony have in development or have already inplace a way t buy ingame currency from them?
"Just because there are other colours to use in chat does not mean you have to use them..." - Please follow
This, in effect, legitimizes real money transactions, but also makes sure they're safe and generally keeps everyone happy (if you want to do them, use an exchange server, if you hate the whole thing, it won't affect you on the regular servers). In a lot of ways, it isn't dissimilar to what CCP is doing with timecards, creating a set of ground rules and regulations that legitimize transactions, but help to stop a lot of the problems commonly associated with the MMO item/currency market.