Friday, June 24, 2011

EVE and the case of the $60 Monocle

On June 21st, CCP games launched the most recent expansion to EVE, EVE: Incarna. This added the ability to walk around for the first time and to see your entire avatar rather than just your portrait and ship. In addition, they introduced new vanity items and a new type of currency to purchase them. The reaction so far has been pretty negative, mostly due to the crazy prices on some of these new items. There is also concern that CCP will offer in game benefits with this system.

A leaked email recently showed that 52 monocles were sold in the first 40 hours which is quite underwhelming, especially considering over 1500 accounts have been confirmed canceled. In addition, the total player count numbers have been much less when compared to previous new expansions.

I figured I'd write a quick blog to explain to non-EVE players what PLEX/ISK/Aurum/etc are, how the current system is set up and what CCP can do to fix it.

In EVE, the most basic unit of currency is ISK (Interstellar-Kredit, also the Icelandic Kronar where the game is produced). This currency is dropped by npc enemies and given as rewards for completing quests. It is used to trade for goods and services between players.

There is also the PLEX (Pilot License EXtension), which can be consumed to add one month of game time to an account. PLEXs are created by purchasing a 60 day Game Time Card (GTC) with real money and then converting that into 2 PLEXs in game. PLEXs can be sold between players and give some players an opportunity to essentially purchase ISK by paying for another players monthly subscription. In addition, players can "play for free" by buying a PLEX from another player. A PLEX is worth about $17.50 and is currently trading for about 400Million ISK in game.

With the new expansion, CCP introduced a new currency called Aurum. The exchange rate is 1PLEX for 3500 Aurum. Aurum is the only currency able to be used to purchase the new vanity items.


So, with this arrangement, a monocle is worth:

(1Monocle/12000Aurum)*(3500Aurum/PLEX)*(1PLEX/$17.50) = 1Monocle for $60

That's pretty spendy for a single item that at the moment you can barely see.


There are 2 main problems with this system. The first is that the price of items is locked in terms of game time. EVE is built on a player run economy and prices of items fluctuate with supply and demand. A monocle however will always be worth exactly 3.42 months of game time no matter what the demand is and the supply will never run out. If vanity item prices were allowed to fluctuate the prices would be determined by what players are willing to pay. In a blog post http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=932, CCP explained that players should want the items because they are expensive, comparing them to designer clothes. However real world designer items are expensive because there are differences in quality, supply and demand.

The other issue is that there is no real use for the items. You can not yet interact with other player's avatars, so many of the new vanity items can not actually be seen at all. In addition, there are already many ways to flaunt your wealth in game. For the price of a monocle, you could build a starbase, buy a dreadnaught or carrier and claim space, buy a freighter and start a career as an industrialist or upgrade your ships with rare items.

I think the way to solve these issues is to take an idea from Team Fortress 2 or Magic the Gathering and introduce an element of randomness to the system. Both games are successful and have vanity items that regularly sell for over $100. In Team Fortress 2, there are hats with particle effects like flames while in Magic there are foil cards which are identical to standard cards except shiny. In fact, team fortress 2 recently became free to play because of the success of their in game store http://www.tf2.com/freetoplay/. The difference is that neither of these companies directly set the price of their rare items as CCP has tried to do. Instead, they sell a chance for a rare item and set the percentages. Magic sells $4 packs and Team Fortress 2 sells $2.50 keys each of which has a chance of resulting in a rare item. Gamers love to gamble and this type of system has been proven successful because it introduces actual rarity and allows player demand to set prices.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Top 5 EVE scams

Sup doods!

EVE is $5 on steam, so I figured I'd blog about my top 5 favorite EVE scams. These aren't the biggest EVE scams ever, but they are funny and for new players to the game, they are something to look out for or to run yourself.


Number 5: The reverse "double your money" scam

Experience needed: Low
Payout: Low
How it works:
One of the most common scams in EVE involves a person saying "I'm leaving EVE, if you send me money, I will send you double back!" Sometimes to draw you in, they will double your first few payments to build confidence then keep your credits when you send a larger amount. For the reverse version of this scam, send a small initial amount, then only send as much as he sends you. You will only ever lose your initial amount this way and will figure out at which point he decides to take your money. With this knowledge you can use your character and alts to reverse scam the guy repeatedly over the course of days and weeks. The payout for this is low, but when you multiply it by the number of people running this scam it can be decent.


Number 4: The Goon Scam

Experience needed: Medium
Payout: Medium
How it works:
If you are familiar with the SomethingAwful goons, you know they love griefing, so EVE is their perfect habitat. This scam made the list because it is by far the most fallen for. In this scam, a member of goonswarm recruits a player and then requests they pay a security deposit which will be refunded in 2 weeks. Obviously, this refund never happens. In addition they may offer to carry your items to their headquarters, which is pretty much the EVE equivalent of "wallet inspector." The reason this scam makes the list is because of the number of people who still fall for this despite the fact that their corporation note and website all say that if you are paying to get in, you are getting scammed.


Number 3 : Wreck Bait

Experience needed: Medium
Payout: Medium
How it works:
In EVE, if a player steals your loot, you have the option of attacking their ship. You can take advantage of this by filling a cheap transport ship with large containers named "30 Day Pilot's Licence Extension" or "BPOs" and then self destructing your ship in a well traveled area. You can even rename your ship to make it more convincing. Then switch to a combat ship and return to the area. When someone tries to scoop loot from your wreck, you can shoot them. Make sure they are flying something you can easily take out and be careful if they return for vengeance.


Number 2: Reverse Courier Scam

Experience needed: High
Payout: Medium
How it works:
Another common scam is to create a courier contract with either an impossible or dangerous destination. If someone accepts the contract and is unable to complete it, you get to keep the collateral and they get to keep the worthless metal scraps you shipped. One player found a clever way to reverse this scam. First he built a space station and renamed it to sound like an easily accessible NPC location when in reality, it would deny all docking requests making deliveries impossible. Next he convinced people on the forums to use his station for their own courier scams and to make sure to include a nice juicy reward. Now all he had to do was deliver them himself (which only he could do) and collect the rewards.


Number 1: Scamming Yourself

Experience needed: High
Payout: High
How it works:
If you want to run a really obvious ponzi scheme, you are gonna need some credibility. One way to do this is to scam yourself. By running a loan business in parallel with your investment scheme, you can pretend to help out other players running a fake investment business. If you make a loan to your alt, then don't pay it back, it can improve your credibility and even if you make a bunch of small loans to other players it won't cost you much. Other types of legitimate business would probably also work to distract people from the obvious ponzi scheme. This type of scam definitely takes patience, but the payout can be huge.

There are tons of other scams in EVE and even more waiting to be discovered.