#mt June: Monetization in EvE Online

Hello all,
also in June there is again a theme that is passed through the community. Everyone who wants can join this topic and publish his contribution. These will then be collected accordingly and summarized in an overview. If I overlook a contribution to the topic you can inform me gladly hierrüber and I supplement the list.

For June there is a controversial topic: The monetization of EVE Online, whether by CCP or by the community. So the main question is what do you think about how CCP or the community makes money with EvE Online?

The monetization of EvE is now relatively advanced. There are many ways to spend real money, be it to keep the account running, to supply yourself with ISK, to get new skins for your ships or new clothes for your character. But also short term skills or skillpoints are possible. Of course, also the possibility to buy plexes and then use them ingame for skillpoints. Some types have a justification in EvE Online, others I find excessive. Let’s take a look at the individual possibilities and what effects they have in-game.

Especially these plexes offer some possibilities in the game and should be very interesting especially for pure PVPler and is in my opinion a good way to finance EvE. In addition to your own account, these people offer to finance your account against ingame currency and thus to be able to operate PVP themselves. Hereby the player can spare himself boring activities and concentrate on what he enjoys. The advantage of CCP here is through the well-filled market a lot of money flows without which they are always called and thus may not be consumed quickly. And the plexes are clearly more expensive than a normal omega month. So it is much more lucrative for CCP if accounts are paid this way than if the player pays directly for an Omega account.

This is the classic variant of how do I pay for my account, or in EvE terms, am I Alpha or Omega. Here you can see that in EvE there are two ways to play. I personally prefer at least an Omega account and feel that this is fairer for the players. In my eyes, this is actually the best variant. I have an account and pay for it. Thus, CCP can count on fixed numbers, especially for longer subscriptions. Of course I also like to finance my playtime ingame.

But every now and then I like to pay this variant directly with real money. Sometimes CCP has nice offers and just today I couldn’t say no and get two skins directly. It’s summer and I’m missing the desire to earn ingame money from time to time to finance my account. Therefore, it offers itself in this case well and takes me something the pressure. Only one should not forget that this subscription also exists.

In general, CCP offers a lot of packages for sale that include game time, but also a lot of other things. More about that later.

Another method is the MCT – Multiple Character Training – with which we can have several characters skilled at the same time, but do not allow a simultaneous login. So we can raise several characters at the same time. For each character a token is needed accordingly. The price is currently on the same level as a plex-funded account and, as mentioned, does not offer the possibility to play multiple characters from one account at the same time. A clear disadvantage for the players. The question here is whether it is more worthwhile to fund a second account directly on Omega and pay for a character transfer later from the ISK saved. It is a nice alternative in the short term if you want to upgrade a skill on an alt, but I would always pause the main character on this account.

These are then primarily the things which first once under the Omega account and the actual play beziehe. One point that has been massively expanded are the microtransactions and which are certainly in the cosmetic area perfectly fine but also already have significantly deeper and larger effects. Some can be paid directly with real money. But fall back on the both with real money and with ISK buyable Plex or are payable ingame directly with in-game currency.

I think this is the most interesting part, as there is always something new here, a lot of grumbling, and yet it seems to be doing quite well here. Generally I’m a fan when there are a few small cosmetic things that can be acquired by and thus supports the game. The nice thing about EvE you do not only have to spend real money but can also with appropriate ISK. Be it directly or via the detour with Plex. In both cases there is money for CCP. Here are especially interesting the individual skins that bring some life to the ships and do not make every ship look the same. In general I like to get skins if an omega or a game month includes skins as an additional addition via Plex. Somehow it is fun to collect these things.

A point with which I partly finance my account but also see very critical is the point of skill injectors. That is, purchasable skill points in the form of ISK or real money. So the possibility to be able to quickly skill any things. As I already wrote in an older article, this is exactly the attraction for me. Of course, I can understand being able to level up an alt quickly. But still, this shortcut is overkill in my eyes. If this was a pure ingame business, you could say fine. But by having to buy all the components I don’t think much of the method. But this would be a good way for CCP to pull ISK out of the game as well. There would have to be smaller ski extractors that could be bought from NPC and would be available afterwards.

A much bigger problem I see, however, in the skill points that can be bought completely by real money. This should not be. In my opinion, this is a form of transaction that EvE does not need. I don’t like this form. You should not be able to buy your skill points directly with real money. For me, as I said, this breaks the unique in the game.

That’s why I’m not a fan of ready-made packages that you can buy in different sizes. Take 3 months Omega and here you still have 2 skins, 2 months MCT and another 250,000 skill points. From cheap to very expensive things are laced together here that you can buy directly package. Although the packages seem to be interesting in the first place, but they include various things and are in proportion significantly more expensive than one finances the account directly via Omega. Maybe it is also because I already have my few years in the field of MMORPG on the hump, but I am here generally the opinion that these packages are nice to look at, but not worth the money.

And the cheap packages bring nothing in the long run and are relatively quickly used up again.
Here you have either cheap and only very briefly usable or expensive and many things that are not needed or whose content is very dubious.

A nice method in turn was recently introduced with the so-called expert system.

This is especially interesting for small and new players, the possibility to borrow skills. For very little money, you can gain deeper insights into EvE and get a taste of what is to come and thus decide early on in which direction you want to go. Such small things can be better tolerated than directly buying skill points permanently. I’m a fan of creating incentives to show you the path that might be possible, and I think this is a very good way to do that.

In general I’m a fan of classic payment systems, here you have 13€, give me a month of playtime. But also the possibility to use ISK for your own playtime is very nice in my eyes. Also via this way enough arrives at the producer and people can finance their content and don’t need to earn the needed ISK first. What I generally don’t like is trading skill points of any kind that is permanent. Of course, the character transfer is a tradition of EvE but still, if then only temporary skill points as it is implemented in the expert system should be possible. Furthermore, packages should be put together sensibly. The possibility of MCT should not be included, because this variant is in no relation to a normal Omega account. I would therefore like to know how the store of CCP is used at all. Are there even people who buy these packages and if so what happens with this.

What is your opinion about this topic? Where do you say there are limits and what do you find totally great?
Feel free to leave your opinion here.

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