Sunday, October 20, 2013

ISK, At What Cost?

Just a heads up, that "Signals in the Void" is postponed a little as I've had a heavy workload and a few health issues I'm dealing with.  I do plan to resume it hopefully here in the near future.

On another note I was thinking of a curious idea I've seen in Eve.  It deals with a long infiltration into a corporation; time-wise taking around a year to work your way up into the proper positions and access roles.  Along the way you continue training your character and hang out and do things with people who come to call you friend.

Then comes the time when you want to move on or try something new (or this was your plan from the start) so you drain the corporation accounts and take what assets you can and ride off into the sunset with 20-30+ bISK.

Barring my distaste for this kind of attitude and treatment of those friends who came to trust you.  Ignoring the fact of dishonesty and underhandedness which will forever reflect upon your character and integrity (not referring to the avatar you used to carry out your act).  While also not counting the pettiness of the action involved, here's what I don't understand.

Why they biomass their character after the fact.  They have transferred the ISK to another character and they biomass the one they've spent a year training.  This just doesn't compute for me, while yes they have made off with a ton of ISK but at what cost (not counting ethics)?  If they paid for the character with real money instead of PLEX, it is even more baffling.  The current cost of a year of Eve is $131.40 USD, the cost PLEX wise hovers around 12 PLEX for a year or around 7 bISK.

$131.40 USD - Yearly subscription of Eve
$209.94 USD - Yearly subscription of PLEX
$7.2 bISK - Yearly subscription of PLEX

2700 SP/hr * 24 hrs * 365 days = 23.652 million SP trained
10-20 bISK for new character from the Bazaar (prices fluctuate depending on skills)

Assuming you didn't spend any RL money on this your total comes to 17.2 bISK doing it cheaply.

I don't know about you or how you price your time spent flying with people who may actually like to be around you or what you may consider the cost of creating your character the way you want them, or even being able to plan out the skills in the manner you like.  Because of the way Eve does skills, the only quick fix to a year of training is buying off the character bazaar.

I just don't understand the concept of destroying something you spent a year working on for a little bit of ISK.

Not to mention, how much is your integrity worth?

5 comments:

  1. Well what integrity do you ask the worth of?

    If I am loyal to my family and betray the target, what integrity was lost if I acheived my goal? I did not betray my true corp and core social group.

    Layers.

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    1. If we want to speak in absolutes, then yes integrity was lost because the action of betrayal didn't change. You may have stayed true to those you are loyal to, but does that still make the action ok or change what was done?

      If we bring it into more subjective terms, in which I assume is what you imply with your statement of "Layers.". Then it can vary on many factors and situations, a prime one which comes to my mind are spies. Depending on which side of the coin you are on; will result in a different answer.
      The spy is entrusted with vital intel, he then relays said intel to those he works for and is applauded for his dedication to his country.
      On the other hand those who entrusted him with the intel are betrayed and their country ends up being destroyed.
      We can now further convolute the example by adding in that the prevailing country actually started the invasion.
      Now add in the fact the intel which was leaked dealt with blueprints and plans for a giant super laser which could annihilate cities. (All this might make a good story.)
      This type of scenario can quickly snowball and becoming a whirling mass of confusion.

      Maybe I'm just weird but I tend to act in game as I normally do out of game, I don't like the complication of leading a dual life. When it comes to giving misleading information to the enemy which may ensure victory or remain silent, I'd probably be silent (I'd make a terrible spai). But I guess others may be able to do it just fine.

      Thanks for the comment.

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    2. I rarely speak in terms of absolutes. The only one who decides if it is wrong is you. You can choose to default to normal societal norms. Most of us do.

      But was integrity lost?

      Only if you think so. The people harmed will almost always say yes. But the people you worked with for that goal?

      Of course it is a mess. Interaction always is.

      Your above.example is several pieces. You can judge the whole or the pieces as they come in. They tell two different stories when separated.

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  2. As a person who started this game applying the same rules to the game as to life and not enjoying it let me chime in.....
    7 years ago I thought the MetaGame would kill EVE. I thought the scammers would kill EVE. I thought the suicide gankers would kill EVE. I was just a few short months and I was relieved of all that nonsense.
    I pay actual cash money to develop characters in a fictional world. I came to find out that I do not want to be "me" all over again and pay money for it. I want to be something else.
    I developed some suiganking toons. I did some longterm infiltration for iskies. I did some scamming. I literally tried all the seedy sides of EVE. It all boils down to *effort* vs reward. Sure I made some mad isks but nothing compared to what my regular market toons were hauling in. To be honest it was not worth the time vestment for me to continue it.
    In the end it is just a game and kinda naive to relate ingame behavior to out of game standards of measure for character.
    You should try a game called diplomacy with friends. Cut throat, dastardly and fun.

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    1. We may want to be different when we play a game, I just find it hard to literally do particular things. Maybe my I'm just too set in some ways that I can't dictate anything I want in a fictional environment. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't, time will tell, and fate is a fickle mistress.
      :)

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