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Here to There

I made Vov an offer. He turned me down. It was a simple enough thing. He is sprawled atop a stack of Cynabal blueprints and hates to go through the process of building and liquidating. I don't mind the process of creating and selling. I offered to buy his recliner of blueprints but he has decided to lay upon his hoard for now.

The value of stuff in Eve is one that has often caught my attention. I am an ISK lover. My wallet balance soothes my soul and my asset balance leaves me with a different type of comfort. Assets do not always go up, such as the story of pirate battleships. ISK stays the same and inflation and such changes its value some. When I started a PLEX was above 400 million ISK and wobbled around five hundred million. Now it is firmly entrenched at the bottom of nine.

Eve is full of conversion processes. Moon goo has a value for instance but that value is often better spent reacting it into fancier products to build tech two ships. I've always been excited to find blueprints in my loot but blueprints do not often translate into ISK directly. They must be sent to market and placed on contracts. Larger, more elaborate ones are better sold on the forums. All of this takes time and energy to convert thing into ISK and much longer then it takes to convert ISK into thing.

I've been thinking a lot about conversion. What is valuable to someone? Is it the ISK? The item? Is it the tangible now or the potential for later? I have PLEX to liquidate but should I? I have the TCS stock I'm sitting on but it has more value if sold at a markup away from Jita.

What is more rewarding to someone? The ISK? The potential of ISK? The convenience of now or the game play of creating it? For me, I like to putter. I won't be building Vov's blueprint hoard now... but who knows.. maybe later?


Comments

  1. For a long time, I didn't necessarily define the 'value' of my accumulated wealth in terms of a number. Sure, I could add it up, but I was concerned more about overall /capability/ of what that combined pile o' crap meant. Heavy lift (hauling), industry (bpos and mining), and of course combat (ships, capships, cyno alts, weapons caches in important hubs, etc.) and the skills to use it all. It was a setup where the total value exceeded the notional spreadsheet isk value.

    So to me, the value is in figuring out an elegant solution to an equation where the variables continue to change. Of being able to adapt, and continuously put yourself into a position to project power/influence/capability over a wide range of potential futures.

    The trouble with such an approach is that eventually you have all the plates spinning adequately and you suddenly wonder "now what??" Then, it's time to putter and look at things from a different angle. And that's been my mode now for a couple of years.

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    1. Interesting response Abavus.

      Eve can be an intriguing game where even soloish players such as myself can (via alt magic) not only improve their individual talents but also improve their alt magic institutional capabilities. I undertake soloish institutional play with great enthusiasm as getting the alts working together smoothly generates great delight for a person of my bent.

      In as much as Eve is a game with artificial goals taking place in a universe with artificial rules peppered with artificial obstacles I find myself manipulating multiple sides of the puzzle. I have altered the goals thereby forcing my little institution to adapt (usually via making commitments to others). I have altered the rules (different activities have different rule sets) forcing my little institution to adapt. I have altered the obstacles forcing my little institution to adapt (squeezing down to but two accounts not only makes each alt precious but well-nigh forces each alt to broaden their in game capabilities.)

      Layer in the vicissitudes generated by the presence of other players befuddling my march towards smooth goal attainment as well as the ongoing possibility of CCP themselves changing the rules and I’ve not approached anything resembling boredom.

      Delete
  2. Oh, I know this feeling all too well. I'm just too disorganized and lazy generally. Over time I created a large amount of T2-BPCs, but every time I built and sold a couple ships, I lost interest and made more BPCs for some other ship.

    My stash of BPCs is always growing.

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