The in-game economy at Eve Online is an open economy that is largely driven by players. Non-player character traders (NPCs) sell skill books used by players to learn new skills and blueprints for making ships and modules. NPC traders also buy and sell merchandise. Some Merchandise is only for trade between NPC traders while others have functional uses and are not good for trading with NPCs. The character itself collects raw materials needed to produce almost all ships and sends modules in the game. NPC ships can be booted and saved for goods and materials. Ships and equipment made by non-players can be purchased from various NPC factions as a status that gets their joint status, and can be resold in the economy in the game. The in-game currency is the ISK (Interstellar Credit), which is also the currency code of Iceland Iceland, Iceland's real-world currency, where the Eve Online development studio is located.
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| Eve Online Economic (youtube.com) |
The amount of money or materials in the universe is not fixed and, as such, the economy operates under supply and demand. Market manipulation is possible on a large scale, certain examples become slim and resist attacks. CCP does not issue refunds for in-game purchases. Therefore, there is always the risk of certain types of trust or other fraud. The economy is offset by the automatic introduction of additional materials in areas with low population. This encourages a more even distribution of players.
operates primarily as a trader, generates profits through buying, selling and transporting goods. Others operate mainly as producers, acquire components or raw materials and convert them, sometimes on a large scale, into useful items such as weapons, ships, ammunition, goods, or various technologies needed by other players. Some less battle-oriented players operate as miners or saviors, collecting and processing the ore used in making or collecting leftover materials to make items, respectively. Finally, some characters operate as mercenaries or pirates, paid primarily to be ready to fight and to either attack or defend other profitable companies.
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| Eve Online Market and Industry (youtube.com) |
Unlike some games like Second Life, in-game currencies cannot be converted freely with real world currencies. Players can only purchase certain in-game items (such as Pilot License Renewal (PLEX), tokens worth 30 days of game time) from CCP with real world currencies. Players can then sell items in the in-game market for ISK (game currency). The reverse process, selling currency or in-game goods for real world money, is prohibited. The developer's reason for this policy, as related by the CCP representative at Fanfest 2010, is that free currency exchange causes in-game banking to fall under the same regulatory domain as real-world banking. CCP prefers not to place this restriction on in-game behavior, either because of the difficulty of enforcing regulations and the desire to allow players to create banks in the game or unauthorized Ponzi schemes if they wish to do so.
Commentators have attempted to estimate the value of the Eve Online entity in real world currencies based on the current PLEX value. One such conversion was rewarded by a ready-fleet titan (the most powerful ship in the game) at US $ 7,600, although estimates vary. In general, no player spends a number of real-world currencies to obtain the amount of wealth in the game, choosing to do activities in the game that generate large amounts of profit.
In 2007, CCP was the first game developer to hire an economist, Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, to oversee the economy in the Eve game. Guðmundsson was previously the dean of the business and science faculty at Akureyri University. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson will leave the CCP in 2014 to the Chancellor's position at Akureyri University in July 2014.
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