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Comment by Causality1 | Hacker News Reader

I was addicted to EVE for several years. It was one of the grandest things I've ever been a part of. It was both a curse and a blessing when the developers legitimized the exchange of real money for in-game money (through the buying and selling of game time) because it destroyed any sense of value for all the things I was doing and hence freed me from my addiction.

I wouldn't trade those memories for anything, though.

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> the developers legitimized the exchange of real money for in-game money (through the buying and selling of game time)

To those unfamiliar- EVE has the deepest player-driven economy of any game. All in-game items are crafted by players, out of materials mined by players. Money (ISK) is created in a small number of ways: NPC mission running results in ISK rewards, as does killing NPC ships among the systems, and insurance payouts. Items are destroyed when a ship is destroyed, and ISK is destroyed via trading taxes, insurance contracts, etc. CCP attempts to tweak knobs to keep the money supply at a reasonable rate so inflation doesn't get rampant, etc.

CCP (the company behind EVE) sells an in-game item called a "Pilots License Extension" (PLEX) for cash on their web site. Your EVE subscription can either be paid for in cash, or by redeeming a PLEX in-game. Like everything else in the game, a PLEX can be traded in the game. So, many people will pay cash on CCP's site to get a PLEX item for their player, and list it on the in-game market for PLEX. Eventually, a player in the game will purchase a PLEX from the in-game market with ISK they earned while playing the game, and this don't pay CCP real money to pay for their subscription.

Exactly. When a ship or resource is destroyed in EVE it's gone, so losing a fight means losing the time you invested into that resource. That gives real significance to the grinding. That significance is destroyed when you can open a calculator and see that you're grinding for the equivalent of 72 cents an hour. Instead of playing the game to replace your losses you just start buying them back. It's like retail: the only people having fun with the economy are the ones with big spreadsheets and even bigger corporate industries.

> developers legitimized the exchange of real money for in-game money (through the buying and selling of game time)

Are there people making a living by earning in-game currency and exchanging it for a real-world currency?

If nothing has changed, they legitimised the transfer of money --> ISK, but not the other way around. So, I think it's unlikely...but not impossible.

There seems to be plenty of online, non legitimate, markets to exchange Isk for cash.

https://iskmarket.com/en/Sell-Eve-ISK

I'm guessing not a few people are earning a living from Eve.

Going out on a mission in a fleet of 1500+ in a Mumble server against a similar sized enemy was indeed grand. Shame you end up sitting in TiDi where it takes 30minutes for your modules to activate.

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