Eve Online's New Chief Economist

eldavojohn writes "Recently CCP, the folks behind the online game Eve Online, hired a real world economist to advise them on their in-game economy. Says the new hire, Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, 'There's a lot of discussion in the game about inflation and that is my job, to find out if inflation is going on. This makes the consumers behave in a more natural way because they are competing against each other on multiple levels, not only on a tactical level in combat but for logistics and resources. That builds consumer behavior and patterns that you see in the real world.' Is this a serious step to keep Eve Online competitive in the virtual land of MMOs despite scandals, Ponzi schemes & scams?"

More than just Titans and Mining...

[sykopomp]

This is interesting, since CCP is actually preparing the introduction of T3 equipment. For a very long time, they've had a very particular way to work with T2 (better than T1) equipment, and that's to raffle the Original Blueprints for T2 items. This was a compromise between many different systems that didn't work very well, but gave many people unfair monopolies over much-wanted items. They've been stepping further and further away from this by introducing invention (which lets you 'invent' limited-run blueprints of T2 ships and modules). I wonder what this new economist will have to say about T3... I don't think there's been any official mention of how the T3 market is going to work.

Re:I am not a ship

[Kagura]

They do have a free trial on the EVE Online [eve-online.com] homepage.

Re:Baloney Economy

[Bananas]

Except I'm not. I'm in a much smaller corp. I mine, I build, I sell. I fight if I have to. And still, the game grinds on - not because I'm trying to grind for the "leet" gear, but because it takes forever to do anything. Eve rapidly devolves into a time (and money) sink that has you snoozing on a late night at the keyboard, because drilling a 'roid in a 0.7 belt is boring enough to peel paint. You still didn't give me a reason. Yes, I realize that it's a game, and game economies should be fun - and that's kinda my point. Eve's economy isn't in any way, shape or form fun. Now if there were 10-20 miners during a mining op, or a guild of builders that work with each other, then that would bring some kind of social interaction, ie. "fun", even if it was just shooting the breeze about nothing in peticular. But no...it's just you, your mining barge, and some floating rock. Wake me when we need to run the jetcan back to the station (yawn).

Re:Form their own guild

[tibike77]

People associated with CCP (the company that runs EVE) have a few special case clauses to their gameplay.
That doesn't include just the game developers, but also members of the volunteer staff, which have to sign a NDA to join the ranks of the bughunters, interstellar correspondents, moderators or be a part of event teams. CCP has a history of recruiting GMs and other staff from the ranks of volunteers, so there's enough incentive to join and perform well.

Now, the thing with "CCP accounts" is that they're public and have access to various "world manipulation" tools. All their actions are audited, and for over half a year (at least) there's something akin to an "Internal Affairs" department (like the one in the police) tasked with making sure they don't do anything fishy with their rights.

At the same time, all people ALSO MAY have (if they want) a regular account, which they pay for like any other person... and they are subject to the same rules and regulations like all other players.
Moreso, they are subjected to one EXTRA rule: they are NOT allowed to disclose the fact they are "related" to CCP.

In case they slip up, common operating procedure is to, well, *cough* "enter them in a witness protection program". They get a new name, a new face, a fake corporation history. They lose all friends they might have made so far. They basically start from scratch relationship-wise... and that's the most horrible thing to lose in EVE, IMHO.

Sure, they might have some inside knowledge, and there have been a couple of occurences of abuse, but all short of ONE incident were very harshly punished (and of course, they no longer work for CCP, except that one incident I was talking about).
CCP has been very forthcoming with player accusations, and as open to communication as can possibly be expected from a company.
Of course, many people still feel "cheated" or think CCP is hiding something, but what would be the world without conspiracy theory nutjobs ?

So no... they CAN'T just do the stuff you're afraid they can do, and no, they don't get away with it.

Re:Form their own guild

[tibike77]

Heh. Really, really funny you shoud say that. I mean, seriously funny. Because... THEY ARE doing that :)
Check out http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid =401 [eve-online.com]
They call it "ambulation", everybody else just calls it "walking in stations".