probably the only real ISK sink in this game is War Dec payments, taxes, and other payments imposed by npcs that actually removes isk from player hands.
Plex are not an isk sink... because as mentioned.... the isk you pay for it goes to another person's hands.

If anyone is really concerned that there is too much ISK in the economy, there's a real simple solution that everyone with some spare cash can contribute to.

1- Make alt.
2- Buy PLEX from CCP.
3- Sell them on market, collect ISK.
4- Delete the alt (WITH THE ISK).

When you get your next paycheck, repeat all steps until either you are broke or the ISK supply is at the level you want.

That billion came from ANOTHER PLAYER'S WALLET.

More interesting question...

How much RL money would a troll of truly epic proportions need to invest in order to temporarily collapse EVE's entire economy?

Or would it be impossible to even convert that much money via plex in a timely manner?

So lets get those plex to 600m+ where they should have been all along.

Nonsense. No manufacturing, mining, missioning, research, ratting, etc., is involved in the creation of PLEX. They cannot be refined into their base elements.

PLEX wildly outnumber officer drops.

PLEX magically appear when GTC are converted; with significant value. Nothing in the EvE economy is needed for me to instantly become a billion ISK richer. Nothing. Sure, mission loot and salvage appears magically, but I still need to purchase a ship, fit it with modules, arm the weapons with ammo, etc....before I can reap those magic loots. In other words, I have to interact with the EvE economy in order to accumulate that type of ISK. More importantly, I need to spend the intangible cost of "time".

Not so with PLEX......the very moment I convert GTC to a couple of PLEX.......BAMM!!......there's nearly a billion ISK suddenly appearing in the economy.

I don't think you're getting the point.....

Here, I'll shout it as well, maybe you're a touch deaf....

I CAN MAGICALLY CREATE NEARLY A BILLION ISK WORTH OF ASSETS WITHOUT EVEN PLAYING THE GAME.

It's assets out of thin air. Are you not paying attention to the real world? There is no economical model that can sustain a situation where assets and wealth are created out of nothing.....

POOF! I'm rich.

I don't think you're getting the point.....

Here, I'll shout it as well, maybe you're a touch deaf....

I CAN MAGICALLY CREATE NEARLY A BILLION ISK WORTH OF ASSETS WITHOUT EVEN PLAYING THE GAME.

It's assets out of thin air. Are you not paying attention to the real world? There is no economical model that can sustain a situation where assets and wealth are created out of nothing.....

POOF! I'm rich.

This is not a 'real' economy. It wasn't too long ago that EvE advertised a special deal on PLEX. With a couple of hundred dollars it was a simple process to suddenly inflate a wallet by 5,000,000,000 ISK; without generating it via the EvE economy. When the wealth is created without flowing through the economy.....it has real consequences.

There is far too much liquidity sitting in corp and individual wallets. It tends to produce boredom. Of course, it can also tend to produce creative ways of burning off some of the liquidity....[ref: suicide ganks].

PLEX magically appear when GTC are converted; with significant value. Nothing in the EvE economy is needed for me to instantly become a billion ISK richer.

Not so with PLEX......the very moment I convert GTC to a couple of PLEX.......BAMM!!......there's nearly a billion ISK suddenly appearing in the economy a PLEX has suddenly appeared in the economy

I don't think you're getting the point.....

Here, I'll shout it as well, maybe you're a touch deaf....

I CAN MAGICALLY CREATE NEARLY A BILLION ISK WORTH OF ASSETS WITHOUT EVEN PLAYING THE GAME.

probably the only real ISK sink in this game is War Dec payments, taxes, and other payments imposed by npcs that actually removes isk from player hands.
Plex are not an isk sink... because as mentioned.... the isk you pay for it goes to another person's hands.

False. When you convert a GTC, you get a PLEX with no in-game value whatsoever, and with an out-of-game value of 30 days of game time.

Quoted for Truth. It never fails to surprise me how people can be attracted to a game largely based on economics, when they have no clue about economics. PLEX just passes through the game on its merry journey from creation to destruction. The creation of PLEX involves the transfer of US dollars, Euros, or whatever real currency from someone to CCP. Its destruction involves the transfer of 30 days of game time from CCP to someone's account. ISK is only a medium of exchange for this temporary creation that is PLEX. ISK is neither created nor destroyed by PLEX. It only moves from A to B.

And as I've tried to point out, that's the nature of a closed economy. There's no exchange rate in New Eden that will alter the value of the ISK; one million ISK will always buy a product that's priced at one million ISK, provided that someone will pay that much for the product.

Where a one-million-ISK rig was once considered an expensive purchase, one million ISK would now be 'chump change', and purchases of two-million ISK would be considered 'expensive'.

and this can (and indeed has and does) happen even in the presence of sinks, as long as those sinks are not coupled with the facuets.

Do you have any idea what you wrote here?

If so, how so?

But that's the thing: EVE is not a closed economy. Influx is not connected to outflux. And The exchange rate is entirely volatile because, while you always get GG#a product priced at 1MGG% for your 1M ISK, what that product is is entirely variable. You might get a single unit of trit, or you might get an entire battleship.

There is no fixed exchange rate between items and ISK because neither of the two have faucets that are mechanically tied to the flow rate of the sinks.
GG*and this can (and indeed has and does) happen even in the presence of sinks, as long as those sinks are not coupled with the facuets.

If you take the time to read the paper to which I linked earlier, you'll find a very well-written explanation of how an MMO's closed economic system operates. Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, and EVE online -- in fact, any MMO -- is a closed economic system.

IBFTippia,

How so?

Figure 1 illustrates the original design of the macro-economy. Notice that all of the drain paths lead back up to the top, forming a closed loop. The impetus for this design was to prevent resource inflation; the theory being that a fixed quantity of resources would simply circulate from abstract to concrete and back again thus preventing the inflation that had plagued many similar on-line worlds. While this sounded good in theory, it was a failure in practice.

At first, the designers attempted to solve the deflation problem by pumping more resources into the world GGt they simply increased the total quantity of resources in the bank. But, no matter how much they added, the resources always flowed into inventory and just sat there. The problem, they concluded, was the lack of drains GGt not enough stuff was flowing out. However, players are (understandably) extremely resistant to rule changes which take things away from them.

I think you're either mistaken on the concept of a 'closed' vs 'open' economy, or you're confused about the term 'exchange rate'. Either way, I suggest that you investigate both terms.

An 'exchange rate' is not 'one item for another' -- it refers to the agreed-upon value of a given currency in a given market.

If you take the time to read the paper to which I linked earlier, you'll find a very well-written explanation of how an MMO's closed economic system operates. Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, and EVE online -- in fact, any MMO -- is a closed economic system.

In short, players hoarded both gold and items, and (since there were very few money sinks initially) the economy collapsed.

One is defined in terms of the other, and the other is defined in terms of the oneGG* but both of them differently depending on where you are (and when).

But that's just it: the ISK doesn't have an agreed-upon value.

That's what I just said!! There is no exchange rate because there's nobody to exchange goods with....

And again, you've either disregarded the definition that I posted -- which I will post again -- or you're intentionally ignoring it, which is disingenuous in the extreme:

A closed economy is a self-contained economic unit that has no business or trading relations with anyone outside of that unit.

Except that there is someone to exchange goods with: the simulated outside world.
And again: you seem to disregard/ignore the how this plays out in an MMO. Go back to your article, and read it again.

In UO, they at first implemented a closed economy by having a fixed amount of resources that just travelled around and around in the system (or, rather, didn't, which was the whole problemGG*) GGv a closed loop of items and money. When this broke down, they fixed it by creating a simulated outside world that the game economy could use as an exchange partner, which made it work a bit better. EVE works on a similar, but even more elaborate principle: there is a simulated outside world that produces and consumes goods and currency and which generates fluctuations in the value of the ISK.

This is not a 'real' economy. It wasn't too long ago that EvE advertised a special deal on PLEX. With a couple of hundred dollars it was a simple process to suddenly inflate a wallet by 5,000,000,000 ISK;