Eve Online Goes Back To Normal - Loaning The Return Of Avatar Items

Calm appears to have returned to Eve Online following a month of unrest and disruption by players following the introduction of avatars that can be taken for a walk in the game world, and the introduction of clothing and other items for sale.

Alongside the introduction of the store and a new in-game currency, Aurum, came the leak of an internal communication within developers CCP debating the launch of virtual goods, and although no explicit details or plans were revealed which were necessarily worrying, the tone of the document caused a level of unrest.

As the gameplay currency PLEX is converted to the new currency Aurum for clothing and item purchases (The revenue from any sales by items created by gamers comes back in the existing ISK currency to buy in-game items, as opposed to purchasing game time with PLEX), it was possible to work out roughly how much items were costing, such as Men’s Commando Pants for $15 US dollars, a Men’s ‘Sterling’ dress shirt for $16.97, or a Looking Glass Ocular implant for a whopping $61.25. All for items which currently just alter avatar appearances, rather than offering any in-game benefits. But the risk of that coming, along with the prices etc led to a number of in-game riots attempting to disrupt the game economy, and some have cancelled their subscriptions.

Fairly quickly a special meeting of the formal player organization, the Council of Stellar Management was arranged with CCP, in the company bad credit payday loans offices in Iceland, and everything since, including a statement by the CSM, reinforces the idea that CCP will only ever offer vanity items for sale, rather than anything which will affect in-game performance.