EVE Online Players Are Freaking Out About Money This Month

This month, EVE Online publisher CCP announced some major changes to the way that the spacefaring MMO’s currency systems work. In a game where a spaceship can have a real-world value of over $2,000, that’s naturally caused some high-level players to freak out a little, and not without reason.

On March 16, CCP posted a blog saying that it would be revising the game’s major currency system, called PLEX. Currently, players can buy a single PLEX for $20, which they can either exchange for 30 days of game time or sell to other players for in-game credits. CCP said it would deflate the currency so that $20 would now buy 500 PLEX, and users’ current accounts would be updated to reflect the new value.

This split was intended to make PLEX a more flexible currency, so players could use it to purchase smaller, lower-value items. This was necessary since CCP would also entirely phase out another in-game currency, Aurum, which is used to pay for microtransaction-style cosmetic upgrades like new skins for your ship. Players’ existing supplies of Aurum would be converted into PLEX at a rate of roughly 7 Aurum to 1 (deflated) PLEX.

At first, CCP raised players’ ire by saying that any Aurum balance under 1,000 (roughly ten bucks’ worth) would be simply discarded when the change went live. But on March 21, it posted a second blog saying that it had reconsidered, and that Aurum balances under 1,000 would be suspended and converted three months after the initial changeover.