Pod Pilot Takes Serious Look at ISKless Trading
2008-05-14T12:05+00:00
Every day, billions of isk trades hands as commerce grinds away. One pod pilot feels that the isk value of goods is an artificial value; that value is something that only the owner can give to the item.
Tradesalotski explains: "I believe that we place too much emphasis on the value of money, and people perspectives need to change. We forget the real value of an item is what we give it. I think one of the biggest problems in New Eden is the emphasis placed upon isk. The pursuit of isk often means that you lose sight of what is important ...having a laugh, and deciding what is important."
To illustrate how value is in the eye of the beholder Tradesalotski points to is first trade; "My first trade was my exotic dancer for an Iteron Mark III. The person who I traded with had a -9.9 security rating, so for him having a ship in empire space was useless." At current isk prices, this trade was far from even at a 50x value in Tradesalotski's favor.
His most unusual trade was for a tomb in Azia Burgi's cemetery; "I traded my Mackinaw with Azia Burgi for a place in her graveyard. The tomb would be unique and personalised unlike any others that were there already." The tomb was eventaully traded for a fitted and rigged Firetail.
Tradesalotski adds: "In an ideal world I would like to trade in commodities which are not available on the market. For example...whilst the grave had no isk value the uniqueness and the experience meant that it did have value for someone. I would love to see some more trades like this taking place."
Although Tradesalotski may like to see more bartering type trades in New Eden, Selene D'Celeste, a board member of EBANK had this to say:
"A barter system, based on good-to-good transactions, works on the micro-level where two individuals just happen to be able to benefit each other though an item-based trade. Such a system doesn't scale up well in New Eden. Since we place value on goods individually, there is no guarantee that when I want Item X from Person Y that they will desire something I own that could be traded for Item X. This is why money is important. By having an object that represents neutral wealth (ISK), and having somewhat stable ranges of value associated with physical items, we have a much more flexible system that allows more goods to flow and more ability to leverage the value of goods, which is good for all involved. The more trade, the more profits and opportunities for profit. Bartering is a useful option often forgotten, but it's certainly not a replacement for currency."
read original »
Market Manipulation Used For Revenge
2008-05-06T23:35+00:00
The vast majority of market manipulations are conducted with profit as the only motivation. For the past two months, Darkrftr has been waging an economic war on the Intrepid Crossing alliance as an act of revenge; "There is no way we could fight them so I am attacking their market".
Darkrftr has made claims that Intrepid Crossing "stole" 1.4 billion isk (in the form of an investment) to build their outpost in WU9-ZR, Etherium Reach. Shortly after the outpost was built, Darkrftr claims that his corporation was unceremoniously removed from the alliance, and no refund of the investment ever tendered.
Star Nove, a member of Intrepid Crossing tells a different tale. According to Nove, Darkrftr had been conducting his manipulations long before his corporation was removed from the alliance. Although complaints were sent in to Darkrftr's superiors, Nove claims: "His corporation chose not to do anything about it and I believe that's why they were kicked [from the alliance]". In addition, Nove claims that Darkrftr "also infiltrated one of our corps, then when he was given hangar access, he stole from them."
Regardless of the cause of the dispute, Darkrftr has escalated his manipulations since the separation. Using a jump clone still housed in D-IZT9, Darkrftr has been buying up high demand items, marking them up, and reselling them.
Originally willing to settle for a 1.4 billion isk payout to "go away", Darkrftr has steadily increased his demands as Intrepid Crossing continues to ignore them. He is currently demanding 120 billion isk to leave the area. Darkrftr admits that this number is unrealistic, but he does say that "I would take less if I could sell off my stock before I left. That's a leave now price."
Intrepid Crossing is not the only alliance in the area that has noticed the market manipulations. Dylon Xavier of Evolution Alliance and Clerence Thomas of Ethereal Dawn weighed in with their views of the situation.
Clerence Thomas chuckled: "Mostly I sell a lot more shuttles in bulk!...as far as I know, Intrepid Crossing mostly sells on contract, so it's got negligible impact on them. Most of Ethereal Dawn produces what it can internal to corps and imports the rest. Most of what we have on the market is cast off and convenience stuff... So while it does annoy a few, it's mostly a chuckle for us producers that sell a silly number of shuttles. Only our newest corps coming out here really noticed it in looking over the market."
Dylon Xavier: "Evolution imports 90% of what we use, so no major impact thus far. I'm not sure his 'impact' on the market is even really noticeable. The things we'd actually buy, like ships, we'd bring in on jumps. The rest is just 'convenience' - 'don't wanna fly back for missiles' kind of thing."
Most in the area agree that the only affect Darkrftr has had is on the convenience of using the market system. While several scoff at his actions as "useless and limited", Darkrftr has made an estimated 10-12 billion isk on his manipulations to date.
Although he still claims that revenge is his goal, it appears that Darkrftr's manipulations are not having the intended impact; but with profits still coming in, there is no pressing need for Darkrftr to abandon his endeavor.
read original »
Record Breaking Poker Tournament Requires 1.05 Billion Isk Buy-in
2008-04-29T03:04+00:00
Eve Online Hold'Em has partnered with Otherworld Enterprises to host a poker tournament at 21:00 on May 3rd with the potential for an incredible eleven and a half billion isk 1st prize.
The "EOH Eve Series of Poker - 1.05 B Tournament" is only open to a maximum of eighteen players. Seating is on a first-come basis and at current writing, five slots are open for the first of two nine seat tables.
The entry fee for the tournament is 1,050 million isk. With a minimum of nine players for the tournament to proceed, the lowest grand prize of the tournament is a comfortable seven billion isk. Should all eighteen slots be filled, two tables will be run and the winners of each table will play off for the eleven and a half billion isk grand prize.
Eskaton, the second player to sign up for the tournament, had this to say; "I joined this particular event because I got the time for that particular weekend, because I had the iskarinos to spare on the buy-in, but primarily because the bigger the buy-in the bigger the rush from playing. I have played against Bwill before a few times, won one of those times. Also I have played a few of the ppl who are still deciding to sign up, but havent actually done so yet."
When asked if he has ever participated in other high stakes games, Eskaton told us; "Never been in such a high stakes tourney before, max so far has been in the 100million isk range. I suspect this first tourney, and how it rolls, will determine if there will even BE any other high stakes games(and lets face it, a 1billion isk buy-in is nowhere near a lot of people's threshold of pain). If there are, and I got the time and isk for it, I will almost certainly be signing up for it"
Cuebick, another early entrant, is also new to high stakes gaming; "This is my first time gambling for such high stakes...I'm Caldarian, it's a well known fact that we desire wealth over everything else. I started out gambling in shady stations in deep lawless space, betting low amounts of isk. I recently heard that the owner of one of the biggest and most notorious poker syndicates, Selene D'Celeste is hosting a massive 1 billion isk buy-in tournament, with first place paying out a whopping 7 billions isk. My corporation, one of the oldest in Eve, The Collective, desperately needs isk to continue to make supercapitals, and with that in mind I quickly signed up. Selene told me that already people are betting on who will win. According to the bookies I'm the underdog."
With only a week left to go, odds are looking good for a single nine pilot table. Pod pilots interested in the Tournament should click on the link below for instructions and detailed rules.
Galnet References
EOH Eve Series of Poker Tournament
read original »
Farewell to a Racing Legend
2008-04-24T14:44+00:00
Onward to Glory - On Sunday 20th April we were privileged to be spectators at the third ISGC racing league race of Season V.
There were two main differences to this race compared to any other race the league has ever held, the first was that for the first time in league history there were two waypoint cans at most of the waypoints.
This caused some confusion amongst the racers at first who are not used to having sequential waypoints right next to each other; this also made each waypoint a lot more dangerous as it gave any roaming pirate gangs that much longer to target and attack.
The second main difference of this race was that it was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Kendar Zek, who passed away in his sleep on during the early hours of Friday 18th April.
Mr Zek was a well-known philanthropist in New Eden, owner of the Venture Racing Team, and one of the main sponsors of the Interstellar Gaming Consortium Racing League. His untimely demise has caused quite a ripple in the circles where he was known. He was not known to be in ill health even by his closest friends, but it would appear from a statement made by Mr Zek shortly before he passed on, that he was aware of his situation and had made provision for the distribution of his estate and the smooth running of his beloved racing team. More information may be found on his last GalNet announcement.
It is fitting that this race, in remembrance of Mr Zek, was once again dominated by Takashi Karasuwo ex-manager, now owner of the Venture Racing Team. Mr Karasuwo has been unstoppable for the last couple seasons, and even among the racers he is known as the best and fastest, in fact he is so good that you cannot place a bet on him to win as the bookmaker that deals with the racing league does not feel that Mr Karasuwo could possibly lose.
All the teams are looking strong this season and we are looking forward to a possible change in the finishing order in the next couple of races.
The next race is set to take place in the Everyshore region on Sunday 27th April starting at 20:00.
External GalNet References
Kendar Zek - Final Broadcast - View Here
ISGC Racing League Information - View Here
read original »
The Hitchhiker's Guide to New Eden - Part I
2008-04-22T22:20+00:00
Expand Your Horizons - Throughout the vastness of space, thousands of elite pilots fly across the starry skies oblivious of the forgotten wonders waiting to be rediscovered.
Epic monuments, abandoned stations, crumbling ruins, weird and wonderful spacial phenomena, just some of the sights waiting to be seen.
For those pilots who want to experience something different, for those who are wanting to capture the spirit of adventure and exploration, here is a collection of some of New Edens most important natural, man-made and other mysteriously fabricated landmarks and points of interest.
Setting off from the remote port of Polaris we will travel in each of the cardinal directions documenting our finds.
Journeying Into The North
R55 Colonial Ruins
- In the system of Isie the Lai Dai Corporation once ran the largest bio-chemical research facility in Caldari space. The facility was intended to establish Lai Dai as the main biotech company within the State. But only a few years into its operation an accident ruptured the storage tanks and the station had to be abandoned. The myriad chemical substances leaking from the storage tanks mingled in unexpected ways in the zero-g vacuum outside the station and in time formed a eerily beautiful, but highly toxic, gas cloud around the station. After the accident Lai Dai scuttled their biotech ambitions and the station remained vacant for years. Recently, Guristas pirates have started using it as an outpost.
- Entered Via: Isie
- CONCORD / DED Rating: 0.4
- View Visual Records
Assilot
- The famous dueling tournament, 'The Legends Trial', has moved to PPG-XC, to escape various expenses associated with having its tournament inside Federation space. Also by staging the tournament here, it can choose from a larger variety of competitors, such as criminals and members of outlaw organizations which would be immediately arrested in Federation space.
The Legends Trial is a popular show on Federation TV, it is broadcasted to billions of screens across many regions. Huge money is at stake, and gambling on the events is extremely popular. It is therefore not surprising that various criminal networks are working hard to 'influence' the outcome of the show and rig fights. The organizers of the Legends Trials have hired a sizable mercenary fleet to protect its assets, but even so it has become extremely vulnerable to pirate meddling, especially due to its new location outside of the protective embrace of Federation space. Certainly a freelance merc pilots dream come true.
- Entered Via: PPG-XC
- CONCORD / DED Rating: 0.0
- View Visual Records
Black Rise
- Black void divides the western regions of the mighty Gallente Federation and the Caldari State, apparently without mass or dimension but still inexplicably closed to the eyes of science. During the Gallente-Caldari War, both empires tried to establish travel routes through the utter vacuum in order to outflank their foe, but all such endeavours were lost in the gloomy bowels of the Black Rise, never to be seen again. For decades no man has ventured far into it and no one really knows what secrets lie hidden in its murky depths.
- Entered Via: N/A
- CONCORD / DED Rating: N/A
Serpent's Coil
- The Serpent's Coil is at once one of the most exotic and most dangerous of all space locations in the vast world of EVE. It is currently inhabited by agents of the Serpentis Corporation, which use the place as a gathering point for smugglers and raiders alike. At the heart of the Serpent's Coil lies a ruined military installation. This military base was constructed by the Gallente Federation during the Gallente-Caldari War to defend against marauding Caldari ships. After the war the strategic importance of the base diminished and it was eventually abandoned. The base is ringed by huge rock boulders the size of mountains. These magnificent boulders broke off a comet traversing the Vilinnon system long time ago and today they stand proud in their protection of the most audacious Serpentis base around.
- Entered Via: Vilinnon
- CONCORD / DED Rating: 0.6
- View Visual Records
First Sergeant Hakiro's Lookout
- First Sergeant Tomi Hakiro, of the Caldari State Navy, was assigned the task of monitoring Guristas activity through the O-LR1H gate in G5ED-Y. Admiral Aurobe Kois had become concerned with the frequent emergence of Guristas ships through the stargate, and linked that directly to the numerous collisions between his own ships and Guristas squads in G5ED-Y. This small outpost was erected by Tomi and his men near the stargate as their base of operations.
- Entered Via: G5ED-Y
- CONCORD / DED Rating: 0.0
- View Visual Records
In the next installment we will be wandering into the west..
read original »
