Eve Economics

I get RSS feeds through Feedly on my phone and some of the feeds I follow have to do with general gaming, android gaming, science and of course, Eve.  There are a bunch of blogs out there that are well worth the read.  You can search for blog members of the Eve Blog Pack and you will be treated to a wide swath of engaging and interesting Eve blogs.  Also, Feedly is one of the best RSS feed clients (which is multiplatform (IOS, Droid and the Interweb)).  So you can read them pretty much anywhere.  

The particular feed I would like to promote is by EVE News24, by Seraph IX Basarab. Unfortunately, I can't access and copy the link from work, but check out Eve News 24.  It was called "EVE COURSE ON ECONOMICS AND INDUSTRY"  It is about the economic scope of Eve and how it works.  It was very interesting, so check it out.  Seraph mentions sinqlaison (SL), a self-made Eve trillionair.  SL is an Eve veteran who has a in-depth tutorial on everything related to the market in Eve.  Seraph does point out that not everyone will be interested in Eve and playing the industrialist is not instantly gratifying (like PVE/PVP is).  If you like to micro-manage and move at your own pace, maybe being an industrialist is for you. 

It is pretty easy to make some ISK, but if you want to go big, you need the skills and the capital to do so.  I have 4 accounts running and 5 vested toons.  I have a few that are just market queries in Jita, Rens and Amarr.  I have two toons that can invent and build T2 components and ships.  One of those toons can build everything up to capitals (including jump freighters).  I have three toons that can manufacture with Material Efficientcy to V and two of those can manufacture T2 ships and components.  Combining all four of my toons, I can build around thirty items and I can research over thirty blueprints at one time.  If you want to rake in the ISK, you can probably do it with one, but the time line will be monumental long.  I can pay for at least two of my subscriptions per month with PLEX if I choose to.

Eve's economy is more of an analog to reality than any other MMO.  Games like WoW, Conan, Diablo and others are just a infant compared to Eve.  I dont know how many items are seeded by CCP in the Eve market, but it is only a small fraction of what is available.  I know CCP seeds skill books for certain.  Everything else is either player made (raw t1, t2 and t3 components, modules, and ships as well as  PI materials and asteroid & ice minerals.  The named components come from PVE activities as well as salvage.  People also build and supply capital ships, player owned stations (POS) and player owned planetary custom's offices (POGOs).  Mineral shortages due to conflicts and player-backed embargoes and quarantines of market systems can radically effect the market prices.  Large battles and events like "Hulkagheddon" also impact the markets by altering the supply and demand of ships and modules.  Even changes in game play mechanics will effect the market.  Planned buffs to modules can cause a run on the market and people try to capitalize on the changes.  Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose.

I remember when tier 3 battlecruisers were introduced.  I was living in null (Providence) and their introductory prices were sky high.  They, like everything else, leveled out.  A similar thing happened with blasters and rails when CCP buffed them.  The Eve market is extremely dynamic.  It gives people a challenging profession in addition to all the other things you can do in Eve.  You can, for all intents and purposes, dedicate yourself to market trading and if you like that sort of thing, you can enjoy it.  Win or lose, it can be very interesting and nerve-wracking.

That's my take.  As always, fly safe-ish.