Cupcakes

At the beginning of the year I wrote about how I wanted to lose another 10 pounds on top of the 45 pounds I lost last year.  After a bunch of starts and stops I think I'm finally in the dieting groove and I'm only 3 pounds away from my goal.  But temptation is always out there and today I faced my biggest test yet: cupcakes.  I'm not sure exactly who brought them in, but there were cupcakes everywhere.  And the temptation got stronger and stronger as the night wore on.  But I resisted and my diet is still intact.

As I was trying not to think about cupcakes, I started to think about Eve Online and Eve's version of cupcakes: PLEX.  How are PLEX like cupcakes?  Well, for me, buying PLEX and converting one to isk would be a bit like cheating.  I came into the game wanting to get my in-game currency the old fashioned way.  That's right, I wanted to earn it playing the game, not purchasing it via micro-transactions. In cupcake terms, eating PLEX would spoil the main meal of my economic play, such as it is.

But if you get hungry enough, that cupcake sure looks tempting.  I've never been in the position where I was flat broke in Eve.  With the recent agent changes meaning I can pick up courier missions at will, I don't think I'd ever have to resort to buying isk with real-life money.  But some people are addicted to purchasing isk.  They see it as a necessary evil in order to afford the isk to play Eve.  People like that I understand are heavily into PvP or trying to build or maintain a corporation.

Personally, I pay enough for my subscription.  I really can't see paying real life cash on virtual items that likely will explode in the very near future.  But Eve is a sandbox, and since the rules allow it, who's to say it's wrong?  Not me.  While I don't understand an addiction to buying PLEX, I definitely understand one to cupcakes.