I Actually Purchased An EVE Online Starter Pack

CCP Games is just two weeks away from the launch of the summer expansion for EVE Online, Equinox. Along with new systems, players will need to learn new skills in order to use the new Upwell ship line as well as the new personalized ship SKIN system. New skills require acquiring skill points. And since a lot of players have hauler characters who normally don't require new skills, players will look for ways to gain those skill points. Personally, for the first time, CCP came up with a sale that convinced me to join the crowd and send some real world cash.

Reading the details on the new Upwell transport ships, particularly the Deluge, I saw two important points. One, I could get an upgrade to ship Planetary Industry products out of low sec to high sec markets. The second is the potential growing market for those products in Equinox. Looking at the new changes to null sec and their cascading effects on low- and high sec, I decided I needed to train up a second character on each account.

Enter CCP's weekend sale in the New Eden Store. The sale was simple enough. From 23-28 May, multiple character training certificates were available in the in-game New Eden Store for 40% off. Which means I could buy 500 PLEX from the cash shop and convert that into 3 MCT certificates. I was looking to buy three certificates. My options were:

1. Spend $24.99 for 500 PLEX in the cash shop, then use the PLEX to buy the certificates from the New Eden Store.
   
   
2. Spend $40.99 directly for three MCT certificates.
   
   
3. Spend $49.99 for the Gold Starter Pack. In addition to 500 PLEX, the package comes with 2 months of Omega game time, 500,000 skill points, a Standard 'Boost' Cerebral Accelerator which, since I've trained Biology to level 5, gives a character 8 days of accelerated training with +4 to all learning attributes, and 8 SKINs, none of which are for ships I fly.

I didn't see the value in directly spending for the certificates, which is why I was looking at the sale in the first place. I then considered if all the extra things I wasn't initially interested in was worth spending an extra $25 per character. Putting aside the cosmetic items I never use, $25 for two months of game time the kind of deal I look for. The fact I'm looking at also picking up all the new skills in Equinox as quickly as possible made the deal look even more attractive. So I bought a Gold Starter Package for each of my two accounts, and then quickly purchased the multi-character training certificates.

Yes, I really spent money for the expansion

I do wonder how many other people will give in to the temptation of swiping a credit card to acquire the ability to fly the new Upwell ships or try out the new ship SKIN system to decorate their ships the way they want. But I'm not going to begrudge CCP too much. After all, they don't charge for the actual expansion. The company just tries to find ways to direct players to the cash shop.