Scandal Hits FIFA 21 Ultimate Team

If I write about a sports game, something bad happened. The Nosy Gamer is a blog that primarily covers MMORPGs. I do, however, write about real money trading and the grey/black markets that surround video games. For example, the only time I wrote about the FIFA franchise was covering the prosecution of a gambling site utilizing FIFA 17. Until now.

A pro FIFA player, Matteo Ribera from Italy, provided proof for a scandal being referred to as EAGate.

#EAGATE

A special thanks to @RiberaRibell for the picture , he did an amazing work❤️
(continue in the comments)#fut #fifa pic.twitter.com/bJIg2rpWtI

— Arcade-Fut (@FutArcade) March 10, 2021

The most comprehensive coverage I've seen in the gaming press so far comes from Alice O'Conner of Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I like the healthy amount of skepticism she displayed in the article.

Other screens going round show someone claiming they have "a mate who works at EA, and he can load any player to your account". Those mention prices like €1000 (£855) for two coveted cards. Various videos and screens supposedly show proof of previous successful transactions.

There's no proof that this 'friend of a friend who works at EA' actually exists or does, mind. This could be a cover story for a glitch, exploit, or hack - the thinnest veneer of legimacy to deflect attention and keep a lucrative illicit business secret. Or a scam? I don't know. But it wouldn't be the first time someone used insider access to their own advantage.

But for actual facts, we don't have many. Electronic Arts did respond with a "We are looking into the matter" statement via Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/DtclTPandl

— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) March 10, 2021

The stakes are high for EA, as FIFA is the company's biggest franchise. In fiscal year 2020 (April 2019 through March 2020), EA's net revenue from Ultimate Team was $1.49 billion. The scandal erupted too late to significantly impact the franchise's FY 2021 performance, but anything that negatively impacts Ultimate Team is bad for EA.

Impressions After One Week Back In Black Desert Online

Last Thursday I created a new character in Black Desert Online, a witch, and leveled her up to level 47. I lost track of exactly how much I played. But I received a 24 hour buff when I started and still have 3 hours to go when I logged out for the night. My goal is level 61 in order to get a couple of accessory pieces, make sure I have completed the main story questline into Valencia, then turn to life skills and improving my equipment.

Level after one week

I thought I'd jot down some notes about my experience so far. Someone might be interested. But my thoughts are of someone who played for a couple of months and then left two years ago. I'm not a brand new player.

Story: Let me just get this out of the way. To me, the story is serviceable. Not great, but not something that makes me want to pull my hair out. 

I divide the story into two main parts. The first part involves your relationship with the black spirit. At my current point in the story, I gather I made a deal with the black spirit. The only thing is, I can't remember what the deal is. What I do know is, as I wander through the game, I become stronger, and so does the black spirit. I like the way the spirit has gradually changed form.

The second part is traversing the world. I've completed a few sub-arcs, but nothing really amazing. Well, the fight against the harpies in the fortified city was pretty cool. In general, though? Not too memorable.

Servers: I'm not sure what the difference between servers and channels is, and I'll probably get flamed for it. I rolled a character on a season server. The season servers have different rules and different types of equipment. I was also surprised that season servers don't have PvP except for organized guild wars except on one channel. The one thing about the season server is the season ends at the end of March. 

I do have to note something about the channel list. I noticed that some channels have the PvP symbol. I wonder about PvP in the game. I'm still only level 47 and can't participate in PvP until level 50. Just how much PvP happens in this PvP game?

Combat: I'm pretty much lost with combat. I figured out how to cast a few spells, consume health potions, and that's about it. The spells I use are:

• Chain lightning (Shift+Right Mouse Button)
• Mana Absorption (Shift+Left Mouse Button)
• Magic Missle (Right Mouse Button)
• Medium Health Potion (1 on the quick bar)

Occasionally I use my staff and cast a fireball. That's it. And with that limited tool kit, I'm managed to get to level 47. There are a lot more spells I could use, and I really need to learn how to use them.

Combat is very fluid and I've racked up some serious body counts in practically no time at all. Still, I would think that I'd need more skill than dashing around a boss monster spamming magic missiles. At this point, though, I can live with easy mode.

The User Interface: The UI is pretty busy and I'm still finding new elements and functions. For example, it wasn't until Tuesday that I found the NPC search function. One of the most frustrating parts was the quick bar. I placed Fireball I in a slot and discovered I still needed to press the left mouse button in order to activate it. I think over the next week I may finally figure out the quick bar.

Inventory: I'm pretty sure I may have purchased some inventory slots, but only for my one character. Not for the entire family (aka account). Having existing farm and housing also came in handy with handling inventory. The one thing I was surprised at was the amount of inventory slots I received from the black spirit for completing quests. Inventory is a very monetizable feature.

Speed of Progression: I think I'm progressing pretty quickly. Even in my 40s, I could manage to gain 3 levels in a hour with the aid of experience buffs that come from either daily login rewards, quest drops, or from the every five level booster package. If I have everything figured out correctly, I'm level 47 doing level 42 quests. Not that bad a disparity. I also haven't had the urge to go to the cash shop in order to buy experience boosts.

Enhancing Gear: Right now I'm working on Naru gear and haven't really started enchanting yet. But I can see how the RNG factor could drive people crazy. I'm pretty sure players can go to the cash shop to eliminate some of the pain.

Clothing/appearance: The cash shop has a wide variety of outfits. That said, I have received a couple of nice outfits. 

Buffs: I noticed one interesting thing about buffs in BDO. The timer stops when I log off. I'm used to Final Fantasy XIV where the buffs keep counting down after I leave the game.

No, Germany Is Not Age Restricting Video Games With Loot Boxes

Over the past few years, loot boxes have come under attack as a form of gambling. Countries like Belgium and Netherlands have outlawed the content. Japan had already declared complete gacha games illegal back in 2012. But observers have watched some of the larger markets like the United Kingdom inch toward loot box prohibition as government agencies continue to conduct research on the effects of gambling on children.

The largest market in the European Union is Germany. Much rejoicing went up as news spread that the nation of 83 million might restrict loot boxes to games rated PEGI 18. Those games are only purchasable by adults.

The source, Der Spiegel, seemed solid.

According to lawyer Julia Maris, the law will have an impact on the age restrictions. "Online games or other applications that use loot boxes or similar in-game offers would probably be classified with an age rating of 18 and over," Maris told SPIEGEL.

The reform would also affect games that were previously classified as harmless, such as "Fifa 21" . The soccer simulation is currently approved by the testing center for entertainment software self-regulation without age restriction. But since the “Ultimate Team” collecting mode offers card sets for sale as standard, that could change. In order to get an age rating for children for video games, loot boxes would have to be deactivated by default.

But Eurogamer printed an update yesterday, stating the reporting of the age restriction was in error.

It appears the Bundestag made a mistake with its own announcement of the legal reform. The announcement, which can be viewed on the Bundestag's website, no longer includes the line: "It is also planned to deactivate cost traps such as 'loot boxes' by default."

The amendment does stipulate that age ratings will be expanded to include descriptors for various problematic mechanics, including "cost traps". The idea here is to indicate risk if it was not taken into account in the age classification.

However, there is currently no indication that video games with loot boxes will be rated 18+.

Thankfully I couldn't get to the news right away so I avoided having to print a retraction. I guess a chance still exists that loot boxes could become age restricted, but the published information indicates otherwise.

EVE Online's Expert Systems: Opening Day Details

Today marks an interesting chapter in EVE Online monetization. From today's news article in the launcher.

Pricing from the cash shop

Brand new Expert Systems are now live in EVE Online! These are designed to help rookie Capsuleers discover and experience new activities by providing specific virtual skills and skill levels for a limited time that cannot be extracted through the use of Skill Extractors.

For a 7-day period per Expert System, you can taste the dream of a particular profession in EVE without having to commit to the skill training required by that path of progression and waiting for it to complete.

The first batch of Expert System products will focus on exploration, mining, and the core skills required to operate spaceships in EVE (commonly referred to as the ‘Magic 14’). You’ll be able to purchase Expert Systems that allow you to fly a Tech 1 exploration Frigate – either the Heron, Imicus, Magnate, or Probe – for 7 days, one that will allow you to operate a Mining Barge for 7 days, and one that will boost your essential flying skills for 7 days.

So new players can rent skills while they train. But are the terms good. Let's take a look.

White Squares Are Skills Already Possessed

I'm going to lump four of the six available Expert Skills packages together as the only difference is the racial frigate skill included. The skills displayed in white boxes are from an alt I created back in 2009 and never trained. New characters may differ.

I think this package is squarely aimed at Alpha players. For the free account players, training is not only half-speed, but each character is limited to 20 million skill points. In this case, renting the set of skills for a week for $1.99 may make sense. I would need to create an alpha account to confirm, but I believe a player could remain an alpha and use most, if not all, the skills, listed in the package. The package contains 561,305 total skill points, although that includes skills a character has already trained.

From first-hand experience, I know a player can remain in Alpha status and effectively probe down data and relic sites. With that in mind, a new player looking to purchase all the skills in the exploration expert skills would only have to purchase enough PLEX to purchase a single skill injector off the market. That might be the $9.99 package, although with the falling price of PLEX, a player might have to resort to the $19.99 package. A more sure bet money-wise might be the Bronze Pack (250,000 skill points, 60 PLEX, SKINs and clothing) combined with a 5 pack of Alpha skill injectors that sells for $4.19. That does take a little longer to train, as only one Alpha skill injector can be used per day. But if cost is an issue, it is a viable alternative. Check the in-game markets for PLEX exchange rates to get the best deal.

Trying to convert Alphas into Omegas

The Mining Barge Operations Expert System rents a package of 567,765 mining related skill points for the low price of $3.99 per week. I think the package is aimed at converting the F2P Alpha players into paying Omega accounts, as Alphas cannot normally fly mining barges. Once I realized what the developers intended, I chuckled. Veteran players try to lead new players away from mining and here CCP is trying to lead them into the activity.

In addition to convincing players to pay a subscription, I think the EVE monetization team is hoping players will then purchase the Silver Pack from the cash shop for $22.99. Not only does the package contain 30 days of Omega time, but also 250,000 skill points and 110 PLEX. Converting the PLEX to ISK can really help improve the fitting of a ship. And if a player really gets into mining, purchasing one of the lower end PLEX packages in addition to the Silver Pack is a distinct possibility. My guess is that the $9.99 package would be a popular seller amongst the new miners who chose to rent the mining barge package.

The Magic 14 Skills

I'm not sure who first chose to call the core skills "The Magic 14", but the phrase is definitely catchy. The Core Ship Operations Expert System I think is Alpha friendly, meaning all skills are usable by F2P characters. The $4.99/week cost of the package provides a character up to 1,743,295 skill points the character may not already possess. The package, in my opinion, is just present to encourage newer players to buy skill points. Yes, having all these skills makes a big difference not just in ship performance, but in the way a ship can be fit.

I'm sure CCP would love to see players purchase the $39.99 PLEX bundle and use the proceeds to purchase 3 large skill injectors off the market. But I also think they would love to see players who had used the Core Ship Operations Expert System to then go on and purchase the Training Boost bundle, also for $39.99. The bundle contains 1.5 million skill points and one Expert Cerebral Accelerator for additional rapid training. Then, of course, is the offer Wilhelm received via email to buy 1.62 million skill points for $43. Assuming the market test of the package pans out, we may see that in the cash shop soon.

The patch notes also indicated two additional points of interest I did not see either on Singularity or this morning on Tranquility.

• Players can extend the rental period of an Expert System by 30 days.
• Expert System recommendations for ships can be found in the following locations:
• Ship Tree
• Show Info for Ships they are designed to unlock
• In the Requirements tab in Ship Show Info
• Inside the Market for ships
• Ship Tooltips

I'm sure we will soon see on the official forums and the EVE sub-Reddit complaints about more advertising being spread out throughout the UI. But that is a whole other issue. Hopefully this post will make a little sense out of what CCP is trying to accomplish. Or at least, what makes sense to me.

FFXIV: Leveling A Scholar

While I wait for patch 5.5 to drop in Final Fantasy XIV, I have taken to leveling a new job, Scholar. The Arcanist path is unusual, because while leveling the Scholar job, I also level the Summoner. Which, of course, requires two sets of gear at higher levels. But until I reached level 45 and completed the job quests, I could get away with only one set of gear. Right now I'm at level 46 and am one Squadron dungeon run away from running The Aurum Vale.

From the Arcanist story line

Right now, I have divided my leveling efforts into two phases. The first phase covered levels 1-20. I based my activities around the Arcanist class quests and the Hunting Log. The class quests are a necessity because the quests provide new spells. But the Hunting Log is interesting. I used the log as a guide as where to visit as much as what mobs I needed to kill. When I traveled to a zone to kill a type of mob, I would also do all the quests in the area as well.

I also made use of the Challenge Log to get more experience. For example, two of the challenges involved levequests. I had to do 5 different levequests and 20 total levequests. So what I did is turn in a couple of levequests involving fish as well as 10 levequests involving Coffee Biscuits. Then I had to only do a couple of levequests involving the Archanist class to get the bonus experience.

The second phase began at level 20. From that point on, I basically only did the Squadron dungeons and the class job quests up to 30. At level 30, the Arcanist class splits into Scholar and Summoner, so I did both branches. I may have done some other things, but the Squadron command missions are so good, I basically just keep running them, alternating between Scholar and Summoner to keep things fresh.

One of the benefits of running so many command missions was I got to level the NPCs in my squadron. I started out with a Grand Company rank of First Lieutenant and am now a Captain. I know have access to all the Order of the Twin Adder equipment as well as upped my seals capacity up to 90,000. 

As of this time, I plan on continuing doing the command missions and job quests until I reach level 53. At that point, I want to start doing the Heavensward beast tribe quests again.

Current Beast Tribe Standings

The beast tribe quests are perfect for leveling. Plus, one of my long term goals is to finish up all the beast tribe quests in order to get all the cool beast tribe rewards. My overall goal with my current leveling effort isn't to reach level 80 so much as do content I out-leveled. I have months to go until Endwalker reaches the servers. 

I haven't thought much beyond phase 3. I haven't done any of the Stormblood beast tribe quests, so I might be able to finish those before reaching the Shadowbringers content. I might switch over and work on the Trust System. I'll have to give an update when I've figured out what to do.

Back To Black Desert Online

Yesterday, I mentioned I'd like the whole monetization soap opera in EVE Online to stop. I shouldn't wish for something that is impossible. Instead, I am going to take the other branch in the timeline: Pearl Abyss' plans for Black Desert Online. Specifically, self-publishing the game in the west.

Pearl Abyss has seen good success and increased profitability when the company began publishing the game in Asia themselves. For example, the company noted on its Q2 2020 earnings call that the game saw a record peak concurrent user mark in Japan when Pearl Abyss started self-publishing the game in the country in April 2020. When PA announced it was pulling the trigger and Kakao Games would stop publishing the game on 24 February, I jumped on the news and transferred my account to Pearl Abyss' servers.

The first time I played Black Desert Online was back in 2018 around the time of the PA's purchase of CCP Games. I managed to level a Valkyrie up to level 31 before I started dabbling in life skills. I eventually stopped playing when I realized the game wanted more money than I was willing to give. Basically, BDO was a pay-to-win game. Not pay-for-convenience. Not pay-for-progression. Pay-to-win.

As someone who is interested in how Pearl Abyss monetizes games, I started playing BDO again last night. I want to see if the way PA runs the cash shop differs from the way Kakao Games ran theirs. I figure I should give PA 2-3 months to make changes. In the meantime, I can use the time to level a character up. Doing so is important, because I will then have some sort of knowledge of the game to use when looking at the cash shop offerings. I'm hoping I can gain the experience in three months.

My New Character

Instead of trying to learn how to play a Valkyrie again, I decided to create a Witch and begin again from level 1. I then discovered a nice thing. All of my money & life skill work I did back in 2018 is shared with my new character. Having 308 million silver and the occasional farm product appear on my screen was a nice bonus. I also found 950 pearls, which is the BDO cash shop currency. If I recall correctly, that is worth $9.50. I have the feeling that will come in handy.

I also came into this latest effort with a plan. I found a YouTube channel, imPansy, and decided to go with his leveling plan. Instead of doing what I usually do, I'll concentrate on leveling to 61, then circle back to start doing life skills.

After creating my new character and adjusting some settings, I started adventuring by doing the main quest line. I played for two hours and managed to reach level 12. I would have progressed further if I could get used to the user interface. I still have to look at the screen to figure out which buttons to push to attack. Even movement still feels unnatural. I think if I weren't playing the game as part of a blog project, I would have rage quit after about 30 minutes. 

Still, once I get used to the controls, I think I'll enjoy the class. Casting fireballs just feels so satisfying. I am looking forward to getting a magic missile attack that knocks opponents off their feet. I also like an attack that steals mana from mobs. Overall, the Witch spell rotation looks interesting. I just need to find out where to train my skills in addition to remembering which buttons to press.

I'm not sure how much I will post about my experiences in Black Desert Online. The first metric I want to know is how long it takes to reach level 32. Recently in Final Fantasy XIV I began leveling my two Arcanist classes, the Scholar & the Summoner. I was able to do so over the course of a weekend. I think I can reach that level in BDO by Monday as well, But I'm wondering if it will take 12 hours or much less. I might post the answer next week.

Slow Down The Monetization Soap Opera, Please

I was doing pretty well today. I posted about cookies yesterday and spent a good amount of my play time cooking in FFXIV. I woke up this morning, checked my market orders in EVE Online and found I'm up to 300 million ISK in sales over the last two weeks. I need to make some money because I purchased 5 Vagabonds. With the scarcity era in EVE continuing, I figured I better buy one of my favorite ships before inflation hits too hard.

Then lunchtime hit and I did a little internet surfing. MassivelyOP had a post up about CCP sending out emails offering the direct sale of skill points to some players. I point out "some players", as I have not received such an email.

No offer to buy $43 worth of skill points for me

The MassivelyOP article was in large part based on a post by Wilhelm, who did receive emails from CCP. If you have not read Wilhelm's post, please do so now. It is the correct take on the situation.

I'm not going to expand on what Wilhelm wrote, because I can't. I also won't discuss what CCP Rattati said about monetization during his interview with Oz earlier this week. Just because MassivelyOP included the video in their story doesn't mean I need to address the point.

I'm just going to revise the timeline in the latest episode of the soap opera we call EVE Online.

16 February 2021: Pearl Abyss holds its Q4 2020 earnings call. On the call, Pearl Abyss announces its plans for the EVE franchise. To increase revenue, PA plans to expand EVE into Asian markets. As part of the effort, PA listed "regional languages" and "cultural elements" as examples of the deeper localization needed for penetrating Asian markets on one of the slides in the presentation.

25 February 2021: The Icelandic newspaper Viðskiptablaðið published details of Pearl Abyss' purchase of CCP Games, revealing that CCP did not achieve any of the goals required for bonus payments under the deal.

25 February 2021: CCP announced a new feature called Expert Systems. This feature would allow players to rent a set of skills for 7 days. 

4 March 2021: Players receive emails from CCP offering them to purchase 1,620,000 skill points for $43.99.

Final Fantasy XIV: Cookie Monster

Last week I was surfing the internet looking for information on levequests in Final Fantasy XIV. I've played enough EVE Online to know if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Still, anything involving cookies deserves a look.

Overpowered?

The method is easy. Just do the "A Cookie for Your Troubles" levequest found in The Crystarium as many times as possible. "A Cookie for Your Troubles" is one of the levequests in which the objective can be fulfilled 3 times, meaning the listed reward is earned 3 times. Given that turning in high quality items doubles the gil reward, doing the levequest can earn a player around 18,000 gil. 

The only limits to how much gil a player can earn is a player's levequest allowance. The levequest allowance increases by 3 every 12 hours, with a maximum of 100 allowed. The 100 levequest allowance led one source stating that doing the levequest can earn a player 1.8 million gil. A figure I would never earn due to the work involved making 900 Coffee Biscuits.

Caffeinated Cookies

The recipe is pretty simple. The only complication is the requirement to craft the Upland Wheat Flour and Garden Beet Sugar. The devs were nice enough to put a calculator to determine the amount of raw materials required to make up to 99 copies of an item. For the current exercise, I entered in 90, the number required to complete 10 levequests.

10% of 1.8 million gil

Gathering enough materials to make 90 cookies does not take very much time. I kind of got carried away, especially since I use coffee beans and garden beets in other recipes. Instead of making 90 cookies, I made 180, enough for 20 levequests. With my crafting skills and equipment I didn't need to use high quality materials to make high quality cookies. I plan on selling the HQ items for some extra gil.

Making cookies with the puppy

The major problem with the cookie mechanic is time. Just to create 180 cookies requires performing 100 synthesizes. I didn't use a stopwatch, but figure that took around an hour. Then add the time required to turn in 180 cookies. Figure that took another 20-30 minutes.

Still, even with the time involved, the rewards aren't bad:

• 358,412 gil
• 1,218 fire crystals
• 546 water crystals
• 9 bomba rice
• 6 coffee beans

I received 1991 gil for each cookie. Looking on the market board, high-quality Coffee Biscuits are selling for 1000 gil. Turning in the cookies to complete the levequests definitely makes a bigger profit. However, I can make more gil selling different cooked items on the market.

In the future, I won't try to make hundreds of thousands of gil by making a huge amount of cookies. But I do like eating Coffee Biscuits while gathering for the additional gathering points. If I need to pick up a quick 100,000 gil, I might make a few extra for the cash.

EVE Online's Interstellar Kredit Shows Historic Strength Against The Dollar, Euro

The numbers I gather for my research into real money trading are now complete for February. Wow! In Pearl Abyss' earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2020, they explained that a large portion of their quarter-over-quarter revenue decline was due to a strengthening South Korean won versus western currencies like the U.S. dollar and euro. We are now seeing a similar trend in EVE Online.

When looking at the PLEX market in The Forge, two statistics stood out. The first was the average value of 1 billion ISK sold in The Forge. The $15.01 USD per 1 billion ISK figure is the highest since the mark of $15.75 per 1 billion ISK average sold recorded in March 2017.¹  The corollary is almost the same, as the 1,210,978,743.56 ISK average price for 30 days of game time in February was the lowest amount since April 2017, when the average was 1,193,632,213.42 ISK for 1 month's game time.

One of the key points to take away is that the value of PLEX is now back to where it was before the big change in May 2017. In May 2017, one virtual EVE currency, Aurum, was removed from the game. PLEX, which up until that time was used mainly for game time, was divided 1 PLEX to 500 new PLEX, with the new currency serving more as a currency all of its own. Once PLEX became the new cash shop currency, its real world value skyrocketed. PLEX is now back to its pre-metamorphosis value.

Comparing February 2021 to February 2020 is pretty enlightening about the whole overall value of ISK. In February 2020, the average value of 1 billion ISK traded in The Forge was $11.12 per billion ISK. Last month, the average rose 35% year-over-year to the previously mentioned $15.01 per billion. As expected, the average daily volume of ISK traded for PLEX declined by 23.8%, from 4.3 trillion ISK per day down to 3.3 trillion ISK per day.

Moving from the CCP-sanctioned markets of The Forge, I then looked at the numbers at a prominent black market site, Player Auctions. The long-time real money trading site publishes reviews for the sellers, allowing me to compile a database of reviews dating back to the beginning of 2017.² I found four statistics of note.

1. The number of ISK sale transactions was the highest since January 2019. In Feburary, I recorded 193 ISK sales that were completed and not scams. That was the highest number since the 197 reviews recorded in January 2019.

2. The daily average number of ISK transactions was the highest since December 2018. February saw an average of 6.9 transactions per day involving the sale of ISK on PA. I had to go back to December 2018's 7.9 transactions per day to top last month's number.

3. The daily average amount of ISK sold was the highest since June 2019. That's right, the amount of ISK sold on an average day declined after the beginning of Blackout. In June 2019, ISK sellers located on PA sold 87.3 billion ISK per day, according to the reviews left on the site. Last month, sellers only sold 66.5 billion ISK per day.

4. The daily average value sold was the highest since January 2019. In February, ISK sellers on PA brought in an average of $429 per day. The last time ISK sellers scooped up so much money every day was in January 2019 when they averaged $445 per day.

Is February significant, or just an aberration? I wish I could give an informed answer. I think I can safely say that if the PLEX/ISK price in The Forge continues on its current trend that the black market will rejoice. If my theory holds, the higher real currency cost of ISK will allow ISK sellers to become more profitable. Right now, the black market can't support very many sellers. Currently, most RMTers are chasing after newer games with much larger profit margins. But if the market expands, CCP will wind up with more headaches. 

NOTES

1. U.S. dollar to Interstellar Kredit conversions used the 2 PLEX for $34.95 PLEX pack price before May 2017 and the 1100 PLEX for $39.99 price package after May 2017.

2. Not all ISK sales generate reviews as buyers do not have to fill out the form. Actual numbers are undoubtedly higher.

Cultural Elements

From Pearl Abyss Q4 2020 Earnings Call

The last two weeks hasn't been filled with good news for Pearl Abyss. On 16 February, the company announced an 8.8% operating revenue decline in 2020. Worse, revenue generated by the Black Desert IP declined by 14% year-over-year as well. On 25 February, the switchover of the publishing of Black Desert Online from Kakao Games to Pearl Abyss did not go smoothly, resulting in additional item givaways. Also on Friday, news came out of Iceland that CCP Games failed to achieve any of the targets designated in the sale to Pearl Abyss to earn any bonuses to add onto the price tag of $225 million.

Hot on the heels of all the bad news came the news article about Expert Systems. 

Brand new Expert Systems will be coming to EVE Online in the near future! They are designed to help rookie Capsuleers discover and experience new activities by providing specific virtual skills and skill levels for a limited time that cannot be extracted through the use of Skill Extractors. For a one-week period per Expert System, Capsuleers will be able to taste the dream of a particular profession in EVE without having to commit to the skill training required by that path of progression and waiting for it to complete...

Once an Expert System expires, access to the temporary skills and levels provided will be removed and Capsuleers would need to either extend their access through a repeat Expert System purchase or train the skills themselves. Given the potential repeat costs, it is more beneficial in the long run to train the skills permanently, rather than continue to purchase the same Expert Systems.

This upcoming feature reminded me of my time in Black Desert Online. In BDO, Pearl Abyss would offer quality of life as well as pay-to-win features for seven days. At the end of the seven days, the player would then hopefully miss the feature so much they would go to the cash shop and purchase the feature permanently. 

If Pearl Abyss inspired the feature, Expert Systems would not be the first time Pearl Abyss played a part in EVE Online development. In addition to the introduction of a Korean-language client in November 2019, Pearl Abyss publicly declared they were involved in restoring player counts in on the Q1 2020 earnings call.

EVE Online is also maintaining stable performance. EVE Online -- which was known as the most difficult MMO game -- had the most important challenge, which was to motivate the interest of early users. Using Black Desert know-how and experience from EVE Online, many improvements were made. And accordingly, we saw a meaningful increase of new users. EVE Online, which is in its 17th year of launching, shows through many indexes that a well-made MMO game has a very long lifespan value.

The statement, along with a 25% reduction in previously reported revenue in Q4 2019, is the closest Pearl Abyss came to acknowledging the harmful effects of Blackout on the company's finances. In the wake of the news, a new set of value packs, which included skill points, was introduced to the cash shop on 28 January 2020. Also, the developers introduced a new set of login rewards in mid-April 2020. The rewards were somewhat underwhelming, with many short-term boosters and limited-time temporary ship SKINs. Almost as if the purpose was to encourage players to go out and purchase permanent versions. Sound familiar?

Besides similarities to Black Desert Online, why would one think the Expert Systems feature was inspired by the higher-ups in Anyang? Because of one of the 2021 goals stated on the Q4 2020 earnings call. Pearl Abyss leadership revealed that PA plans to expand the EVE IP into Asia this year. December's introduction of a new Japanese client is part of that effort. 

Knowing PA's goals for EVE, I think I know the meaning of a phrase in the Q4 earnings call presentation that has puzzled some readers. What does "Cultural elements" mean? I believe the phrase indicates putting in features that appeals to Asian players, even if Western players will look askance at them. Applying that understanding makes the creation of Expert Systems more understandable.

The important question to ask is, "Do Asian players expect to have the ability to try out a feature before buying it?" The answer could take many forms. For example, perhaps knowing what is possible could influence a player to buy Omega time in order to double the training speed. Or trying out a ship the player could otherwise not fly could encourage the purchase of PLEX in order to buy skill injectors off the market.

I will add one additional possibility I know a lot of Western EVE players will hate. Pearl Abyss could create new sets of ship packs, with the rent-a-skill packages allowing players to try out particular ships. If I am correct about how Asian players look at video games, the Expert Systems, combined with various ship packs, could result in higher retention of Asian players.

I think the bottom line on the Expert Systems system is ... Pearl Abyss' bottom line. Black Desert revenue is declining and Crimson Desert is not scheduled for launch until the last quarter of 2021. All parts of Pearl Abyss need to try to keep revenue stable, including the EVE universe. The only big revenue increase in sight is the launch of EVE Echoes in China sometime in the second quarter. But that won't stem the tide. EVE Online needs to increase revenue as well, and the Expert Systems feature will play a big part of that.