Whoever thought of Aurum at CCP is way too infatuated with the concept to realize where it does and doesnGÇÖt belong.

Unfortunately Dust seems to be a playground for broken ideas, and Aurum is running the risk of ruining the game. It seems like CCP is slowly starting to undo some damage (BPOs specifically), but I think they might need some help in really monetizing Dust without ruining the game.

Here are my suggestions for making revenue from Dust:

1) Boosted EXP should be done by monthly subscription with actual cash. This is a much more reliable method of collecting income than expecting players to willingly pony up real cash for fake cash when their boosters expire. Using Aurum for this mechanic has been costing CCP money.

2)Enable the purchasing of ISK with real money. Long term, the same GTC/Plex system as in Eve could be used. In the short term, you could just sell ISK for money, using the same mechanism as the AUR purchase. The ISK per Dollar could be pinned according to a market average(daily/monthly/yearly). Currently that would be $20 for ~600 MILLION ISK.

3)Remove Aurum. With the eventual removal of BPOs, the conversion of boosters to a boosted EXP subscription, and the ability to buy ISK, the need for Aurum goes away. The lower-skill requirement item variants that are currently purchasable with AUR can be made purchasable with ISK, at double/triple the cost of the regular-skill requirement item.

The currently difficulty of earning ISK and SP make good arguments for the spending of real money, but the current mechanisms are inefficient, convoluted, and game breaking.

These three things will help Dust earn more money in a sane and reliable way.

Thoughts?

1. I'm not sure about this one.

2. I suggested an idea like this before. The PLEX system in Eve would definitely work well in Dust in the long term. But for short term, the secondary market (once it arrives) will enable players to sell their AUR items to other players for ISK in the meantime.

3. Too late. Can't do that without CCP being forced to give a complicated PSN refund through Sony to the customers since AUR cost players real-world money directly with Sony. Besides, AUR is not a bad thing when done right. If players are given a chance to convert the AUR into Tokens and be able to directly sell that to another player for ISK or be given much greater options such as vanity items, then we can see AUR going well.

3. Too late. Can't do that without CCP being forced to give a complicated PSN refund through Sony to the customers since AUR cost players real-world money directly with Sony. Besides, AUR is not a bad thing when done right. If players are given a chance to convert the AUR into Tokens and be able to directly sell that to another player for ISK or be given much greater options such as vanity items, then we can see AUR going well.

Vanity items need to happen!

2)Enable the purchasing of ISK with real money. Long term, the same GTC/Plex system as in Eve could be used. In the short term, you could just sell ISK for money, using the same mechanism as the AUR purchase. The ISK per Dollar could be pinned according to a market average(daily/monthly/yearly). Currently that would be $20 for ~600 MILLION ISK.

Thoughts?

Selling ISK for money in a way that a player pays a certain amount of real-world cash to get new ISK created from thin air is not the way EVE's PLEX system works. In EVE, every PLEX sold for ISK is purchased by ISK already present in the economy. What you're proposing could potentially cause serious inflation issues. Especially when a functional player-driven market is introduced to DUST.

3. Remove AUR: No.

That's exactly what I put for the "Long Term" plan.

Buying ISK directly with cash is the Short Term plan, and breaks nothing as there is no current Dust economy, and is very easy to implement as CCP already has a mechanism to do it with.

Why not?

because legal issues.

What legal issues? Between Sony's EULA for PSN and CCP's EULA for Dust, you're SOL.

Also, if they offer a refund, there is little to no chance you'll ever win a lawsuit.

3)Remove Aurum. With the eventual removal of BPOs...

What I propose is a hybrid of the two models. Free-to-download-and-play and Subscription. This concept borrows a page from the PLEX system already established in Eve Online and in fact utilizes PLEX for Dust. It stands to bring benefits to those who are willing to pay cash, CCP games, as well as players who don't want to pay cash all at once. Here is how my idea goes.

Right now in Eve Online, subscription members are already given the option of paying ISK for PLEX which stands for 'Pilot License Extension' and thus allows an Eve player to extend their game time without having to cough up more cash to do it because another player had already paid cash to CCP for PLEX before selling it in the secondary market for ISK. As of right now, there are players in Eve who have been playing for years now without paying a single penny. Trial members can also activate their accounts with PLEX as well assuming they are able to come up with enough ISK to buy one in the allotted time of 14 days (21 days if they use the invite system). It is possible in Eve to come up with enough ISK in that time assuming you know where and how to grind efficiently as well as working the market in your favor.

This can be applied towards Dust, but first CCP needs to make sure that the market for Dust has expanded to include a full-fledged secondary market with a solid merging of the Eve secondary market to allow interchanging of PLEX. As an additional prerequisite, the markets for both games must be balanced to point where ISK in Dust is relatively close to the value of ISK in Eve Online. The reason for this additional prerequisite is so that the disparity of the ISK value between Eve and Dust don't cause too much problems should ever PLEX be allowed to be used in Dust.

Once the prerequisites are met and the system is in place, a free-to-play Dust merc would be able to pay ISK to a player for PLEX. Once the Dust merc has the PLEX, he/she would be able to redeem that PLEX so that he/she can get certain perks...

[...]

Buying isk for RL $ = p2w.....I don't like it

CCP needs to get rid of the whole pay to win ****. Scrap that entire idea before the game caves in on itself because of better games. Dust won't compete with the newer FPS game if people are able to spend real life money to be able to win matches.

Everything available to buy for aurum also has an isk counterpart, you just gain early access to aurum items and are there if you choose to buy them.

There is no pay to win.

Whoever thought of Aurum at CCP is way too infatuated with the concept to realize where it does and doesnGÇÖt belong.

Unfortunately Dust seems to be a playground for broken ideas, and Aurum is running the risk of ruining the game. It seems like CCP is slowly starting to undo some damage (BPOs specifically), but I think they might need some help in really monetizing Dust without ruining the game.

Here are my suggestions for making revenue from Dust:

1) Boosted EXP should be done by monthly subscription with actual cash. This is a much more reliable method of collecting income than expecting players to willingly pony up real cash for fake cash when their boosters expire. Using Aurum for this mechanic has been costing CCP money.

2)Enable the purchasing of ISK with real money. Long term, the same GTC/Plex system as in Eve could be used. In the short term, you could just sell ISK for money, using the same mechanism as the AUR purchase. The ISK per Dollar could be pinned according to a market average(daily/monthly/yearly). Currently that would be $20 for ~600 MILLION ISK.

3)Remove Aurum. With the eventual removal of BPOs, the conversion of boosters to a boosted EXP subscription, and the ability to buy ISK, the need for Aurum goes away. The lower-skill requirement item variants that are currently purchasable with AUR can be made purchasable with ISK, at double/triple the cost of the regular-skill requirement item.

The currently difficulty of earning ISK and SP make good arguments for the spending of real money, but the current mechanisms are inefficient, convoluted, and game breaking.

These three things will help Dust earn more money in a sane and reliable way.

Thoughts?

The idea of paying a subscription and getting a boost of exp seems a lot like a pay to win system. Especially in a game where SP's are so important and can make such a huge difference in the game.
Generating ISK from cash would greatly inflate the player market once one is introduced and possibally creae very unrealistic prices.

What CCP REALLY needs to do is to simply produce things people want to actually buy in game like vanity items. Things that really will not matter at all in combat so they will not change the balance of weapons in game but people will be willing ot spend some money on. They would have to be cheap of course but sure why not have hot pink armor (lol) or make it so that your entire suit is jet black (even the eyes) we could also do something like changing the color of the iron sights or change the sights themselvs on guns. Like make it so your gek has a red dot sight (or blue whatever) for a price.