edit: as someone who works in corporate finance for a living, refunding AUR items at their current price would inflate CCP's liability to their customers (players). Depending on how many of these BPOs are out there, we could talk about hundreds or millions of euros. It will not happen. Period.

I acknowledge that your professional life gives you expertise that I lack, but just stating it does not help me understand. And it won't be millions of euros :)

As it stands, I think that I have provided a compelling reason to think that even if not a good choice for CCP economics, a refund isn't obviously a bad choice either. Combine that with the customers who are genuinely harmed by the lack of a refund, and then you have a strong case in favour of refund. Now, you suggest that there is some liability towards customers that CCP would increase by a refund. But I don't see how this follows. Right now CCP has a liability in terms of providing and maintaining these BPO's in our inventory. If they were to refund AUR, they would shift that liability from one system to another. It merely gives players the ability to *change* their digital stock. The system's are in place, so I don't see how this represents an increase in a form of liability. CCP needs to either maintain their AUR wallet and the ability to purchase items, or maintain their already purchased digital items. And they already do both those things, and plan to continue to do so.

But besides all this, there is the question of whether a refund will *cost* them. That's where my previous arguments enter. Does a refund potentially make them more real world $$? That seems to me an open question, and the answer is not obviously "No".

Actually, what Eka meant was the part on a spreadsheet labelled Liability, not the commonly thought of idea of A LIABILITY. In accounting, a liability is wherever you stand to have lost money, whether on a bad investment, damages, upkeep, etc. Just wanted to clear that up. Going to college was now not a complete waste :D

Productively, they need to give some form of refund, else their PR is gonna fall like a Dropship on a crash couse with a couple of Breach Forges, but giving a full refund at current prices puts them at a massive disadvantage and costs them, theoretically of course I don't have numbers, a ton of the green stuff.

The BPO argument is moot. Lets face it, either the fanbois QQing about ppl having more AUR through increased market value ruined the trust those of us who both read and were able to comprehend the promises made in our merc pack purchases from CCP, or CCP after acknowledging that the game is pay to win and just betrayed our trust outright. Either way it spells the end of my investing in this game, that's 20+ dollars a week they won't be getting from me anymore unless they decide to live up to the deal and refund it to us without stipulation of a skill reset. I'll continue to play the free, broken, game until a new fps comes out at which point I'll be on my merry way. I loved this game, Really was liking EVE too, but after this inexcusable decision to follow a dishonest course of action on CCP's part It's doubtful that I'll ever be paying them another dime for either game and I'll be warning everyone I meet not to do so either. I suggest you all do the same.

This I had actually realised :) But I didn't think this was Eka's point, because it doesn't make any sense. You give CCP real world money, they give you Aurum in return. Aurum can be converted into whatever goods are available on market at the time. And these are digital goods. So it's not like you have a $3000 credit with a store that has to give you an item that they could have sold to someone else. CCP has an effectively infinite supply of these things...so the costs are merely in terms of server maintenance, electricity costs, and the code necessary to continue the existence of these digital goods -- code that will be in place anyway. If this is to count as a liability in the sense you describe, then it has to be the case that refunding AUR for all these BPO's is going to reduce CCP's revenue in some direct way. It's not going to in the same way a typical store credit would. It's going to in a simple way - the handful of beneficiaries of a refund will potentially not purchase some aurum for $$ that they otherwise would have. And then there's the flip side -- it may actually INCREASE revenue in terms of distributing the damage of a flood of AUR items over many items, instead of a few. That's the case I've been trying to make.



I don't think this is the case. This is what I have been trying to argue. It is at the very least not obvious that this will be a disadvantage to them at all, let alone a massive one. Digital items just don't work in the same way as real world physical goods, though they have similarities. I'm sure you're aware of, for example, the ridiculous way some "income lost to piracy" values are calculated. There are many subtleties that must be considered.

And then there is the obvious disadvantage of not refunding, in terms of some disgruntled customers and lack of trust, which you rightly point out in a part I didn't quote.

They want to give refunds in Aurum for the objects, but because they can just dictate the price of an object willynilly here as has been demonstrated several times throughout the last build, the Aurum the object is now worth is far more than the initial investment, which causes a loss. I'm sure you understand this, but I just wanted to lay the groundwork because I hate it when people go 'as you should already know' and leave it at that.

This is central to the very point I have been making. The change has already happened -- the AUR price of these items has gone up. As soon as these items are able to be sold for ISK, CCP starts making a loss. It doesn't matter if they refund or not, they make a loss. My central point has been this: it is not obvious that their loss will be greater if they refund now, than if they don't refund and later allow these items to be sold for ISK (which, in the spirit of the kind of game EVE is, they should allow).

I'm not sure that you actually disagree with me so much as you aren't really commenting on the arguments I've made. So I don't know if I disagree with you, either :)

So, I made a post the other day about the AUR refund. To put things out in the open, I would be one of those who receives millions of AUR if there's a refund. With that caveat admitting my bias out of the way, I still think there is a genuine case for CCP to do the refund.

The original plan was to refund most AUR items at their current AUR values. However, this plan was cancelled at the last moment, because some of us would receive millions of AUR. The stated concern, by CCP Eterne, was that "we realized this would give a hugely unfair advantage to these people". This as a reason, however, does not fly for three reasons:
1. It seems to entail that Dust 514 is "pay to win"
2. This "huge advantage" is available to anyone with deep outside-eve pockets (should we implement an AUR cap?)
3. This "huge advantage" is available to any rich EVE players, once the economies are merged

So it's not clear to me that it is a huge advantage, and if it is, then it's a problem for other reasons. Furthermore, CCP should keep in mind what people will be likely to spend their AUR on. I'm sure they have data on AUR spending habits, and I imagine a great deal of this AUR will go directly into boosters. In terms of advantage, this cannot be described as "huge". Perhaps on its own this would give a slight reason to cancel a refund, but it does not seem to me to be a particularly strong reason at all. Weighed against the considerations in favour of a refund, I do not think it is strong enough.

Now, there is one important reason why CCP may wish to not reimburse the AUR -- and that is, that it may affect their revenue. I think that is a legitimate concern, as that is what fuels Dust 514 development. However, I actually think it may possibly be *worse* for CCP's revenue to not reimburse the AUR now. Worse, that is, once these BPO's are able to be sold on the ISK market. It sounds like there are a lot of these BPO's spread among the closed beta players. Most likely thousands of each BPO, or of each of the most expensive ones. Once the market opens up, players will sell these BPO's, likely at significantly less than their converted ISK value, due to the large number available and likely demand. Players will buy these BPO's with ISK instead of AUR, and CCP loses revenue from those players who would have purchased those BPO's with AUR instead. If CCP reimburses the AUR instead, then a number of people such as myself will use that AUR on boosters I wouldn't have purchased anyway, or on other items I wouldn't have purchased anyway (I don't have outside-eve deep pockets). And some of that AUR will sit dormant, unspent. That is, CCP will lose some revenue, but not the full value of the AUR in revenue. On the other hand, without a refund, they will lose some revenue from ISK sold BPO's. Of course, not everyone who purchases a BPO with ISK would have bought that with AUR instead, but the existence of these BPO's will represent a loss of revenue.

Of course, there's lots of assumptions here. I, however, do not think that CCP's revenue will be obviously *worse* if they reimburse the AUR. I do think it could possibly be higher. At the very least, I think it is worth considering the possibility that a reimbursement might be their best option (or at least neutral) from an economic perspective.

And finally, there's the innocent victims of this change -- those people who didn't take advantage of the early beta lower prices, who have bought suits or militia bpo's on the basis of particular fits, and now want to skill into something different with the new Uprising skills. Or those who's suits are no longer available without investing significant SP's. These people are a strong case in favour of AUR refund, particularly since some appear to be claiming to not purchase any more AUR, or at least not for the moment. Weighed against the not-so-huge advantage, and the economic considerations, I think this last point tells strongly in favour of a refund.

They did do a refund. You just have to give up all your character progress in exchange.

Perfectly fair, considering all the factors involved.