Buddy Program Experiment - PLEX for Buddy Reward
Update May 23, 2011:Abusing the Buddy System is considered an exploit and will not be tolerated. Incidents will be handled on a case by case basis and action taken may include bans for all accounts involved and/or confiscation of ISK and items.
Abuse includes, but is not limited to: farming gifts, making throw-away alts for grief-play purposes.
It's important to you, so it's important to us.
The Buddy Program is one of the most popular ways that players bring new people into the EVE community. It has become so popular that currently a little over a quarter of all new EVE players come in through the program. For CCP and for the community, this is a win-win situation. Players bringing in players makes for a stronger, better EVE. It means a greater likelihood that the new player has someone to turn to, to fly with and to learn from.
The Buddy Program currently offers a reward of one month of game time when that new player subscribes, but that is more of a reward for some than it is for others. This blog is about one of several ways we will be testing to evolve the Buddy Program to make it more rewarding for those players who help to build and expand the EVE Online community.
On May 11th, we will be adding a new reward to the Buddy Program: PLEX. When inviting new players using the Buddy Invite page, you will have a choice of selecting either the standard 30 days of game time or a PLEX as the potential reward for that invitation.
Stand Back, I'm going to try Science.
We are interested in finding out if there is an unmet desire for PLEX instead of game time. We'd also like to see if this gets more players using the Buddy Program, thus increasing the numbers of new players that join already knowing someone in game. This is an experiment. We will be monitoring this change closely, and we are prepared to adjust or abort the program if we find it isn't yielding desirable results.
We've also added a few more features based on feedback from the program and its users.
· The cap on invites has been raised from three (3) per month to ten (10) per month.
· Buddy invitations will remain valid and will no longer expire after a set period of time.
When you're ready to send some invites or if you're interested in reading up on the program, click HERE to head over to the Buddy Program invitation page.
FAQ (Four Apropos Questions)
Aren't you worried about exploits?
A community of 360,000 players will always find interesting loopholes; however, since this involves PLEX, which has its own in-game market, any exploits will be dealt with harshly and rapidly.
This seems too good to be true, is it?
Not at all. This is about giving our players, the best players anywhere, a choice. Have game time? Get PLEX for your effort. Need game time? Do it the old way; it's easy with no redemption of PLEX in your hold. We'll be doing a revamp to the Buddy Program at the end of the year that will add more layers, leaderboards and larger rewards for corporate recruiting and induction. It only gets better.
How long will this last?
We're currently allowing a low number of PLEX to come into the system at one time. This test will be monitored closely to make sure it is working as intended and that it does not negatively impact the economy or balance of EVE Online.
What if I don't like the Buddy Program?
We're working on some more player-driven options like the Buddy Program that will allow passive rather than direct recruiting. Look for more information later this year on alternate ways we'll be rewarding our community for their countless acts of awesome.
We encourage you to ask any additional questions and provide your feedback in the comment thread linked to this blog.
- CCP Loktofeit
