Spiral Knights - Trading Steam Games for CE/CR

Trading Steam Games for CE/CR

10 replies [Last post]

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:15

Tersakaff

Many people have noticed that it's more profitable to use their cash to buy Steam Games and sell them to players who only wish to spend ce/cr.

With a little patience and marketing skills, you can even double the amount of CE you get for every dollar. Normally, it would be roughly 250CE/$ (calculated based on smallest CE pack).
And some people can even sell for 600-700CE/$ at maximum.

This means players sink money into Steam to get their CE rather than buying straight from OOO. No CE actually goes in or out of the system, and no money is actually sent to OOO.

Now with the promo, if you sell the box you can compensate for that, but it ain't gonna last forever.

Will this end up cutting OOOs profits A LOT? Since some people who do that, are people who sink quite a lot of money, money that doesn't go to OOO.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:52

Niichi

No CE actually goes in or out of the system, and no money is actually sent to OOO.

That's not really accurate though.

For the former, well, we have to assume that the player buying Steam games for CE is actually planning on using that energy, so energy is getting drained out of the system. Either that or they're stockpiling CE just to look adoringly at it. In which case it's still out of circulation - just in a really weird way.

For the latter part, OOO already have their money. In order for F2P to get CE they have to buy it from other players, either through the market or over trade. Either way, that is CE that has already been paid for, which means that yes the CE was brought into the system already. Besides, such a market for trading Steam games for CE cannot possibly exist without people buying the energy first direct from OOO.

So the net effect on OOO's profits is exactly zero. If a seller gets 5000 CE in exchange for a Steam game, that's still 5000 CE worth of $$$ that's already gone to OOO. Your assumptions would only work if by increasing the CE:$ ratio that the extra CE just appeared out of nowhere.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 11:27

Tersakaff

Yes but I mean, in the case of Steam games trading: the F2P has ce. He gives the CE to the P2P. The P2P passes it on. No money was given from the P2P to OOO.

In direct buy: The F2P has ce. He's keeping it cause the P2P bought it directly from OOO and won't need it from the F2P. More CE in circulation too.

"If a seller gets 5000 CE in exchange for a Steam game, that's still 5000 CE worth of $$$ that's already gone to OOO. "
That 5000 CE was bought directly already, but instead of making another purchase to get it, the P2P makes the purchase on Steam. So OOO is losing the second purchase. Let me try to explain it...

Steam trading:
P2P A buys 5000 CE. OOO gets money.
F2P buys the 5000 CE with cr off P2P A.
P2P B wants CE too.
Instead of buying it from the energy depot, he buys a Steam game with his money. OOO doesn't get money.
F2P gives the CE to P2P.
P2P has CE and has spent money but OOO got none.

Direct buy:
P2P A buys 5000 CE. OOO gets money.
F2P buys the 5000 CE with cr off P2P A.
P2P B wants CE too.
P2P B buys a CE package from the energy depot. OOO gets money. *AGAIN*
F2P has CE to spend.
P2P has CE and has spent money AND OOO got it.

I hope you understand now.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 11:29

Thorancheladra

If it weren't for Steam

If it weren't for Steam Spiral Knights would be empty; there had never been so much active players than at Steam SK's launch. Call that an unexpected payback for being part of the huge Steam machine.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 11:44

Deltikon

And besides...

...why do you even care if OOO makes money or not? Sure they do need it, but we're not supposed to care about it. And besides, those traders are quite uncommon to find, so I doubt they make much impact to the game.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 12:31

Tersakaff

"...why do you even care if OOO makes money or not? Sure they do need it, but we're not supposed to care about it."

...seriously?
Someone has no idea how MMOs work.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 12:51

Pauling

In order to trade CE for a

In order to trade CE for a game, someone in that trade has to have CE.

The only way for CE to enter the game is to buy it with cash. Ergo, when you trade CE for games, OOO makes money.

Is the price paid higher than the cash value of the CE? Sure. But that just means that the person who scraped up CE had to grind a lot more vana levels, and in turn sent their crowns to- you guessed it- someone who paid for Spiral Knights.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 13:00

Grandtheftgnome

@pauling

But instead buying even more CE, we are trading for already existing CE.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 19:41

Njthug

Ce does go in the game like

Ce does go in the game like Pauling stated:

Only way to receive Crystal Energy (CE) is by buying it via Real World Currency (U.S Dollars, Euros, Etc.).

So:

If I buy a game for 60k Ce this Ce have to of came from two sources:

1. Me buying 60k worth of Ce with real world currency

2. Me doing Vanna runs to save up to 60k ce (Trading via the energy market)

3. Friend buying 60k Ce and giving it to me for free

4. Selling an item or items for 60k ce and buying the game.

*2,3, and 4 end up with me receiving Ce from another source, but the ce was purchased at any given time via Spiral Knights. (Only time Ce disappears in this game is crafting, elevator costs, buying trinkets w-slots shadow keys and silver keys via vendor or any item from the vendor via CE).

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 20:01

Giannii

People that buy ce with money

People that buy ce with money (either directly from ooo or another player) buys it in order to spend it, while some ways to spend it generated no revenue for ooo (only ones i can come up with right now is uvs rolled from free cr or free mist crafting), many of them do (lvl 5 weapon with/without uv, promo item that did cost money to obtain like the hunter set, buying crowns with ce and gambling, revives past mist, etc). The fact sk is still using steam trade means it doesnt truly hurt sales, I hope.

Also for market savvy p2p (the ones that buy using games at high rates) ce should be very cheap, so are possibly more inclined to spend "extra" and as such they will spend extra on ways that destroy ce too. I don't sell games but don't mind expensive revives if its the first time I play a mission if I have ce to spare.

Mon, 08/13/2012 - 00:35

#10

Tersakaff

@All the people not getting it

"But instead buying even more CE, we are trading for already existing CE." ~Gnome

If you don't understand that...
/)_-

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Trading Steam Games for CE/CR