I Know I'm Wierd, But I Can't Help Myself - EVE Q1 2010 Economic Report Edition

Yes, I play a game so that I can do stuff that many people get paid to do, and go home and play something sane and relaxing like Everquest 2 or even WoW. And I call it fun. Maybe Raph Koster can explain this to me.

The EVE Quarterly Report for Q1 2010, edited by Dr. Eyjolfur Guomundsson, Ph.D., is out.

Some juicy tidbits:

The price of Pyerite started to rise quite rapidly last November, climbing by 8.5%. In December it rose by almost 15%, and this January the rise is over 25%. Two primary factors contributed to this increase: increased Tritanium supply through changes in asteroid reseeding and respawning last June, and insurance fraud.

I didn't realize that the Eve recession was caused by an increase in mineral supply. There was another such increase.

High-end minerals fell significantly in price throughout the quarter. From December to March the prices of Zydrine and Megacyte dropped by over 30%, while Morphite decreased by 39% over the same period. This is attributed to Dominion’s introduction of hidden asteroid belts in null security space, which increased the supply of these valuable minerals.

My corp has been mining the crap out of these guys. Upgrades to 0.0 systems have the unusual effect of making increased mining activity result in more minerals to be mined spawn. It's not surprising that this would increase mineral supply. And of course, people are going to focus their efforts on the minerals that will bring the greatest return. The report goes on to say:

The volume of Morphite traded in Q1 2010 was 27% above the traded volume in Q4 2009. On the other hand, the quantity of Morphite used in ship construction in Q1 2010 was only 2.5% higher than in Q4 2009. The story is the same for Zydrine and Megacyte, which grew in traded volume by 34% and 29% respectively between the quarters, while the quantity of these minerals used in ship production remained almost unchanged. This would indicate lively speculative trading with these high-end minerals as the market adjusts to the increased supply. We anticipate more volatility in this market in the coming months.

Translation of that last line from economicese: We expect prices to drop a lot more, and some poor slobs are going to take a big hurt!

Wow, I'm glad I didn't speculate on any high-end minerals. Somehow, suddenly, I just saw a vision of blue yeti fur.

Overall, the story was one of growth in the number of accounts and number of players online, but deflation across most markets. PVP guys, you have work to do! Blow more ships up, please!