What is all the fuss about? Well my sense is that players that really care about Eve Online feel that the integrity of the game is going to be jeopardized. To some extent I agree with them. CCP, in it's wisdom, is apparently implementing an item shop using a new currency called Aurum. The idea is that you can trade a PLEX for Aurum, and then use Aurum to purchase items in the new shop. By allowing players to trade PLEX for Aurum they then get to say that it isn't a cash shop. This is blatantly dishonest. You can spend cash to buy 6 or 10 or however many PLEX you like and then immediately trade that in for Arum. I am all for microtransactions if it is for vanity items only. I am not even opposed to cash transactions those are fine as well. If you want to put a corporate logo on the side of your ship then good for you, it's your ship, do whatever you want to it. If players want to spend their money to enhance their items cosmetically than I don't see a problem with it. The concern is that it will not stop there.
Before I go any further I want to address weather or not buying and selling PLEX is a microtransaction. The answer is sort of. Yes you are buying ISK with real money, but you are not devaluing products on the market or gaining an unfair advantage in combat.
The industrialist complaint is that items that are normally created by players are going to be sold for Aurum, bypassing the normal Eve market altogether. For example, you may be creating Broadcast Nodes via planetary interaction. The price you set is based on market value. You are able to sell your product for whatever other players are willing to pay for them If all of a sudden another source for Broadcast Nodes opens up, than that creates an unfair source of competition. More importantly the value of your product could be reduced substantially. Player created items being made available on a separate market don't just hurt the players creating those items. It also hurts the miners that farm the ore for the minerals used to create that item, and the person salvaging ships after missions and on and on, the value of everything is affected. It would upset the entire Eve economy.
The PVPers complaint is more obvious. If items that actually give players a competitive edge become available then the advantage will go to players that can afford to by the more powerful ships, weapons, and armor, etc. Skill has been the deciding factor in player vs player combat and it should remain that way. Players that can afford to spend cash for better gear should not hold an advantage over the rest of the players in New Eden. The $20 I used to buy this game along with the $15 I spend every month to play this game should allow me access to everything that everyone else has access to.
Ultimately I think that cooler heads will prevail and that the powers that be at CCP will make the right call where microtransactions are concerned. I think that microtransactions are a fact of life but I don't think that items that are detrimental to the game will be made available. Time will tell but I have no reason not to be optimistic. If you are thinking about quitting, don't. Relax, give the dust a chance to settle and you will see that there's nothing to worry about. If the feces hits the proverbial spinning propeller than I'll probably move on as well because the game won't be fun for me anymore, but right now everything is fine so enjoy the game.
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