Buying insurance... in a video game
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Metal Gear Solid V's version of Metal Gear Online came out today.
This time around, Konami has decided that they want micro-transactions in the product.
Not only do they offer the usual "mobile-game" type things such as "Pay to complete thing early," but they also decided to add Forward Operating Base (FOB) insurance which will compensate you in-game money for any damage your FOB takes.
I know Konami really wants to become a mobile developer, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.
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I can't wait until the microtransaction bubble bursts. Eventually people are going to get tired of spending real-world money to not play the game.
Elite: Dangerous has starship insurance, no real-world money involved thankfully.
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This all sounds like the exact opposite of everything I remember about the Metal Gear series. Stealth operatives in remote locations who are working on a time-limited mission to stop the world from going to hell do not usually have Forward Operating Bases or have time for grinding.
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Well, in theory Metal Gear Online's insurance is bought with the "MB coins" in game currency.
However, my understanding is that the only way to get the number of MB coins you need to buy this insurance thing is to buy them through Konami's store.
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the number of MB coins you need to buy this insurance thing
I haven't seen how much it is (yet, or if the number changes based on factors), but it's a safe bet "yes" considering I've yet to get 150 MB coins through their daily rewards (which are now sporadic instead of actually daily) and that can buy me nothing in-game.
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How does Metal Gear Online work? Do you have to buy the game? Do you have to pay for server access for the online component? And then you have to pay for microtransactions to actually have an enjoyable game?
There will end up being a revolution from all the game studios wanting to bilk their customers.
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How does Metal Gear Online work?
Metal Gear Solid 5 has two different online features. The first, which was part of the game at launch, revolves around the Forward Operating Base. That one involves infiltrating other player's FOBs and stealing soldiers/resources or defending your FOB from an invading player (if they're spotted). There's also a feature of sending your soldiers on side missions that have extremely long durations, but continue to progress even when you're not playing.
The second is the Metal Gear Online, which I haven't tried yet, but I assume it's like the versions of Metal Gear Online that came with Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4, which are various game modes for up to 16 players.
Do you have to buy the game?
For the actual Metal Gear Online, as far as I am aware, you have to own Metal Gear Solid 5. But the MGO update is itself free.
Do you have to pay for server access for the online component?
As far as I know, no.
have to pay for microtransactions to actually have an enjoyable game?
No clue on this yet. Don't know if the MB Coins have a use in MGO, but I bet they do.
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Not playing any games myself, I understood the title as the classic Chicago-style "pay for protection from my thugs".
Does that happen in games?
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Eve has starship insurance, but since it's based on base mineral values it SUCKS for anything other than T1 ships because those use specialized, small batch expensive to produce items that are therefore more expensive than their mineral value.
Also not real world money based.
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Does that happen in games?
Yes, happens in EVE Online all the time.
Then they blow you up.
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Indeed. I mean, when have you ever heard of an insurance not being based on the actual value? If the value's too low no one will bother with insurance. If it's too high you're inviting insurance scams.
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I haven't played Eve in awhile so maybe they fixed this in a balance patch? Either way it definitely was never worth buying insurance that would give you 8M on a 120M ship.
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At least three months back, I still only got ~40M on my 500M T3 Tengu
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What exactly is worth such rewards?
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Testcursions
As the dates show, this was before nerfs, but I think they are still pretty grindable.
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This isn't really a new concept. Buying extra lives, which has been done in games pretty much since in-game currency was invented, is a form of insurance. They're just actually calling it insurance now.
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So, they give you the ship's scrap metal value? And this "insurance" costs money up-front?
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Buying extra lives, which has been done in games pretty much since in-game currency was invented
Never played in an arcade before? Buying lives has been around a lot longer than that.
is a form of insurance
Not really, insurance is betting on the bad outcome to mitigate it. Paying to compensate/recover from a bad outcome is different.
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Metal Gear Online's insurance is bought with the "MB coins" in game currency
Can I also spend those if Iām playing Battleship, Connect Four, Operation or Yahtzee?
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https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Insurance
For T1 ships, the market cost is pretty close or even somewhat below the base mineral value because the prices are driven down due to everyone producing ships and selling them in Jita, so it's pretty fair.
You get free insurance that gives you 40% of base mineral value or you can pay up to 30% base value to get 100% insurance, (after accounting for cost, 30% more). What's more, the insurance contract expires after 12 weeks so if your ship pops after that then it will fall back to 40%.
And yes, generally all forms of insurance, in real life as well, cost money up front.
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Not really, insurance is betting on the bad outcome to mitigate it. Paying to compensate/recover from a bad outcome is different.
Buying extra lives before you die is insurance. Paying to recover afterwards is not. Hence, since in-game currency was invented, not since arcades were.
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generally all forms of insurance, in real life as well, cost money up front.
Getting scrap value from your trash isn't even insurance though. IRL, you just drag it to the scrap yard and have it weighed.
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Buying extra lives before you die is insurance
OK if you want to count it as that, but isn't that an unusual way to spend in game currency? Normally (in modern experience anyway) they are bought when you are out instead of waiting on a timer. Plus a great many arcade games supported putting in money for lives before you got a "continue?" with a count down.
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Except without training skills you can't get perfect
recyclingreprocessing.And even with training skills you can't get perfect reprocessing in high sec. You have to own a station that has reprocessing upgrades and have a character with level 5 reprocessing bonuses for each mineral.
And after reading, apparently you can't even perfectly reprocess anymore, the most you can get from scrapping is ~86%
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@JazzyJosh said:
generally all forms of insurance, in real life as well, cost money up front.
Getting scrap value from your trash isn't even insurance though. IRL, you just drag it to the scrap yard and have it weighed.
Not if it's in exploded into millions of pieces in enemy territory.
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IRL, you don't usually waste the energy to explode something into millions of pieces when breaking it into a few large pieces would be sufficient.
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IRL, you don't usually waste the energy to explode something into millions of pieces when breaking it into a few large pieces would be sufficient.
given the energy requirements to move through space the way a lot of these ships do (assuming roughly this universe physics) there probably won't be that many large pieces left after the main reactor loses containment.
A back of the napkin calculation says that the energy requirement for moving a supercap with the acceleration profiles they get in game is on the order of yottawatts.... that's a lot of energy, like about as much energy as the entire Sun puts out. even if i'm off by an order of magnitude.
I mean you have billions of metric tonnes accelerating at dozens of g's and that's not to mention the energy needed for shielding, and weaponry which can be rather extreme.
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The main reactor would have heavy shielding, plus the bulk of the ship itself. If total destruction of the ship causes its reactor to go critical, either you put way more energy into the destruction than you needed, or it was a horrible design (see also: someone rear-ended me and my car exploded).
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The main reactor would have heavy shielding, plus the bulk of the ship itself.
yes. this is true. However we are talking about a reactor capable of producing the energy output of a star
if it decides to go boom there's not much you can do to contain that.
If total destruction of the ship causes its reactor to go critical,
you don't need to destroy the ship completely, just cause it enough damage in the right places for it to lose control of the reactor. the reactor will do the rest for you.:-D
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you don't need to destroy the ship completely, just cause it enough damage in the right places for it to lose control of the reactor. the reactor will do the rest for you.
That would go under "horrible design".
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A back of the napkin calculation says that the energy requirement for moving a supercap with the acceleration profiles they get in game is on the order of yottawatts.... that's a lot of energy, like about as much energy as the entire Sun puts out. even if i'm off by an order of magnitude.
I once read an article examining the hypothetical energy output of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The numbers were impressive. Also, the Death Stars were hyperspace-capable. I bet we'd need scientific notation to make sense of those numbers.
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Also, the Death Stars were hyperspace-capable. I bet we'd need scientific notation to make sense of those numbers.
As far as I know, not even scientific notation lets you make sense of hyperspace.
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What is the premium and standard deviation of the loss?
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MB coins you need to buy this insurance
Actually, the numbers are pretty low, but the insurance is only good for a limited time frame.
1 day costs 50 coins, 3 days costs 100, 7 days costs 200 and 14 days costs 300.
To buy coins, though: 100 for $1, 550 for $5, 1150 for $10, 3500 for $30 and 6000 for $50.
I was also off on how many coins I got for free so far. I'm at 260, but again, they're stingy on the hand outs now that the game has been out awhile. Of course, I say that and then get 115 more coins as a reward (this is them apologizing for the constant disconnect issue they had early on).
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Buying insurance in a video game?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovq-9UpBduw&feature=player_detailpage#t=55
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@accalia said:
yottawatts.... that's a lot of
energypowerPTFY
fine... it's a lot of energy per second!
happy now?
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I won't be happy until I get the
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no more badgers. no more flags. i'm not playing that game anymore.
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Needs more dickweedery.
Strictly, sufficient pendantry is capable of persuading people to nominate for a badge. Provided it isn't done in a way that makes everyone think that the poster is just for a , of course.
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Provided it isn't done in a way that makes everyone think that the poster is just for a , of course.
I think that's actually his issue now that you mention it.