1 Feb 2013

Do you insure your ships?

I have a confession. I don't.

After reading this article on clone upgrades and ship insurance it got me thinking. I can not for the life of me remember the last time I insured a ship. It's just something that I never sustained a habit for doing. But why?

 

My very early memories of ship insurance are annoying mails and small and somewhat irrelevant payouts, especially on the tech II ship hulls. Sprinkle in the fact that the tech I hulls that I would send to a fiery grave on a regular basis literally cost pennies, well I never insured them either. I think I went through a brief phase of flying Hurricanes in gangs at one point and vaguely remember I may have insured those. But when I did, the ships I had insured outlived the insurance in most cases. A waste of ISK.

So why do so many people insure their ships? Is it a false security? Would removing insurance be a benefit? Why they do I don't know, perhaps they do simply because the option is there and it is human nature. I think it is a false security, yes. I can't answer the latter. I don't know how the current insurance system could be replaced and will openly admit that it would perhaps cause some outrage with incredibly bad players who lose ships in pve activities. However, that's an alien world to me, dark circles indeed.

I'd like to think that I am not the only one who has this mentality. The way I see it is it costs me X amount for a pvp ship (from my own investment, kind of like going to the cinema--I don't insure my tickets for when the movie finishes) and whether that ship gets blown up on the undock or lasts through 50 fights or more, well that was the investment and it has served its course. Job done and move on to the next hull. 

Nobody in the game should be in a position where they don't have ISK to back-up ship losses. It is too easy to make ISK in EVE. Perhaps that is the problem? Are people greedy with the desire to replicate their own ISK investment? If everybody sticks to the old saying of 'don't fly what you can't afford to lose' then surely that means insurance in its current form is redundant.



Maybe my thoughts on this are somewhat blinkered and one dimensional. I hope this makes sense. I dunno.



MB.

14 comments:

  1. Nope, not since I started Pirating in 2007, no idea why, just never saw the need for it

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    1. I heard Kane Rizzel is blackmarked by all the major insurance companies for mass genocide and his name being on a high percentage of claims. lol :)

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  2. I see it as a discount on the ship hull. I mean, I pay 500k for a Rifter that I know I will lose, so I insure it for 100k. Then when I blow up, I get the 400k back, and basically saved 300k on the rifter.

    I guess I can understand if the ship will be used in high sec and never likely to get blown up, or obviously if you plan on ganking. But if you're PvPing, it's basically free money.

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    1. Is it free money though? I understand what you're saying it's just ... I dunno, not quite as straight forward as that I feel.

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  3. Same here. I forgot to insure the hulls so often that I simply stopped doing it. (Mind you, in my case almost none of the hulls outlives the potential payday, so it IS a straight loss. I still can't be bothered.)

    As for removing it from the game... is it an ISK sink or faucet overall? I assume faucet, if so... remove it.

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  4. I buy every ship with the plan of losing it in glorious combat.

    If I remember to insure it, then I get a little more money back, and I can afford to field more ships in between buying PLEX and bouts of ratting.

    I see it as free money, so why not pick it up off the table?

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    1. Fair point. I guess I just forget, that's my excuse anyway :))

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  5. I only insure ships if I expect to lose it within the insurance period and will take more risks flying insured ships.

    As far as I am concerned we don't need insurance. As you said, once you undock just write off the investment, any time you live to redock is profit.

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    1. Yeah. I actually just remembered I used to insure all my suicide gank ships =)

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  6. Down at Pator Tech School employees were required to insure their company ships.

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    1. Sob! Good to know you're still keeping in touch with the game. Do you ever get the urge to come back? :P

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    2. I'd love to, no kidding. But I don't have time to right now and I doubt I every will. It's a shame. Let's face it, it's not a casual game. And then the blogging ...

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  7. I insure my PvP ships right before I undock, because usually I lose them shortly after. PvE ships, not so much. As StevieTopSider says, it's free money.

    I recently did a quick calculation: if you're likely to lose the ship in the first insurance period, platinum insurance is the way to go. If it's in the second insurance period, basic insurance. But it's not worth insuring a ship more than twice.

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  8. I always insure!!!
    As a businessman I ALWAYS indemnify my positions!
    Why should flying Internet spaceships alter this sound business practice?
    Get your shit together BULL!!

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