Scattered Chatter #1 – Insurance As A Game Mechanic

Don’t you judge me.  I swear there’s more to this than a guy with a clipboard and a digital camera who asks insulting questions about how exactly that tree branch landed just the way it did.

Think about all the ways insurance affects your daily life.  Medical, Auto, Life, Home, Business, Malpractice, Flood.  The cold-calling telemarketer inside me trembles at the prospect of translating all those possibilities into a 30th-century interstellar civilization.  “Don’t you want to protect yourself from the uncertainties of life?  What about the children?”Well, I suppose CIG is going to take care of the sales pitch and the actual provisioning of insurance as part of the “credit sink” mechanics of the game.  But how about other Player Character inputs for the industry?  What if the Lloyd’s of London or State Farm or GEICO of the future posted requests for contract work on the “help wanted” board?  Here’s what I think could be fun:

• Insurance Investigators:  Pilot #4736723 has just turned in a second claim for a pirated Origin Jumpworks 350r.  Head to the site of the reported “attack” and collect detailed sensor scans of thruster exhaust, weapons residue and debris scatter.  Maybe these “attacks” were prearranged, given Origin’s known aversion to selling directly to pirates.

• Escape Pod Retrieval:  Per the “Death of a Spaceman” post by Chris Roberts, Star Citizen’s death penalty will involve reviving your semi-intact corpse from a severe case of “mostly dead.”  How exactly is said corpse supposed to get back to civilization?  There’s an insurance product that’s right for you!  And a pilot willing to do the dirty work.

• Risk Mitigation:  If there’s enough demand for cargo coverage along a deadly-dangerous route, hiring some private muscle to patrol a space lane might make it profitable enough to charge an arm and a leg for high-risk coverage.  The cargo gets through, the company gets paid, some pirates get splashed.  What’s not to like?

These are a few of the ideas I’ve had that might make the insurance industry in Star Citizen an exciting and profitable career for citizens and civilians.  Agree?  Disagree?  Want to hire me as a consulting designer (I’m looking at you Rob Irving)?  Sound off in the comments below!