Gartel Reiman
Civis Romanus Sum
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Posted - 2009.03.27 00:53:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Louis deGuerre
Lol, all this talk about 'honest pirates'
The pirate's options :
1. Pay Ransom, be allowed to leave, pirate gets say $20M isk
2. Pay Ransom, get blown to bits and perhaps podded anyways, pirate gets say $20M isk, salvage, loot, and a really big e-peen.
Do the math people.
You're not looking beyond the immediate situation, as people who are doing this for a career are wont to do:
1. Pay Ransom, be allowed to leave, pirate gets say 20M ISK. Pirate is able to repeat the process against many targets in future (and definitely against the same guy if he catches him again due to proven honouring of ransom terms), making a clean 20M ISK each time.
2. Pay Ransom, get blown to bits and perhaps podded anyways, pirate gets say 20M ISK, salvage, loot, and a really big e-peen. Salvage probably goes unclaimed unless the pirate has an alt to clean up the wreck. Pirate possibly gets a ***** slap from the CEO if it's a real pirate corp. Pirate gets called on breaking ransom terms, and finds it difficult/impossible to get people to agree to ransoms in future. Consequently, catching ships in a similar position leads to getting loot of varying quality/value, that is a pain to initially haul from the wreck back to a station, and then to a market to be sold.
Welcome to EVE, where reputation matters. If I were to take up a life of blinky-redness in lowsec, I would definitely honour ransoms for the long-term prospects. Hell, even if no-one reads the forums, you probably get enough "repeat customers" if you're working in the same area that you'd still see a notable effect. As it is now, there are several pirate corps I would feel completely confident paying a ransom to, and one or two that I definitely wouldn't.
As people say above, it's actually in a pirate's interests to honour ransoms. The more information people (i.e. victims) have about who has done what regarding ransoms in the past, the more true this is. The more vague and hazy the victim's information is, the better it is for the ransomer to personally pop the victim but for all other pirates to honour ransoms. Thus we get something approaching the Tragedy Of The Commons, which can happily be averted due to naming and shaming, and reputation.
TL;DR - doing the math means that pirates in general ought to honour ransoms, though they won't all have this foresight. Being aware of who does and who doesn't will not only make your decision easier, but your awareness will marginally increase the honouring of ransoms in general.
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