Car Insurance for Grand Theft Auto Online
Whether or not you’re a video game aficionado, I’m sure you have at least heard of Grand Theft Auto. The latest version of the game, GTA 5, came with software to play Grand Theft Auto Online– which allows you to play the game with multiple players.
Photo courtesy of a Forbes articleBut that’s not the only fun feature with GTA Online… you can also purchase insurance to protect your ride. That might not be the most exciting thing ever, but it begs a great question: How realistic is too realistic when it comes to your online world?
Forbes’ video game/technology/internet contributor Paul Tassi writes about this delicate balance in his post:
Players are penalized for destroying other player’s cars; they’re literally labeled “bad sports,” which seems incredibly silly given the name of the game and the general concept behind it. This is of course because Rockstar has made cars extremely valuable and hard to replace. You have to buy insurance, you have to pay deductibles if your car is wrecked, you have to buy or steal it back from an impound lot if you leave it somewhere or die in a police chase. In what way is any of this fun? If I die in a horrific car crash as the thrilling end to a five star police chase, what’s the harm in respawning me for free in the hospital with my car shiny and new in the parking lot? Why make me lose money, file an auto insurance claim or drag my car’s mangled corpse out of the impound?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never cared about my video game counterpart enough to want to purchase life insurance for them, let alone car insurance for my video game vehicle. And for a game known to be about reckless crazy adventures, insurance seems like quite a sobering feature to add. Maybe car insurers should offer discounts for gamers with good GTA driving records. Or, maybe not.
