Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

nymag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 110 posts

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#31

Post by 6cxs2hd6 »

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

To stay in business, casinos need to be a bad deal for customers _as a group_.

Did I say casinos? I meant insurance companies.

Seriously, insurance is a bet on something bad happening. Usually it only makes sense to buy insurance for the equivalent of long-shot "lottery jackpots". Like a catastrophic health problem. Or like the damage you might do to other people and their property in an auto accident --- but probably _not_ the damage to your own car. i.e. Insure for personal liability calamities, but not collision damage if you could pay for it out of savings.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#32

Post by Apocryphon »

Emergent gameplay is always fun. For all of the huge space battles between armadas and great train robberies of EVE Online, that MMO supports a flourishing economy of many different roles that one wouldn't expect:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/07/14/eve-evolved-freeform...

Makes sense that in a open sandbox crime simulator, players would try to make a killing in the stock market. Too bad you can do insider trading to get involved in white collar crime.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#33

Post by Phlarp »

sown wrote: post #17

World of Warcraft's Auction House is similarly interesting. It can get really complicated trying to corner the market on different goods, although it's less integral to gameplay over all. It's more like an embedded minigame at times. One thing I learned in that game is that while one can make a lot of money being the middle man, the real value is from labor (as far as WoW is concerned) -- but grinding for materials c…

Yes! I loved doing this. Faction arbitrage, cornering markets, playing the weekend tides. At one point I even had a bot set up to snipe epic items that people were transferring on the neutral AH.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#34

Post by hackula1 »

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

I used to work in insurance in a hurricane zone. Yes, claims hurt an insurance company, but right after the storm is also when everyone calls up and upgrades their policies. I would say its a wash, if not actually a positive. If 5 homes get knocked over by a tornado, it is pretty much free advertising to millions of homes in the region as it makes the news rounds.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#36

Post by martinml »

ASUmusicMAN wrote: post #23
jredwards wrote: post #11

Incidentally, there are already a multitude of subreddits which have formed for the express purpose of manipulating the public markets. This is a really interesting interaction, though it's somewhat skewed by the fact that a player can simply revert to a saved game if the stock they've purchased tanks.

Do you have a list of a few of the larger ones? I usually glance through /r/grandtheftautov every day or so but this is the first i've heard of subreddits organized for manipulation.

Try /r/gtavstocks

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#37

Post by martinml »

ASUmusicMAN wrote: post #23
jredwards wrote: post #11

Incidentally, there are already a multitude of subreddits which have formed for the express purpose of manipulating the public markets. This is a really interesting interaction, though it's somewhat skewed by the fact that a player can simply revert to a saved game if the stock they've purchased tanks.

Do you have a list of a few of the larger ones? I usually glance through /r/grandtheftautov every day or so but this is the first i've heard of subreddits organized for manipulation.

Try /r/gtavstocks

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#38

Post by erbo »

QuotedForTruth wrote: post #12

The author needs to login to PSN or XBOX live, and create a Rockstar Social account. That unlocks the BAWSAQ market which is based on other players trades.

Hmm, I'd have thought it would be tied into GTAV online multiplayer, which doesn't open until tomorrow. In any event, market PvP might provide an interesting counterpoint to actual PvP in the multiplayer environment.

(My fiancee's gaming clan is planning to be in GTAV in a big way, starting tomorrow.)

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#39

Post by a-priori »

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

It doesn't matter to an insurance company how likely car crashes are -- that just determines what the company charges in premiums. All that matters is that the likelihood is well understood and that the company has enough customers to stay solvent.

Insurance companies essentially work by the Law of Large Numbers: that in a large enough number of trials, the average value should approach the expected value. In real world terms, if the chance of a house burning down in a fire is 1 per year per 1000 homes at an average cost of $200k each to repair (totally bogus numbers), then an insurance company can break even by charging a homeowner $200/year to insure the home against fire.

Over a large enough number of homes, that should be reasonably close to the actual amount they have to pay out. Tack on a profit margin, and you have a business model.

Edit: Fixed numbers a bit. Thank goodness I'm not an actuary.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#40

Post by baddox »

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

What scenario would be good for a car insurance company? If cars never have any problems, then no one would buy car insurance (perhaps other than the government-mandated minimum). So is there some happy medium where the insurance industry would thrive?
Post reply on HN