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QotD: How do you measure profitability of highsec ganking?

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Charax Bouclier
Silvershield Universal
#1 - 2014-09-30 20:40:25 UTC
Income - Cost = Profitability

I think the "cost" and "income" is open to interpretation. I'll offer up a few concepts and you're free to agree or disagree with them, and replace them with your own.

Cost

1. The value of your ship that gets CONCORDed
2. Opportunity Cost of doing alternate ISK-making activities

Income

1. What you can salvage from the wreck
2. Intrinsic pleasure of augmenting your kill statistics
3. Hearty chuckles from rage mails/whispers/local
4. EVE-O forum threads/posts about you and your corp's disreputable behavior

Certainly, some variables will be valued differently by each person. How would you algebraically weight the above variables (including variables that you come up with, if applicable) to compute whether a highsec gank was truly profitable?
Paranoid Loyd
#2 - 2014-09-30 20:42:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Paranoid Loyd
The key is to make sure the margin is so large it is more or less irrelevant, of course that severely limits your targets resulting in a much larger requirement for patience but that makes each kill that much sweeter. Twisted

"There is only one authority in this game, and that my friend is violence. The supreme authority upon which all other authority is derived." ISD Max Trix

Fix the Prospect!
Mr Epeen
It's All About Me
#3 - 2014-09-30 20:44:21 UTC
Charax Bouclier wrote:
Income - Cost = Profitability



Wrong equation. That's the industry one.

The ganking one is destruction + tears = joy

Mr Epeen Cool
Charax Bouclier
Silvershield Universal
#4 - 2014-09-30 20:46:25 UTC
Mr Epeen wrote:
Charax Bouclier wrote:
Income - Cost = Profitability



Wrong equation. That's the industry one.

The ganking one is destruction + tears = joy

Mr Epeen Cool


Sir, I believe I proposed some income variables to capture one's pleasure from creating tears. :)
Bronson Hughes
The Knights of the Blessed Mother of Acceleration
#5 - 2014-09-30 20:56:08 UTC
Charax Bouclier wrote:
Income - Cost = Profitability

I think the "cost" and "income" is open to interpretation. I'll offer up a few concepts and you're free to agree or disagree with them, and replace them with your own.

Cost

1. The value of your ship that gets CONCORDed
2. Opportunity Cost of doing alternate ISK-making activities

Income

1. What you can salvage from the wreck
2. Intrinsic pleasure of augmenting your kill statistics
3. Hearty chuckles from rage mails/whispers/local
4. EVE-O forum threads/posts about you and your corp's disreputable behavior

Certainly, some variables will be valued differently by each person. How would you algebraically weight the above variables (including variables that you come up with, if applicable) to compute whether a highsec gank was truly profitable?

It's inherently difficult to equate ISK earned from a gank with the pleasure gained from said gank because it's going to be different for everyone. If you have an abundant supply of ISK, then the ISK earned is inconsequential, but if you actually need the gank to be financially profitable to continue funding your activities then it becomes paramount. I don't think there is any one answer.

Relatively Notorious By Association

My Many Misadventures

I predicted FAUXs
Veers Belvar
Swordmasters of New Eden
#6 - 2014-09-30 21:07:55 UTC
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.
Charax Bouclier
Silvershield Universal
#7 - 2014-09-30 21:28:01 UTC
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.


You are free to add the community suffering as a "cost", Pilot Belvar.
Renegade Heart
Doomheim
#8 - 2014-09-30 21:30:25 UTC
Tears have no value to me. If I ever get tears, I try to help wipe them away, though sometimes that can be hard.

Ganking is fun for me. I enjoy the game you get, roleplaying as an outlaw in dangerous space. Living as an outlaw certainly adds more challenge to certain aspects of the game, especially if you are doing it on your main character!

I value fun above everything else, although isk is a nice bonus sometimes!

Lately I have been ganking lots of pods near Jita, trying to get that multibillion isk gank for my killboard, although it is becoming less fun ganking the newbie players, because I feel a sense of duty, as regards the future of EvE, in helping them understand that high sec is not safe, but also not impossible to play in.

It can be very hard to get that point across, so now I am starting to avoid the newbie pods if possible, because it is easier for me this way Oops

I never gank in rookie systems of course!
Bronson Hughes
The Knights of the Blessed Mother of Acceleration
#9 - 2014-09-30 21:38:30 UTC
I've found that looting the wreck of someone who's ship you've just relieved them of violently is a great way to break the ice. Seriously, most of the lasting in-game contacts I've made have been after one of us has just blown the other one to bits.

I've also found that helping point out a flaw in someone's build after looking over their killmail, especially with newer players, helps them learn and grow far more than simply "collecting tears". I've declared more than one war on new-ish corps specifically to help them learn how to better PvP.

See what I mean about the math being different for everyone? I don't enjoy "collecting tears" at all. In fact, I rather despise the notion of it, although I do support the right of those who do to do so. I much prefer striking up pleasant conversations at gunpoint.

Relatively Notorious By Association

My Many Misadventures

I predicted FAUXs
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#10 - 2014-09-30 22:02:26 UTC
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.

This game is designed around the idea that someone can always ruin your day, some of us enjoy it...imagine that.

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
WASPY69
Xerum.
#11 - 2014-09-30 22:08:37 UTC
"whispers"?!?

What the **** is this? WoW? Get out...

This signature intentionally left blank
Abrazzar
Vardaugas Family
#12 - 2014-09-30 22:13:05 UTC
As an industrialist the equation is easy:

[Profitability of ganking me] << [Profitability of ganking someone else]

Sovereignty and Population

New Mining Mechanics
Miyammato Musashi
Freeport Exploration
Loosely Affiliated Pirates Alliance
#13 - 2014-09-30 22:19:16 UTC
If target = 4x+ value of ganking ship(s) I usually hit it. If less, than no. Need to account for ganker errors, security tags, and chance.

I am a meat popsicle. 
RubyPorto
RubysRhymes
#14 - 2014-09-30 22:29:50 UTC  |  Edited by: RubyPorto
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.


And nobody's judging* you if you'd like to do that.

We don't say you're a bad person for enjoying your legitimate in-game activities, why are you so keen to say others are bad people for enjoying their legitimate in-game activities?

Aren't you the one always calling for civility?


*At least not on moral grounds.

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths." -Abrazzar "the risk of having your day ruined by other people is the cornerstone with which EVE was built" -CCP Solomon
Crumplecorn
Eve Cluster Explorations
#15 - 2014-09-30 22:32:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Crumplecorn
Charax Bouclier wrote:
Income

1. What you can salvage from the wreck
2. Intrinsic pleasure of augmenting your kill statistics
3. Hearty chuckles from rage mails/whispers/local
4. EVE-O forum threads/posts about you and your corp's disreputable behavior
5. Trading/Manufacturing the ships/equipment killed in ganks and used in ganks.

Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.
I see you're going for the 'sate demand by providing oversupply' strategy on the tear market.

Witty Image - Stream

Not Liking this post hurts my RL feelings and will be considered harassment
Mag's
Azn Empire
#16 - 2014-09-30 22:35:51 UTC
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.
I do, or should I say did when the person I shot had a great attitude the last time I played.

But when they start shouting in local with personal attacks and threatening RL acts, laughing at their tears is the only course I will then accept.

Destination SkillQueue:- It's like assuming the Lions will ignore you in the Savannah, if you're small, fat and look helpless.
Renegade Heart
Doomheim
#17 - 2014-09-30 22:46:31 UTC
Mag's wrote:
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.
I do, or should I say did when the person I shot had a great attitude the last time I played.

But when they start shouting in local with personal attacks and threatening RL acts, laughing at their tears is the only course I will then accept.


Now I think about it, this makes me see that tears may have some value sometimes Big smile
Paranoid Loyd
#18 - 2014-09-30 22:53:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Paranoid Loyd
Mag's wrote:
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.
I do, or should I say did when the person I shot had a great attitude the last time I played.

But when they start shouting in local with personal attacks and threatening RL acts, laughing at their tears is the only course I will then accept.


This, I treat people in game much like I do on the forums. You are treated in direct relation to how you act. Rage/Whine at me and I will facilitate the tears. Laugh it off and understand they are just pixels, then convo me and ask what you can do better next time and I will give you more knowledge then you ever would have found out on your own.

"There is only one authority in this game, and that my friend is violence. The supreme authority upon which all other authority is derived." ISD Max Trix

Fix the Prospect!
S'Way
State War Academy
Caldari State
#19 - 2014-09-30 22:59:37 UTC  |  Edited by: S'Way
Only thing I measure is "will I have the dps to pop the target before CONCORD saves them".

If you gank just for Isk profit you miss out on fun killmails such as that random pod with 3bil of implants in it. I rarely even bother with looting wrecks (unless the mail shows something nice).
Isk is easy to come by (just buy a PLEX and sell it), the fun in making spaceships explode is all that matters.
Kaarous Aldurald
Black Hydra Consortium.
#20 - 2014-09-30 23:02:28 UTC
Veers Belvar wrote:
Or you could actually try to help other people enjoy the game instead of looking for tears...imagine that.


Why would I possibly want to help people who spew vile insults and send me death threats because I blew up their pixels?

"Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

One of ours, ten of theirs.

Best Meltdown Ever.
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