Insurance for Virtual Goods

China brings us the world's first insurance policy covering online game goods. Thanks to James "Pidge" Fielder for the tip.

I was tempted to say this was insurance for virtual goods, but there has always been coverage for intangibles. If, God forbid, America Ferrara were to lose her smile! Insurance itself is a virtual good.

The evidence piles up that Professor Fairfield was correct in 2005 when he argued that virtual property is pretty much just property. It can be lost; when loss is large and random, it will be insured.

Comments

[Ren Reynolds]

1.

The piece is not very clear. It starts by saying it's for players then talks about companies. If the latter part is true then it reads a lot like standard commercial insurance against legal claim targeted to a vertical industry sector and legal sphere outcomes are uncertain. The kinda insurance that any decent size company will already have as part of its over all risk management strategy.

Could someone that can read the original tell us if there is anything new here?

[Isaac Knowles]

2.

I'm unclear on that, too. If its for players, then I think that would open up a whole new front in the war against RMT. I suspect that it would be very difficult to verify claims without actually having access to the accounts of the customers. This would not only mean new privacy risks, but also - by necessity - violation of the EULA by the insurer and insured: the insured because they would have to share account information to verify claims, the insurer because they would probably need a character in-game to 'watch' customers.

Also, as with any insurance plan, there'd probably be a very serious adverse selection problem, since most players who lose their accounts can appeal to the game company to recover lost items (with some inconvenience). The individuals most likely to get the insurance are those who lose accounts due to violations of the EULA, e.g. RMT dealers.

Its less obvious to me how this would work with F2P games. Can I insure my farm(ville) against crop failures? Would I?

[Asigurari]

3.

For me it seems kind of a bad or silly idea. I mean why should i pay some money to get an insurance for my character goods for WOW, for example. How is that possible? Or why should i get an insurance for any other online game? I do not see the point. I am agreeing with an insurance for a site, or for an online business.