If you’ve read my review of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, then you know that I wasn’t exactly a big fan of the Forward Operating Base (FOB) component. Once you opt into creating an FOB, you can’t opt out. You can be invaded and have your materials and men stolen at any time, even if you are offline. It would be easy to say to skip this component of the game if it wasn’t for the fact that you need an FOB in order to have more soldiers on your team.
If FOBs weren’t already bad enough, Konami has found a way to actually make the situation worse with their new insurance program where you have to pay real money in order to defend your base.
Here’s a breakdown of how insurance works straight from Konami:
Your FOBs are always at risk of coming under attack. Now, you can rest easy with FOB insurance (paid service). If you sign up for insurance, then during the insurance period you will be compensated for any materials and staff lost due to rival infiltrations.
* Staff/materials stolen by the rival will in fact remain on your base, and an identical amount of staff/materials will be handed over to the rival instead.
* MB Coins are purchased with real money, but free MB Coins are also distributed periodically as login bonuses, etc.
* The following are not covered by FOB insurance:
・Staff/items that are not fully your property, such as abducted staff being held in your Brig (FOB)
・Wounded staff (staff lost due to death or extraction will be compensated)
・Staff used by you to deploy in defense of the FOB (neither death nor extraction will be compensated)
・Nuclear weapons
This is part of an update to the game which also has another new feature which may force people into buying insurance. It will now be possible for players to infiltrate another player’s base without setting off an alarm. Before, if anyone invaded your base, you would be notified no matter how sneaky they were. Since it’s now possible for a player to sneak in undetected, you are at a greater risk of invasion without being able to do anything about it… making buying insurance more of a necessity.
It’s clear that the FOB aspect of MGSV was created as a way for Konami to wring as much money out of its players as possible.
Source: Konami
