[simmerup]

By the time I started playing it was more common to ransom & kill than just to ransom.

Repeat custom is a rarity in the pirate business

[setr]

If everyone expects to be killed anyways, then why is anyone paying the ransom?

[simmerup]

Mainly it was only panicking newbies who paid the ransom. Losing stuff in Eve hurts more than most games, so people react in true panic style fashion.

There were a few roleplay corps that built in-game reputations on taking ransoms etc seriously. I'm sure they had better results