Predatory as hell. Almost impressive how Valve manages to simultaneously be one of the best and one of the worst companies in gaming.
Best or worst, aim for No. 1!
Just goes to show the dire state the rest of the industry is in.
They shot themselves in the foot in my opinion. I just won’t play video games that have that gambling aspect to them. I already spend enough on trading cards for that thrill
“Best of the worst”.
Best of both Worsts.
Let the live service cattle subsidize the best platform for buying non-slop games. Easy math.
It’s completely optional. They are about as predatory as gucci bags or other designer shit some people pay way too much for (IMO). You don’t need any of it to be competitive or to continue enjoying the game.
I just personally don’t have a problem with things that exploit people’s vanity.
I just personally don’t have a problem with things that exploit people’s vanity.
Based, but these are predatory.
For one, we shouldn’t be lowering our standards so that a business can make more money. Whether you accept it or not, these vanity items do make the game more enjoyable for most players. If more of us had higher standards, we’d get the cosmetics without having to pay for a corporation’s nicer campus or an executive’s 9th property.
For two, whenever chance is involved it will always intrinsically prey upon those with gambling problems.
Don’t hate me for asking a question. I don’t endorse loot boxes and do think they suck. But help me understand:
Isn’t this better than loot boxes?
You get to see what you’re paying for before you pay. You pay more for rarer items that clearly have very high monetary value and you’re allowed to sell on items for real money of you want.
Valve also still sticks with a cosmetics only model and no gameplay affecting transactions. Selling cosmetics only is probably the best way to monetise.
and you’re allowed to sell on items for real money of you want.
Just to be real: You can sell them for Steam Wallet funds, which is not “real money” since it can only be used on Steam.
You can sell them on hundreds of third-party marketplaces that let you withdraw to your bank account or crypto wallet.
You can do that, but you’re not allowed to do that.
Valve may not endorse it, but they certainly allow it. In fact, there are many skins that cannot be traded on Steam’s official marketplace, but only on third-party sites due to their high value.
You get to see what you’re paying for before you pay.
Yes, for the first box. The box after is not shown. So its basically just „hey, if I open this Box, it could very well be that the next box will be a legendary knife”
So you are just betting for what comes after that
I think it has an option to decline it too, so you don’t have to purchase to move on. I could be wrong about this, but I think this is what I heard.
The new case doesn’t have legendaries.
I don’t play CS, but…
I dunno, bit better, bit worse, little bit of column a and b. To me this reads like “surprise-fomo-store”: congratulations, you found the rarest of things, good job, now fork over this months rent money, you’ll probably never get this lucky again!
Sure, you don’t need to pay, but same argument applies to lootboxes in general.
The prices of these rarer items are just silly. TBH.
Previously, loot box’s gain is a probability distribution over (market price - fixed box price). Now it’s (market price - rarity price according to Valve).
I think in the end the market will take the Valve price (fixed or with rarity) into account since it’s known and the same to everyone. Then it’s again just playing against the probability distribution of items.
Oh so it’s loot boxes mixed with a limited time store multiplied by FOMO. Very cool.
Not!
Also: “At what point do they become macro transactions?” IMO at $2. That’s the micro/macro cutoff for me.
Leave it to Valve to find the most predatory monetization possible.
Tf you talking out your ass fr
Coffeezilla has a series on Valve CS2 market. Watch it
No way I’m taking your false equivalent shit here, there’s nothing about Valves lootboxes that put it NEAR the industry standard of make shit game look good make money, lootboxes with GAMEPLAY mechanics locked behind, forcing dlc for basic features and micro transactions for consumables and to level up bullshit.
So suck my d*ck
Valve literally popularized the “games as a service” business model.
You’re probably too young to understand when games weren’t just platforms to sell you more shite.
Stop paying for stupid shit in games or just stop playing these games. Donate to charity instead.
I think being able to see the item and having the option to purchase is much better than opening a random box that you have no idea what you’ll get.
Urg, AAA games suck ass more than ever. Thank christ for offline, AA and indie games!
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The fact that the skins don’t affect gameplay is really nice, but you can’t ignore that the lootbox system is just a slot machine and that they allow skins to be gambled on the web.
Also their moderation is fucking awful
I mean, this is just cosmetic stuff and you can see what you’re getting before you buy, plus you can sell the stuff for real world money. This is the least scummy way to do it.
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Wow look at this bait! So fresh!
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Its PEGI 18
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Its a parenting skill issue.
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Exactly! They should start by banning porn games. Then lgbtq games that corrupts our children. Then any political opposition. Only then will we live in a free and safe society. /s
This is pretty disgusting. Just make a normal skin store where people can buy the skins they want at whatever price you(valve) decide they are valued at. No fomo. No gambling.
Isn’t that what they did? Except to help preserve the “value” if the rare items you still have to get lucky to be allowed to buy them.
If they had a store where you could buy the ultra rare skins for 1000$, that would push down the “value” if the skins more quickly.
The way they are preserving the value is a form of fomo.
I think it’s an improvement though. You never part with your money unless you know exactly what you’ll get.
It’s basically individualised offers in the form of boxes.
For FTP games that I am really enjoying, I will buy stuff sometimes to support the game.
