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Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

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241–250 of 617 posts

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The supply of digital knife skins is infinite and free. The only reason they hold any value at all is because a company artificially restricts them. Doesn’t really tie in to actual markets involving physical item.

Isn't it the same with USD to some extent?

only to the extent that they are both artificial. The totality of USD _represents_ the totality of all resources that exist under the control of the USA (ala, the people, gov't, companies etc, as well as any natural resources).

The counterstrike skins don't represent such real life physical resources.

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally kids wouldn't be participating in real world transactions at all, and I'd love to see the numbers of how many were actually kids who directly went to gamble I stead of being pushed into it by streamers which is where I see it constantly. > Now, thanks to a recent update from Valve, the latter is in a downward spiral, having lost 25% of its value — or $1.75 billion — overnight The fact that they made this chan…

The thing is Valve is clearly aware of the fact that it’s getting kids addicted to gambling. They have the data. It’s extremely ubiquitous. This has been an ongoing issue for a while and Valve has rightly been criticized for willfully getting kids addicted. Yes the parents have a responsibility to look after their kids. But that doesn’t give Valve a free pass, particularly when they used dark patterns to appeal to ch…

> Yes the parents have a responsibility to look after their kids.

How? Individual parents can't fight off predatory corporations entrenched in mainstream culture going after their kids. They need to make a go at Valve.

edit: Rereading, I guess that was kinda the point you were making?

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#244
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They warned the gambling sites plenty of times. They tried legal action several times. Those sites were against valves ToS.

It seems to me that they (Valve) are complicit. Don't they provide the API that those sites use? I don't think they tried very hard to shut them down, they could be doing a lot more. Edit: based on what I recall from this Coffeezilla video ( https://youtu.be/13eiDhuvM6Y?si=GJ_kXOJyXFTogy40&t=476 )

Isn't it the same API that users use?

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#245
post #166

> Prior to the most recent update, some Knives, like a Doppler Ruby Butterfly Knife, could fetch around $20,000 on third-party storefronts like CSFloat. How many whales are buying an in-game cosmetic for $20K for their own use? How much of this is day-trading? How much is investing? How much is fabricated by trading platforms? How much is money laundering? How much is a criminal payments channel?

I thought the same. Surely the number of people buying a 20k knife so it looks good when they play must be extremely low. The bulk have to be speculators.

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#246

I find it fascinating how the "HN Hivemind" (and yes, I know not a real thing, but the trends seem pretty consistent) is so opposed to kids playing with lootboxes, but also very angry at governments trying to impose age verification.

They are completely unrelated.

Some people are opposed to kids gambling (or gambling in general) - an understandable sentiment even if i dont agree.

Some people are skeptical of the gov't and the implications of proper identification on the web (which is required for age verification). Whether you are pro or anti gambling doesn't make or change this skepticism.

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#248

I find it fascinating how the "HN Hivemind" (and yes, I know not a real thing, but the trends seem pretty consistent) is so opposed to kids playing with lootboxes, but also very angry at governments trying to impose age verification.

> is so opposed to kids playing with lootboxes

I think the HN hive mind is more opposed to the concept of loot boxes in general. We don't need to go much beyond that. It follows that a puddle of industrial waste would cause trouble if it began to flow downstream.

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#249
> $1.84 billion in value

Correction. $0 in value. Skins do not exist and are worth exactly $0. If you spend money on skins, they are worth… $0. It’s all a large scale grift money incinerator where the only winner is Valve.

+ whatever pleasure you derive from it, ig. I can understand loot box addiction, but paying $20,000 for valve character dress up? Not even like a Peter Griffin player model or something, but a slightly different looking knife? Madness

Persp: tf2 enjoyer

Re: Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

#250
post #97

FYI some items go for $1.5M. "The GOAT of expensive skins in CS2 is the Karambit Case Hardened in the "Blue Gem" pattern. While the original is costly, one Factory-New variant with pattern 387 reached a staggering $1.5 million! The rarity comes down to its blue pattern, which is incredibly rare on a Karambit."

What does "factory new" mean? That it... hasn't been scratched? Is that... how Counter Strike works?
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