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Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall

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281–290 of 617 posts

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

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, let’s blame the f2p game dev when there are literally streamers pumping fake platforms, doing fake wins, marketing gambling sites at kids. Valve did that

I have no skin the game, literally or figuratively (buying some 2d sprites for a virtual weapon is childish and pathetic from grown up man point of view and kids should spend 0 time in such game... either buy a real gun, get into ie paintball for the kick of the hunt or find something else that feels amazing and doesnt involve sitting on your introvert ass, worsening isolation and mental issues), but - your argument…

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

#282

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.

I'm against lootboxes in general, even for adults. It's a skinner box mechanic.

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

#283
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You retelling how money works on how money works comment

USD is human created artificial item, as real as human believe that skins in video games worth something

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

it represend steam wallet currency

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

#284
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're running an online casino directed at children and have made specific adaptations to bypass legal regulations in several countries.

The game does have a mature rating, so parents should be vetting their activity. I would still contend and say the gambling aspect, with real money, is a net negative to the community.

You don't need to play the game to gamble.

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

#285
post #35

$20,000 for a fake knife!? And I buy an item, a real one, and find later there was a cheaper price by few bucks somewhere else and I feel like an idiot.. crazy!

I can't even imagine how rich someone must be in order for a $20,000 imaginary knife with only cosmetic value to seem like a rational purchase.

"I can't even imagine how rich someone must be in order for a $20,000 imaginary knife with only cosmetic value to seem like a rational purchase."

its as real as people buy billions using made up money (BTC)

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

#286
post #66
post #5

I play CS. This is good. The gambling economy and the creator economy of people pumping their marketplaces and gambling sites is really toxic. It extracts money from kids, all for a nice skin. Making them more affordable is going to make this more fair and sensible.

Is not that their parent's job?

Society raises children, it's not fair to expect parents to police everything their child does. I agree often parents should be more responsible and not always take the easy way out.

But expecting them to individually fight billion dollar corporations that deliberately court children with damaging addictive services is asking too much.

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

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I agree we should go after companies clearly engaging in profit-above-all, making societies and future generations worse from the start. Make them hurt, make them bleed bad, take tens % of their global revenue (not profit, thats easy to game).

But - parents are responsible too, more than anybody else. Gaming is generally bad for kids, physically and mentally. Come on, everybody who cares knows that for past 2 decades. Screens generally fuck up kids properly, the younger and more interactive the worse the result. Kids need tons of physical fun and tons of continuous social interaction in larger groups, doesnt matter what some echo chambers claim, 'digital skills' are not something your kid can anyhow miss on.

Its supremely easier to fuck off kids, leave me alone, my adult life is oh so hard already, here play some more, give me some break. Adults being glued to phones hard themselves. Results are what they are. Its called universally bad parenting, by psychologists and various experts for a reason. No sympathies for parents there, but I feel sorry for all those kids whose potential is squished into various anxieties and abysmal social behavior.

Talking all this and much more as parent of 2 small ones, luckily for them environment we are in is firmly agreeing with all above.

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

#288
post #227
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China notoriously has intense capital controls. It's difficult for ordinary Chinese citizens to take capital out of the country. CS2 items can be bought and sold in both USD and RMB, and can be transferred between Chinese and international accounts. It's not about Steam wallet balances.

Interesting. I'm curious though, assuming I am Chinese and I trade knives for USD - where would I be able to receive USD to evade capital control? Surely not my bank account or Steam wallet. Or is it for people with bank account in both countries? But in that case crypto could be more convenient? I'm puzzled

Yes you would need to receive in a foreign USD bank account outside of China, the whole goal is to get the capital out of China and into a foreign account. Cryptocurrency transactions/exchanges are illegal in China so that's definitely not convenient! Meanwhile you can buy CS2 items with any ordinary payment method.

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that simple. The real problem is that Valve allows items to be sold in markets outside of Valve's control which allows third party gambling websites to operate. And you guessed right, they basically don't care about your age. Valve of course knows this but won't do anything, because they make profits off all transactions happening in third party markets. Plus the whole professional CS tournament scene is spo…

> Plus the whole professional CS tournament scene is sponsored by these predatory casinos I once had a glimpse behind the scenes of the online sports gambling industry (only for a few months—turns out that was my limit of how utterly disgusting an industry I could participate in and still, literally, sleep at night!) and it answered a question for me. The question was: “How did professional gaming get so incredibly b…

They also pay insanely mor money than traditional companies like intel. Much of eSports is also Saudi owned now which have no qualms about gambling.

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

#290
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plus the whole professional CS tournament scene is sponsored by these predatory casinos I once had a glimpse behind the scenes of the online sports gambling industry (only for a few months—turns out that was my limit of how utterly disgusting an industry I could participate in and still, literally, sleep at night!) and it answered a question for me. The question was: “How did professional gaming get so incredibly b…

I think gambling came in more in later waves. The first wave of popularity (mostly StarCraft, LoL and fighting games) tended more towards funding from sponsors, and not gambling ones (red bull, monster energy, gaming peripheral makers, the game devs themselves, mobile games).

I don’t know much about lol or fighting games but the starcraft pro scene exploded after a gambling/match fixing scandal back in 2010! The first wave absolutely had this problem
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