Valve invents new Counter-Strike 2 loot boxes that successfully dodge anti-gambling regulations
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Who is buying these skins. I feel like such an alien sometimes. I just canโt understand wanting to spend any money at all on a cosmetic skin
Before this shit existed (like back when the hottest shit was Quake), I thought it might be cool to get a professionally made skin everyone in the game could see for like $0.25-$0.50. A dollar, at most.
The first iteration of a system that could have potentially made that a reality, the things youโd actually wanna buy were $25-50. Like who the fuck workshopped these ridiculous prices?
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Donโt hate me for asking a question. I donโt endorse loot boxes and do think they suck. But help me understand:
Isnโt this better than loot boxes?
You get to see what youโre paying for before you pay. You pay more for rarer items that clearly have very high monetary value and youโre 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.
Previously, loot boxโs gain is a probability distribution over (market price - fixed box price). Now itโs (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 itโs known and the same to everyone. Then itโs again just playing against the probability distribution of items.
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Donโt hate me for asking a question. I donโt endorse loot boxes and do think they suck. But help me understand:
Isnโt this better than loot boxes?
You get to see what youโre paying for before you pay. You pay more for rarer items that clearly have very high monetary value and youโre 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 youโre 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 โreal moneyโ since it can only be used on Steam.
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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 youโll get.
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Oh so itโs loot boxes mixed with a limited time store multiplied by FOMO. Very cool.
Not!
Also: โAt what point do they become macro transactions?โ IMO at $2. Thatโs the micro/macro cutoff for me.
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You get to see what youโre paying for before you pay.
Yes, for the first box. The box after is not shown. So its basically just โhey, if I open this Box, it could very well be that the next box will be a legendary knifeโ
So you are just betting for what comes after that
The new case doesnโt have legendaries.
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and youโre 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 โreal moneyโ 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.
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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 youโre not allowed to do that.
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Who is buying these skins. I feel like such an alien sometimes. I just canโt understand wanting to spend any money at all on a cosmetic skin
I wouldnโt spend money on skins in most games but Counter Strike is different. You can buy a skin, use it for years, and then sell it for more than you paid. In fact, skins are actually a very good investment that have historically had less volatility and better returns than stock indexes like the S&P 500.
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You can do that, but youโre 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 Steamโs official marketplace, but only on third-party sites due to their high value.
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I wouldnโt spend money on skins in most games but Counter Strike is different. You can buy a skin, use it for years, and then sell it for more than you paid. In fact, skins are actually a very good investment that have historically had less volatility and better returns than stock indexes like the S&P 500.
These skins have 15% returns? That seems dubious but it could be. I donโt think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
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These skins have 15% returns? That seems dubious but it could be. I donโt think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
I donโt think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
There are skins worth millions, so definitely you can.
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Who is buying these skins. I feel like such an alien sometimes. I just canโt understand wanting to spend any money at all on a cosmetic skin
Agreed. The only time Iโll buy a skin is if it literally improves camouflage. I see no reason to buy a flashy skin that only serves to make you more visible to enemies.
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These skins have 15% returns? That seems dubious but it could be. I donโt think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
Thatโs the case with a lot of collectibles. LEGO is a great investment but you have to keep it somewhere
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Leave it to Valve to find the most predatory monetization possible.
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You get to see what youโre paying for before you pay.
Yes, for the first box. The box after is not shown. So its basically just โhey, if I open this Box, it could very well be that the next box will be a legendary knifeโ
So you are just betting for what comes after that
Still the point is you donโt spend money without knowing what you get so it is better. Still predatory, but better
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I donโt think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
There are skins worth millions, so definitely you can.
โฆwho is paying a million dollars for a skin??
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This is pretty disgusting. Just make a normal skin store where people can buy the skins they want at whatever price you(valve) decide they are valued at. No fomo. No gambling.
Isnโt that what they did? Except to help preserve the โvalueโ if the rare items you still have to get lucky to be allowed to buy them.
If they had a store where you could buy the ultra rare skins for 1000$, that would push down the โvalueโ if the skins more quickly.
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Before this shit existed (like back when the hottest shit was Quake), I thought it might be cool to get a professionally made skin everyone in the game could see for like $0.25-$0.50. A dollar, at most.
The first iteration of a system that could have potentially made that a reality, the things youโd actually wanna buy were $25-50. Like who the fuck workshopped these ridiculous prices?
Adjusted for inflation, the price is probably the same
But seriously they just charge whatever people will pay. Itโs not like itโs free market, if people canโt make their own custom skins.
