All trading and selling of Team Fortress 2 items has been disabled after a bug in the new patch increased the chance of crates containing an "Unusual" item from 1% to 100%
I'd probably be upset if I were a player with high-valued items. However it gives me some schadenfreude to see this virtual economy crashing. I don't like that the entire system is set up to...
I'd probably be upset if I were a player with high-valued items. However it gives me some schadenfreude to see this virtual economy crashing.
I don't like that the entire system is set up to funnel money to Valve. They not only take a tax on every transaction, but also profit from the process of generating items with their key/chest system. It's designed hook as many people into gambling as possible. If this slows them down, then all the better in my mind.
Having been a Valve fan for a long time, the direction they've been taking these last few years has been really disappointing. I'm hoping the failure of Artifact makes them rethink their strategy.
Couldn't agree more with that. Their games seem very money-driven rather than game-driven in recent times. At least with Underlords it seems like they might be heading in a better direction...
Couldn't agree more with that. Their games seem very money-driven rather than game-driven in recent times. At least with Underlords it seems like they might be heading in a better direction although it's still too early to really tell yet.
While I don't disagree seeing as I really did not like how Artifact turned out, and – trading or not – lootboxes are bad, you are aware that the TF2 economy has been like this for years, right?...
Having been a Valve fan for a long time, the direction they've been taking these last few years has been really disappointing.
While I don't disagree seeing as I really did not like how Artifact turned out, and – trading or not – lootboxes are bad, you are aware that the TF2 economy has been like this for years, right? Trading items in TF2 has been this way for ages, and is absolutely not new in any way; Crates alone were introduced in 2008.
Yeah, I am. I bought the game twice before it went free-to-play, before they introduced the concept of hats or custom weapons, and before they brought an economist on board. I just wasn't a fan of...
... you are aware that the TF2 economy has been like this for years, right?
Yeah, I am. I bought the game twice before it went free-to-play, before they introduced the concept of hats or custom weapons, and before they brought an economist on board. I just wasn't a fan of the direction they started taking (both stylistically and business-wise). It soured my opinion of the company.
This issue is actually a fair bit bigger than it initially seems from all outward appearances. At first glance, it simply seems like a silly mistake made by one of the developers causing an...
This issue is actually a fair bit bigger than it initially seems from all outward appearances.
At first glance, it simply seems like a silly mistake made by one of the developers causing an unintended bug in a 12-year-old game which players are in turn exploiting, which itself, is causing a crash in the game’s virtual economy. This, Valve should be able to reverse in a few days once they get things under control and it should be business as usual. However, this in-game virtual economy is linked to steam wallet cash and the steam market, which itself, is linked to buy and selling actual games, Valve hardware and trading within some of the biggest gaming communities such as Dota and CS:GO. In turn, there is now a myriad of 3rd party websites available that further accommodate the buying and selling of games and in-game items for real life cash or through PayPal.
As a result, I’m almost certain some lucky, enterprising, early bird individuals would have been able to… money launder isn’t exactly the correct term… but walk away from this with a nice amount of cash before Valve was able to implement the freeze on the trading of these items and disable the in-game item server in order to sort this mess out.
Damn, I still have all these crates, they'd have been worth hundreds of dollars if I was quicker. Fuck these "virtual economies", though. My schadenfreude is great!
Damn, I still have all these crates, they'd have been worth hundreds of dollars if I was quicker. Fuck these "virtual economies", though. My schadenfreude is great!
I'd probably be upset if I were a player with high-valued items. However it gives me some schadenfreude to see this virtual economy crashing.
I don't like that the entire system is set up to funnel money to Valve. They not only take a tax on every transaction, but also profit from the process of generating items with their key/chest system. It's designed hook as many people into gambling as possible. If this slows them down, then all the better in my mind.
Having been a Valve fan for a long time, the direction they've been taking these last few years has been really disappointing. I'm hoping the failure of Artifact makes them rethink their strategy.
Couldn't agree more with that. Their games seem very money-driven rather than game-driven in recent times. At least with Underlords it seems like they might be heading in a better direction although it's still too early to really tell yet.
While I don't disagree seeing as I really did not like how Artifact turned out, and – trading or not – lootboxes are bad, you are aware that the TF2 economy has been like this for years, right? Trading items in TF2 has been this way for ages, and is absolutely not new in any way; Crates alone were introduced in 2008.
Yeah, I am. I bought the game twice before it went free-to-play, before they introduced the concept of hats or custom weapons, and before they brought an economist on board. I just wasn't a fan of the direction they started taking (both stylistically and business-wise). It soured my opinion of the company.
e: more details.
Virtual economies are dumb, I very much enjoying watching things like this happen. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
This issue is actually a fair bit bigger than it initially seems from all outward appearances.
At first glance, it simply seems like a silly mistake made by one of the developers causing an unintended bug in a 12-year-old game which players are in turn exploiting, which itself, is causing a crash in the game’s virtual economy. This, Valve should be able to reverse in a few days once they get things under control and it should be business as usual. However, this in-game virtual economy is linked to steam wallet cash and the steam market, which itself, is linked to buy and selling actual games, Valve hardware and trading within some of the biggest gaming communities such as Dota and CS:GO. In turn, there is now a myriad of 3rd party websites available that further accommodate the buying and selling of games and in-game items for real life cash or through PayPal.
As a result, I’m almost certain some lucky, enterprising, early bird individuals would have been able to… money launder isn’t exactly the correct term… but walk away from this with a nice amount of cash before Valve was able to implement the freeze on the trading of these items and disable the in-game item server in order to sort this mess out.
Damn, I still have all these crates, they'd have been worth hundreds of dollars if I was quicker. Fuck these "virtual economies", though. My schadenfreude is great!
Valve made a blog post about this a few days ago, with info about how it's being resolved: Update on The Crate Depression of 2019