The glory days of Epic Games are long gone and Tim Sweeney is a god damn moron.

  • dukemirage@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Valve banned shitcoins and blockchain scams

    would’ve been nice if they banned gambling, too, but that’s part of their business model unfortunately.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      I hear people say this sometimes, but I don’t know what they mean. Is there part of Valve’s system that has a gambling mechanic I’ve just never engaged with?

      Or is it one of their games that has gambling?

      Because I’ve been using it for years as basically my sole gaming interface and haven’t seen any gambling.

      • artyom@piefed.social
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        17 hours ago

        The short version is that an enormous, multibillion dollar gambling industry has been built around Valve’s item marketplace, and in particular around CS:GO skins. If that sounds completely insane and stupid, I’m with you, but it exists. Valve takes their typical cut off of all of these trades, and thus derives massive profits from it.

        Here’s the long version: https://peertube.gravitywell.xyz/videos/watch/a8e6d20c-3003-4b14-b9c4-cb6a25b238e7?isPeertubeContent=1

      • Kevin@programming.dev
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        19 hours ago

        Mainly Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike GO/2, cuz both of them have cosmetics with rarities obtained via what effectively amounts to lootboxes. In one sense they also have an out-of-game economy around these things where these items are traded for actual money

      • rtxn@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        There is a massive secondary market for in-game items (primarily CS skins) that Valve refuses to combat or even officially acknowledge. Some of it is legitimate, some of it is literal lottery for children. And since every transaction takes place on Steam, they get a cut of that.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      18 hours ago

      At least the shit is all cosmetic not like EA sports games with their UT packs I guess. Low bar.

      • dukemirage@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        It might be cosmetic, but it can be sold, which fuels the addiction mechanic. EA is bad, too, but this whataboutism.

        • Lfrith@lemmy.ca
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          8 hours ago

          I think difference is EA is more a game company so people see a game they like then judge the monetization because its a full priced game that turns out to have f2p monetization.

          But, Valve is more judged for its experience as a launcher and less for its games. So with the launcher itself being the draw things like Valve game lootboxes can be something people are completely unexposed to as they play other games.

          But, EA is still at a stage where the products that receive the most visibility are their games, and the launcher and services side so underwhelming it isn’t a selling point.

          Its like Costco versus a company known for its pizza. Costco is a warehouse store people love going to that happens to sell pizza, but is judged on multiple things that draw them there over other stores as opposed to pizza. A pizza company is just known primarily for its pizza so judged on the quality of their pizza.