“But Homer, the grocery store sells sugar for a dollar a pound. And it doesn’t have nails and bits of broken glass in it.”
“Those are prizes”
Daily reminder that corporation arent your frens. Not even when gabe shaped.
People also enjoy gambling. At first.
I bet they’d enjoy surprises they didn’t have to pay for even more.
I always thought of steam as neutral evil for being a corporation, but that was just plain wrong of me. Compare them to Digital Extreme and the fact they accidentally created a lucrative loot box and prompt remove from the game. They actually called the mechanic a slot machine instead of surprise mechanic.
From a documentary: https://youtu.be/NA5vT1LooXk?t=1360
Yes, they do. And when you charge for surprises that can be of varying value, what do we call that?
Yes, they do. And when you charge for surprises that can be of varying value, what do we call that?
Pokemon cards
Agreed, though NY should be going after everyone involved in ‘Surprise Mechanics’, not just Valve.
It’s not unusual to target specific entities first to try and set a precedent. Going after everyone at once would likely spread their efforts too thin.
Not wrong, but there are more worthy targets to go after first. Ones that have treated their customers far, far worse than Valve.
Just because Valve does great things elsewhere doesn’t mean Valve should get a free pass on running a 5 billion market gap gambling economy. And that’s 5 billion AFTER Valve nuked 3 billion from the market. I think people don’t fully comprehend how sickeningly huge the CS skin market is.
What other company operates loot boxes at the same scale as Valve?
I don’t recall suggesting Valve getting a free pass, nor downplaying the CS skin market being an issue. What I’m saying is Valve at least turns that money to some good, unlike its contemporaries in the veiled gambling space.
Saying “don’t go after Valve (right now), instead go after these other bad companies I won’t name” isn’t giving a free pass to Valve? My bad.
And let’s not act like Valve isn’t raking in money. They don’t need gambling money to do good.
Also
What other company operates loot boxes at the same scale as Valve?
it’s so good it’s very habit forming, moreish, irresistible, if only there was a word for that
las valvus
People enjoy surprises
Not when it’s a surprise bill.
“Surprise! You owe money!”
Are they struggling to keep the steam machine out of the bullshit ancillary markets before it even launches
And they already made it worse - new “cases” just go over the items 1 by 1 and give you a choice to buy each one right then and there at stupid prices. Wouldn’t surprise me if this makes Valve even more of a giant in the end, because these people have absolutely no idea what they are even trying to achieve with these lawsuits.
But guys, Gaben cares about gamers and isn’t like the rest of them. They are the cool monopoly!
ah, the tried and true EA way
not very characteristic for them
This is their cash cow, so they’ll defend it. Everything else they’ve done is to defend their cash cow.
They’ve had lootboxes for-fucking-ever, they practically started the trend of gambling for video game skins, it’s not only characteristic but integral to the corporation
Is it not? Valve gets a lot of love but they are a corp at the end of the day. Their famous refund policy came about only because Australia made them.
Okay Valve please go back to doing nothing and winning thanks
Steam machine, steam deck, stream controller, steam frame, etc?
You’re right I was gravely mistaken I will now downvote myself XD
