Freedom hater sues Valve for his own ineptness

[Westwood]

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/valve-faces-suit-over-role-in-gambling-on-video-games/

"Racketeering" lmao

[Leshma]

This is in our best interests. No matter how silly it sounds we should stand by this man. Because if we don't, freemium model which is essentially gambling will become main choice for game developers and publishers in the future. Do you want every game to be like Clash of Clans? Grind for years or pony up 5000$...

[Westwood]

This is in our best interests. No matter how silly it sounds we should stand by this man. Because if we don't, freemium model which is essentially gambling will become main choice for game developers and publishers in the future. Do you want every game to be like Clash of Clans? Grind for years or pony up 5000$...

Grind to get CSGO skins?

[Butan]

7 billions a year on CSGO market?
Wow, I didnt know it was that popular 

[Gravoth_iii]

This is in our best interests. No matter how silly it sounds we should stand by this man. Because if we don't, freemium model which is essentially gambling will become main choice for game developers and publishers in the future. Do you want every game to be like Clash of Clans? Grind for years or pony up 5000$...

No, if anything it does the opposite. It encourages games to do purely cosmetic pay models, with RNG chests that can give you fancy looking items. Dota, csgo and tf2 all do this, and have absolutely no advantages for paying players. Even overwatch has this now.

[Leshma]

SoftBank sold Supercell to Tencent last week for nearly nine billion dollars. Last few big acquisitions of dev studios have all been mobile giants. Business world value them more than other developers. How long till that model takes over PC and console gaming industry?

[Kafein]

How long till that model takes over PC and console gaming industry?

Either never or when our pre-mobile generation of gamers dies. Attempts at introducing P2W mobile-type microtransactions into core games backfire everywhere except in Asia, apparently. See PayDay 2 and the backtracking they ultimately ended up doing.

[Leshma]

Was there gambling in PayDay 2 or just regular items for money microtransactions? Main issue is dual currency system, in game obtainable currency and premium currency bought for cash. But the worst thing is that premium currency is mostly used to fix intentionally designed time sinks or as chips for gambling where only way to obtain item is winning right number at pseudo randomizer.

[Leshma]

Prominent YouTubers revealed as owners of controversial CS:GO gambling site

If Valve goes down with these guys I want Gabe to keep his promise.

[Vibe]

Prominent YouTubers revealed as owners of controversial CS:GO gambling site

If Valve goes down with these guys I want Gabe to keep his promise.

Loving this scandal. The whole CSGO item business outside the game is shady as fuck, trading, bets, etc. These guys are proper scumbags. Then again this also falls on parents of the kids as well. I doubt Valve is going to get touched by this though, they're also already warning people when they click csgolotto links (edit: oh apparently the warning was removed? wut).

[Vibe]

Valve statement http://store.steampowered.com/news/22883/

In 2011, we added a feature to Steam that enabled users to trade in-game items as a way to make it easier for people to get the items they wanted in games featuring in-game economies.

Since then a number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there’s been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites. We’d like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency.

These sites have basically pieced together their operations in a two-part fashion. First, they are using the OpenID API as a way for users to prove ownership of their Steam accounts and items. Any other information they obtain about a user's Steam account is either manually disclosed by the user or obtained from the user’s Steam Community profile (when the user has chosen to make their profile public). Second, they create automated Steam accounts that make the same web calls as individual Steam users.

Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements. We are going to start sending notices to these sites requesting they cease operations through Steam, and further pursue the matter as necessary. Users should probably consider this information as they manage their in-game item inventory and trade activity.

-Erik Johnson

Twitch gamblers getting fucked as well

https://blog.twitch.tv/twitch-and-third-party-terms-of-service-and-user-agreements-b9827599e0fc#.j22fnz25q

Twitch and third-party terms of service and user agreements

Today Valve released an announcement clarifying the intended use of Steam’s trading system and OpenID API. Valve specifically notes that using “the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements.”

As a reminder, per Twitch’s Terms of Service, broadcasters are not permitted to stream content that breaks the terms of service or user agreements of third-parties. As such, content in which the broadcaster uses or promotes services that violate Valve’s stated restrictions is prohibited on Twitch. Our Rules of Conduct lists other examples such as playing pirated games and playing on unauthorized private servers.

[Xant]

Loving this scandal. The whole CSGO item business outside the game is shady as fuck, trading, bets, etc. These guys are proper scumbags. Then again this also falls on parents of the kids as well. I doubt Valve is going to get touched by this though, they're also already warning people when they click csgolotto links (edit: oh apparently the warning was removed? wut).

What's amazing to me is that there's an actual market for 1000 dollar WEAPON FUCKING SKINS. Like, seriously? A lot of them look fucking horrible, too.

[Vibe]

What's amazing to me is that there's an actual market for 1000 dollar WEAPON FUCKING SKINS. Like, seriously? A lot of them look fucking horrible, too.

1000$? Try 3000$+ if not more. Some extremely rare dota couriers even sold for something like 50k$? It's insane

[Turkhammer]

What's amazing to me is that there's an actual market for 1000 dollar WEAPON FUCKING SKINS. Like, seriously? A lot of them look fucking horrible, too.

Hey, in 1637 a single tulip bulb sold for 10 times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman.  There is no accounting for mania.

[rufio]

i sell myskin for alot of money if u know what im sayin