'Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism': DayZ creator Dean Hall says the 'gambling mechanics' of Valve's monetization strategy 'have absolutely no place' in videogames

Flack? Giving someone some slack is giving them a break. Giving someone flack is giving them a hard time. If something’s outside someone’s control, giving them slack about it is a kind thing but giving them flack would be unfair.

From my perspective its because they're still somehow not even among the worst. Their only way of advertising their gambling is by giving the player a crate. This crate can be opened for $2.50, or sold on the marketplace to someone else who wants to open it. This money can be spent on buying real games.

In cod, you get full screen advertisements on the regular for $10+ skin bundles. In almost every game as a service you get progress in a battle pass that ALWAYS directly contrasts your usually untradeable rewards with what you could be getting if you paid this month's subscription fee.

Valve does have a scummy system, but they make it less annoying and if you choose to not participate you usually benefit with real funds to use on steam. Its hard to hate that over the aggressive advertising of its competitors.

All IMO, though. I'm no psychologist.

I don't want to defend them too much but honestly out of all the loot boxes out there theirs is the least bad. You can even just sell the boxes you get for free by playing and buy shit (on Steam) with the money.

Cause Gaben. He's your cool buddy uncle guy that's into video games, hunting and sous dive and not another billionaire. He's a cool good billionaire! His yacht is a cool yacht!

For most people it's harder to hate Valve with the positive things they do. Obviously they shouldn't get a pass for this, but forming a conflicted opinion seems to be against human nature.

Counterstrike has had loot boxes for many years, they weren't recently added. What was recently added was a mechanic that allows 5 lower value items (certain gun skins) to be exchanged for a random higher value item (glove or knife skins). It's acting to level the market. If anything, this change serves to inhibit loot box gambling by cutting the possibility of hitting a real money jackpot.

I've bought games just from sitting there for an hour and selling those cards. All these years and i still have no idea why people buy them.

Valve loot boxes have always worked that way. They didn't change them to skirt regulations. I don't really find it very scummy at all. Nothing in the loot boxes can give you an advantage in the game. Most of the games that include this feature are free to play. This is how they make money from their game. The vast majority of people don't pay very much at all. You can play the games and have tons of fun and never interact with the loot box system. It's an optional thing for people who like the game so much that they want to pay. It's basically donate to valve and have a chance to unlock a cosmetic item in game.

TF2 Classic (2010 era TF2) will have an official release soon.