The roll out of the current system was fairly slow and based on response to changes in TF2. Initially weapons were tied to in game achievements, and later a ran

The roll out of the current system was fairly slow and based on response to changes in TF2. Initially weapons were tied to in game achievements, and later a random drop system as well. Cosmetic hats were added to the drop pool in 09, and in 2010 a weapon, item and crate (loot box) shop, and later an update made of community creations. 2012 added a co-op mode MvM that required a 1$ ticket to play a round of the game that that count how many times you've played and can drop items, and the steam community market where items can be traded. It's worth noting that Yanis Varoufakis[1], the economist was a consultant for valve at this point. In 2015 skins for weapons were added, something that beforehand was free. Valve's argument, which is significantly different than something like overwatch seems to be that content like hats and weapon models and skins has value, and when it's given away there's less incentive for creators to make things, which results in less things being available for players to enjoy and people who make things getting less money. A similar thought led to the introduction of the paid mods store for example. While that was extremely unpopular, there are a couple game mods for sale on the steam store2[2], and there are Patreon game modders[3]. Of course Valve's dog in this race is that they can and have made boatloads of cash in doing so[4], where in their ideal situation users make content and other users pay for it, and they just collect a fee on top for providing a platform. [1]https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/category/valveconomics https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/category/valveconomics [2]https://store.steampowered.com/app/280740/Aperture_Tag_The_Paint_Gun_Testing_Initiative/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/280740/Aperture_Tag_The_P... [3]https://www.patreon.com/JulioNIB https://www.patreon.com/JulioNIB [4]https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/08/how-and-why-team-fortress-2-made-valve-super-rich https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/08/how-and-why-team-for...