3 ms·

Valve is far from the first, only, or worst actors in this field. Skin lootboxes are not much more than a flex. If there is one to blame for the gambling epide

Valve is far from the first, only, or worst actors in this field. Skin lootboxes are not much more than a flex. If there is one to blame for the gambling epidemic, look at EA and FIFA.

account42 6mo ago
Valve is not literally the first but they played a big part in normalizing both lootboxes and micro transactions. Don't rewrite history just because you are a fan. Not to mention their role in you not owning your games.
- embedding-shape 6mo ago
  > Not to mention their role in you not owning your games. I do use Steam to "purchase" games, and it irks me that they're still allowed to show "Buy" when in reality you're essentially leasing/renting the game, can't believe it's legal for them (and others) to trick people like this still.
  - mschuster91 6mo ago
    A Steam purchase I have more confidence in than a physical game copy to survive. I trust Steam to honor its agreement with me more than I trust in myself and my feline overlords to keep a game CD alive. In a previous timeline, this has led to me going on ebay to find CDs of a long lost game (EarthSiege 2), which I promptly uploaded to the Internet Archive as the one distributed by the current license-holder at the time had an older, unstable version with bugs and, more importantly, no audio and my own original copy got damaged to hell and beyond... [1] https://archive.org/details/sierra-earth-siege-2 https://archive.org/details/sierra-earth-siege-2
    - embedding-shape 6mo ago
      Sure, I agree with all of those things, but the fact still stands, Steam is actively lying to customers as the store pages say "Buy" and "Purchase", not "Rent" or "Lease", which are more accurate. You don't actually own the product. Don't get me wrong, as mentioned, I use Steam and like Steam/Valve, but that move is a bit shitty regardless.
      - bbddg 6mo ago
        I think it would be extremely confusing for customers if the steam “Buy” button was renamed to “Rent” or “Lease”.
        account42 6mo ago
        It would only be confusing because customers are currently being misled and the new label would no longer match their faulty mental model.
        embedding-shape 6mo ago
        How could it be confusing when that's actually what happens? Imagine HN showed "Delete comment" instead of "Reply" under the comment input, don't you agree that be misleading?
        branon 6mo ago
        how about "Purchase License"
      - wtetzner 6mo ago
        When I check out on Steam it displays this text to me: > A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.
        embedding-shape 6mo ago
        This is what I see on the checkout page: https://i.imgur.com/diOkyCM.png https://i.imgur.com/diOkyCM.png There is a product in the cart, which is a game, and the button says "Purchase", no where does it say anywhere that it's a license (although that's obvious), nor that I don't actually "own" this game after I "purchase" it. Sure, minor detail perhaps, but I'd still argue that something Steam could do better, and since the industry is lacking self-regulation about this, I'd argue more regulations are needed for this even.
        wtetzner 6mo ago
jaapz 6mo ago
What? Valve basically invented making money with skins and lootboxes, it started with TF2 hats. There is an insane amount of money in the CS2 skin market.

Valve is far from the first, only, or worst actors in this field. Skin lootboxes are not much more than a flex. If there is one to blame for the gambling epidemic, look at EA and FIFA.

account42 6mo ago

Valve is not literally the first but they played a big part in normalizing both lootboxes and micro transactions. Don't rewrite history just because you are a fan. Not to mention their role in you not owning your games.

embedding-shape 6mo ago
> Not to mention their role in you not owning your games. I do use Steam to "purchase" games, and it irks me that they're still allowed to show "Buy" when in reality you're essentially leasing/renting the game, can't believe it's legal for them (and others) to trick people like this still.
- mschuster91 6mo ago
  A Steam purchase I have more confidence in than a physical game copy to survive. I trust Steam to honor its agreement with me more than I trust in myself and my feline overlords to keep a game CD alive. In a previous timeline, this has led to me going on ebay to find CDs of a long lost game (EarthSiege 2), which I promptly uploaded to the Internet Archive as the one distributed by the current license-holder at the time had an older, unstable version with bugs and, more importantly, no audio and my own original copy got damaged to hell and beyond... [1] https://archive.org/details/sierra-earth-siege-2 https://archive.org/details/sierra-earth-siege-2
  - embedding-shape 6mo ago
    Sure, I agree with all of those things, but the fact still stands, Steam is actively lying to customers as the store pages say "Buy" and "Purchase", not "Rent" or "Lease", which are more accurate. You don't actually own the product. Don't get me wrong, as mentioned, I use Steam and like Steam/Valve, but that move is a bit shitty regardless.
    - bbddg 6mo ago
      I think it would be extremely confusing for customers if the steam “Buy” button was renamed to “Rent” or “Lease”.
      - account42 6mo ago
        It would only be confusing because customers are currently being misled and the new label would no longer match their faulty mental model.
      - embedding-shape 6mo ago
        How could it be confusing when that's actually what happens? Imagine HN showed "Delete comment" instead of "Reply" under the comment input, don't you agree that be misleading?
      - branon 6mo ago
        how about "Purchase License"
    - wtetzner 6mo ago
      When I check out on Steam it displays this text to me: > A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.
      - embedding-shape 6mo ago
        This is what I see on the checkout page: https://i.imgur.com/diOkyCM.png https://i.imgur.com/diOkyCM.png There is a product in the cart, which is a game, and the button says "Purchase", no where does it say anywhere that it's a license (although that's obvious), nor that I don't actually "own" this game after I "purchase" it. Sure, minor detail perhaps, but I'd still argue that something Steam could do better, and since the industry is lacking self-regulation about this, I'd argue more regulations are needed for this even.
        wtetzner 6mo ago

jaapz 6mo ago

What? Valve basically invented making money with skins and lootboxes, it started with TF2 hats. There is an insane amount of money in the CS2 skin market.