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'People Enjoy Surprises' — Valve Is Trying to Dismiss New York's Counter-Strike Loot Box Lawsuit

27d 23h ago by piefed.ca/u/iamthetot in pcgaming@lemmy.ca from www.ign.com

Valve has moved to dismiss the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against the company, which claims loot boxes in its games such as Counter-Strike 2 promote illegal gambling and threaten to addict children.

Yes, they do. And when you charge for surprises that can be of varying value, what do we call that?

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?

Yes, they do. And when you charge for surprises that can be of varying value, what do we call that?

Pokemon cards

it's so good it's very habit forming, moreish, irresistible, if only there was a word for that

las valvus

Daily reminder that corporation arent your frens. Not even when gabe shaped.

New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against the company, which claims loot boxes in its games such as Counter-Strike 2 promote illegal gambling and threaten to addict children.

Both CS and TF2 are rated M. Children shouldn't be playing them in the first place.🤷‍♂️

to deem loot boxes illegal gambling, because doing so would mean the likes of baseball cards, Happy Meal toys, and even Labubu blind boxes would be considered gambling, too.

You know what, do it. Make it illegal. Fuck MTG and Pokemon card collectors. 🥳🥳🥳

Yeah, hockey and baseball cards used to be fine, then they became speculative assets.

Now, you have YouTube videos of kids opening packs and talking about how much they're worth.

It's fucking gambling. I did some work for that industry, 80% of sales were from addicts. I'm talking about people spending thousands a week on baseball/basketball/football cards. People openly talked about it in the industry as gambling. I've personally seen the numbers.

It's fucking gambling.

I bet they'd enjoy surprises they didn't have to pay for even more.

People enjoy surprises

Not when it's a surprise bill.

"Surprise! You owe money!"

People also enjoy gambling. At first.

"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"

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

This is their cash cow, so they'll defend it. Everything else they've done is to defend their cash cow.

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.

Great, let's get NY to regulate Polymarket and their stock market too!

I'm guessing it's related to cs2/tf2 ? If so why go for a company with 2 games and not EA that has eighty?

I thought EA moved away from lootboxes once Europe started passing laws in 2017 and 2018. Isn't that why battle passes are all the rage now?

Their sports games are full of it.

Battle passes are a preferred monetization method because it forces people to play the game.

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.

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

But guys, Gaben cares about gamers and isn't like the rest of them. They are the cool monopoly!