This lawsuit is targeting Valve not because they are a platform or storefront that provides games with gambling, but rather is due to gambling in games that they themselves have developed. From the first line in the article:
New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 amount to a form of unregulated gambling, letting users “pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value.”
The suit is not claiming that lootboxes are gambling in and of themselves, it’s claiming that the lootboxes in valve’s own games counts as gambling because you can sell the items for steam wallet funds through the steam community market, which can then be converted into cash via multiple methods, most notably by purchasing a steam deck with wallet funds and then selling the steam deck for cash, which is not against any laws or steam’s terms of service.
Personally, I agree that the line needs to be drawn more strictly than just requiring the possibility of converting the winnings into cash, and that lootboxes are predatory regardless. But this case isn’t about lootboxes in general, it’s about the very real problem of valve actively enabling and encouraging gambling with actual monetary value. We can’t easily change the laws, but valve is (allegedly) breaking the laws as they already exist.
It’s particularly the bit about buying a steam deck, loading it with the high price items, and selling it that I latched onto when I read the article.
Specifically that’s important because that’s literally something you can do with any system and more importantly with any account. You don’t even need to load up and sell a steam deck, you absolutely can just sell the steam account.
If this is simply about providing a marketplace for loot box goods on where you can convert those assets easily to real world currency then that’s different. I still don’t agree that it should eliminate loot boxes from being gambling (because that’s exactly what it is), but I do understand why they might consider the steam asset market as part of a casino or similar.
I don’t play the types of games that give out loot boxes like that, and my only experience with the asset market is the trading cards you can get by playing some games. Those strike me as very similar to Pokemon cards and TCG has already got a “black market” going on for those.
I would definitely argue that it’s telling that they even mention children in this lawsuit. Because honestly, there’s lots of games that are for children that include the loot box mechanic (not even just digital games but trading cards), and nothing has been done about reselling assets from those.
The root of the problem is that the loot box assets can be purchased instead of just traded (within the limits of the law), and so I’d wager that should be the change Valve makes.
I still think they should just make the loot boxes illegal if we’re doing this.
This lawsuit is targeting Valve not because they are a platform or storefront that provides games with gambling, but rather is due to gambling in games that they themselves have developed. From the first line in the article:
The suit is not claiming that lootboxes are gambling in and of themselves, it’s claiming that the lootboxes in valve’s own games counts as gambling because you can sell the items for steam wallet funds through the steam community market, which can then be converted into cash via multiple methods, most notably by purchasing a steam deck with wallet funds and then selling the steam deck for cash, which is not against any laws or steam’s terms of service.
Personally, I agree that the line needs to be drawn more strictly than just requiring the possibility of converting the winnings into cash, and that lootboxes are predatory regardless. But this case isn’t about lootboxes in general, it’s about the very real problem of valve actively enabling and encouraging gambling with actual monetary value. We can’t easily change the laws, but valve is (allegedly) breaking the laws as they already exist.
Yeah this would include WoW because drops are randomized and you can sell them and cash out with tokens.
It’s particularly the bit about buying a steam deck, loading it with the high price items, and selling it that I latched onto when I read the article.
Specifically that’s important because that’s literally something you can do with any system and more importantly with any account. You don’t even need to load up and sell a steam deck, you absolutely can just sell the steam account.
If this is simply about providing a marketplace for loot box goods on where you can convert those assets easily to real world currency then that’s different. I still don’t agree that it should eliminate loot boxes from being gambling (because that’s exactly what it is), but I do understand why they might consider the steam asset market as part of a casino or similar.
I don’t play the types of games that give out loot boxes like that, and my only experience with the asset market is the trading cards you can get by playing some games. Those strike me as very similar to Pokemon cards and TCG has already got a “black market” going on for those.
https://www.ign.com/articles/pokmon-tcg-pocket-trading-has-spurred-a-strange-black-market-for-high-rarity-cards
I would definitely argue that it’s telling that they even mention children in this lawsuit. Because honestly, there’s lots of games that are for children that include the loot box mechanic (not even just digital games but trading cards), and nothing has been done about reselling assets from those.
The root of the problem is that the loot box assets can be purchased instead of just traded (within the limits of the law), and so I’d wager that should be the change Valve makes.
I still think they should just make the loot boxes illegal if we’re doing this.
Well…
You can use your steam wallet money to buy DDR5 RAM and HDDs!