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.
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.