Valve unintentionally set the stage for today's digital economic hellscape, according to its former economist in residence - eviltoast
  • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    It is worth noting that unlike something like a League or Overwatch skin, and even a lot of early TF2 trading, modern CS and Dota skins have more emphasis put on their marketability and speculative value. For example, I’ve bought a few CS skins that I don’t use, purely because I expect their value to increase over the next couple years. Of course, thats not all of the buyers, but that influences the purchase, and allows for those valuations unlike a Fortnite skin with a fixed price tag set by Epic with zero recoupable value.

    • warm@kbin.earth
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 months ago

      Yes, but the market is still designed to make Valve money and they are using that as a marketing tool to entice you in. The more desirable skins are a lot more expensive than they would be in Fortnite or whatever. The upside is that you can sell and trade them, so you can actually recoup at least 85% of the value (or more), the downside being that the money stays in Valve’s ecosystem. Ignoring 3rd-party markets here, where you can risk selling for real money.