It's definitely been an open secret for a long time that Counter-strike and TF2 transactions have a ton of dirty money in them
I always figured the biggest protection it had was the difficulty in getting cash out of the system. Sure, you could put dirty money in, but it never seemed feasible or reasonable to pull that back out into actual cash at a significant enough scale to enable large-scale organised fraud as a viable ongoing business case.
It's definitely been an open secret for a long time that Counter-strike and TF2 transactions have a ton of dirty money in them
I always figured the biggest protection it had was the difficulty in getting cash out of the system. Sure, you could put dirty money in, but it never seemed feasible or reasonable to pull that back out into actual cash at a significant enough scale to enable large-scale organised fraud as a viable ongoing business case.
yeah, is it possible to cash out an item you got in a CS loot box into real USD?
Wonder where Jason Schreier will end up after this
At this point, as far as actual "Games Journalism" is concerned, he's Kind of a Big Deal.
If anything should happen to Kotaku, I'm not too concerned about folks like Jason Schreier or Stephen Totilo or some of the other wider-known folks; I'm sure there's other places who'll be glad to have them. I'm like half-concerned about folks who aren't quite as widely-known, like maybe a Gita Jackson or a Heather Alexandra (although maybe they belong in the first group, they're constantly turning out excellent reviews and articles; I just think they haven't really broken any crazy stories like Jason, so they are not as well-known. Of course, I don't think their particular job description is news reporting, so they don't even have the opportunity to make big splashes in the same way).
There's a bunch of really good writers there who are just starting to build their careers, and it's probably gonna be much harder for them.
+1
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
It's definitely been an open secret for a long time that Counter-strike and TF2 transactions have a ton of dirty money in them
I always figured the biggest protection it had was the difficulty in getting cash out of the system. Sure, you could put dirty money in, but it never seemed feasible or reasonable to pull that back out into actual cash at a significant enough scale to enable large-scale organised fraud as a viable ongoing business case.
yeah, is it possible to cash out an item you got in a CS loot box into real USD?
The easiest way for this to work is to have an inside agent capable of granting refunds to Credit Card. Possibly in Eastern Europe or Asia support.
Or, knowing Valve, working out how to trick automated refund systems into doing so.
turn money into a valve item and then sell that item via paypal
Is the market for PayPal loot crates really big enough to sustain this at scale, though? I mean, I don't know, but surely there's only a finite amount of legitimate buyers. I would have thought that there would be a limited pool of buyers that would put a ceiling on how much money could be pulled out of the system that way. But I guess there's whales in that market too?
turn money into a valve item and then sell that item via paypal
Is the market for PayPal loot crates really big enough to sustain this at scale, though? I mean, I don't know, but surely there's only a finite amount of legitimate buyers. I would have thought that there would be a limited pool of buyers that would put a ceiling on how much money could be pulled out of the system that way. But I guess there's whales in that market too?
You don't sell a bunch of small loot crates over paypal, you consolidate your steam money into expensive rare skins or items and sell those for larger amounts of real money.
A fancy TF2 hat, or a big bundle of games etc.
akajaybay on
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
The EA thing is interesting, especially if they did manage to get a better deal out of Valve. (Sadly, I doubt the better deal will extend to other developers/publishers). This might the first instance of Valve taking action against Epic since the Epic Store launched (the new cut ratio for big sellers happened right before the Epic Store was officially unveiled) If Steam did wind up moving to an Epic style cut, I'd be curious what Epic would do in response. Their whole pitch is they did the math, figured out how much it would ACTUALLY cost to maintain the distribution and make a reasonable profit, and put the leftover into the developer/publishers pockets. But then they've done all manner of money sinks (exclusives, free games, "we'll take the hit" sales) so they can't be making money at the moment... at they will absolutely want to make money with the EGS at some point, so what's their longterm strategy if Valve actually starts meeting them blow for blow?
Though, my biggest concern is we're seeing a lot of indy devs taking the money Epic is handing them. (Often citing how it's a safer bet to get a guaranteed amount of cash vs rolling the dice on whether their game would be a success or not.) but I'm starting to wonder if the Epic Store winds up not being successful, where it's going to leave those devs. I guess they can just put their games out on Steam, but I'm curious if they're not shooting themselves in the foot longterm by sticking to a smaller storefront; will they be able to make enough of a name for themselves there that they can transition back to Steam, or will it be too late? Eh, I'm probably overthinking it.
Undead Scottsman on
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
This graveyard game is already amazing. The first two characters you meet are a talking skull named Garry and a talking donkey who seems to be communist!
Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
Played the first hour or so of Afterparty, and I really like the different dialogue options you get with the different drinks, makes it feel a bit open ended in the approach you take to solving the adventure game-y puzzles they have.
Valve has disabled trading Counter Strike keys between accounts after discovering that "nearly all" microtransactions in CS were being used in money laundering networks.
Who called them out on it? Because everyone has known that since like 2014.
Important news: Genital Jousting is on sale for 69% off.
That game is surprisingly charming and fun. Showed it to a friend at QuakeCon last year and she sat and played through the entire story mode, and it was very sweet at times
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Call of Duty or Far Cry or somebody should pivot into weird shit, like the gameplay as it is but Im fighting Fingoolian sneesnarks on a bright purple sand dune in space as a winged beeperson, let your artists go fucking apeshit batter down the doors of their horridly realistic sweaty grimy beardy cells
This was Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 1 ( 2 was a trash fire) , but Garden Warfare 1, is both the most colorful shooter I've ever played, super fun, wacky as heck ( you could be a chomper, no gun, just run around and eat anyone dumb enough to get close).
And also, maybe the most balanced FPS I've ever played? ever single class was viable, there were a couple stand outs, but no class combo was really "weak" in any area, while still being a crazy diverse range of classes/abilities.
It makes it that much sadder than 2 both killed 1's population, then was a unbalanced particle effect loaded nightmare that stopped everyone playing 2 as well.
edit: I reiterate with the colorful comment that yes I've played Splatoon, was more colorful than splatoon, so crisp and bright, I miss it.
What?! 2 was a freaking blast. I loved it. Battle for Neighborville is still better tho.
Was a blast until Electro Zombie never got a nerf and the game became Electro Zombie battle. 2 I didn't like as much graphically either, so many level got so dark compared to 1.
Gardens and Graveyards best mode in both tho.
I realized I only played co-op and solo so I'm guessing I never had the same experiences. I don't think I ever unlocked Electro-Zombie either. You should deffo give Battle for Neighborville a shot tho. Still LOTS of particle effects but it's basically the PvZ version of Destiny with 4 (so far) huge single player solo areas to explore.
Ya electro zombie was one of the superhero zombie variants.
The super tough high up melee class. This version gave it a electric laser that could cross the entire battlefield, and if it hit it bounced to everyone nearby for even more damage. It's was extremely busted.
I wish was a way for you to try 1's gardens and graveyards .
Kinda overwatch point a/b maps but 10 progressively harder sections i stead of 2. But was helped by pvz having defense points you could place old school pvz turrets on.
But was a 20vs20 map. And I think the last time i popped to check pvz1 the entire population on server wasn't enough anymore
Oh I played the hell out of 1 as well. I am a long time Garden Warfare dude.
My fave class in 2 tho was the Electro Chomper. Christ I miss that thing in BfN.
We were just recently playing GW2 tho and there were plenty of people still on. That was right before BfN released tho so that may have changed.
Isn't the graveyard game very grindy? And the dev feels like grinding builds character or something.
It didn't feel grindy to me, just that there's tons of stuff to do and you really have to figure out what's necessary and what's not. You can also make zombies to handle stuff you feel you'll always need, like crops or wood or what not.
Absolutely my game of the decade tho.
+1
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Does anyone know if there's a development reason why a game doesn't let you change key bindings? Is it hard to do?
Isn't the graveyard game very grindy? And the dev feels like grinding builds character or something.
It didn't feel grindy to me, just that there's tons of stuff to do and you really have to figure out what's necessary and what's not. You can also make zombies to handle stuff you feel you'll always need, like crops or wood or what not.
Absolutely my game of the decade tho.
Did they ever open up the town? Or is that area still a "joke"? That was some real fucking bullshit at launch.
Isn't the graveyard game very grindy? And the dev feels like grinding builds character or something.
It didn't feel grindy to me, just that there's tons of stuff to do and you really have to figure out what's necessary and what's not. You can also make zombies to handle stuff you feel you'll always need, like crops or wood or what not.
Absolutely my game of the decade tho.
Did they ever open up the town? Or is that area still a "joke"? That was some real fucking bullshit at launch.
No. I have no idea why people expected it to be available. There's plenty to do in the game as is.
Isn't the graveyard game very grindy? And the dev feels like grinding builds character or something.
It didn't feel grindy to me, just that there's tons of stuff to do and you really have to figure out what's necessary and what's not. You can also make zombies to handle stuff you feel you'll always need, like crops or wood or what not.
Absolutely my game of the decade tho.
Did they ever open up the town? Or is that area still a "joke"? That was some real fucking bullshit at launch.
No. I have no idea why people expected it to be available. There's plenty to do in the game as is.
Because there's a questline that can take dozens of hours to grind through, that tells you outright, "Do this to get into town"
I largely enjoyed my time with the game, but there was definitely some "Point and laugh at the audience for believing we'd give them what we said we'd give them" that left a bad taste in my mouth
Posts
I always figured the biggest protection it had was the difficulty in getting cash out of the system. Sure, you could put dirty money in, but it never seemed feasible or reasonable to pull that back out into actual cash at a significant enough scale to enable large-scale organised fraud as a viable ongoing business case.
yeah, is it possible to cash out an item you got in a CS loot box into real USD?
There's a bunch of really good writers there who are just starting to build their careers, and it's probably gonna be much harder for them.
The easiest way for this to work is to have an inside agent capable of granting refunds to Credit Card. Possibly in Eastern Europe or Asia support.
Or, knowing Valve, working out how to trick automated refund systems into doing so.
But yeah, slightly curious as to how this worked.
Steam finally bending to devs for higher cut?
Is the market for PayPal loot crates really big enough to sustain this at scale, though? I mean, I don't know, but surely there's only a finite amount of legitimate buyers. I would have thought that there would be a limited pool of buyers that would put a ceiling on how much money could be pulled out of the system that way. But I guess there's whales in that market too?
You don't sell a bunch of small loot crates over paypal, you consolidate your steam money into expensive rare skins or items and sell those for larger amounts of real money.
A fancy TF2 hat, or a big bundle of games etc.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
The EA thing is interesting, especially if they did manage to get a better deal out of Valve. (Sadly, I doubt the better deal will extend to other developers/publishers). This might the first instance of Valve taking action against Epic since the Epic Store launched (the new cut ratio for big sellers happened right before the Epic Store was officially unveiled) If Steam did wind up moving to an Epic style cut, I'd be curious what Epic would do in response. Their whole pitch is they did the math, figured out how much it would ACTUALLY cost to maintain the distribution and make a reasonable profit, and put the leftover into the developer/publishers pockets. But then they've done all manner of money sinks (exclusives, free games, "we'll take the hit" sales) so they can't be making money at the moment... at they will absolutely want to make money with the EGS at some point, so what's their longterm strategy if Valve actually starts meeting them blow for blow?
Though, my biggest concern is we're seeing a lot of indy devs taking the money Epic is handing them. (Often citing how it's a safer bet to get a guaranteed amount of cash vs rolling the dice on whether their game would be a success or not.) but I'm starting to wonder if the Epic Store winds up not being successful, where it's going to leave those devs. I guess they can just put their games out on Steam, but I'm curious if they're not shooting themselves in the foot longterm by sticking to a smaller storefront; will they be able to make enough of a name for themselves there that they can transition back to Steam, or will it be too late? Eh, I'm probably overthinking it.
I'm very glad to hear it's good, the first trailer way back when looked almost too good to be true
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Also Sam and Wormwood are great.
Who called them out on it? Because everyone has known that since like 2014.
"exciting news. We fired all the graphic designers who make our exciting news graphics."
Important news: Genital Jousting is on sale for 69% off.
That game is surprisingly charming and fun. Showed it to a friend at QuakeCon last year and she sat and played through the entire story mode, and it was very sweet at times
Oh I played the hell out of 1 as well. I am a long time Garden Warfare dude.
My fave class in 2 tho was the Electro Chomper. Christ I miss that thing in BfN.
We were just recently playing GW2 tho and there were plenty of people still on. That was right before BfN released tho so that may have changed.
It didn't feel grindy to me, just that there's tons of stuff to do and you really have to figure out what's necessary and what's not. You can also make zombies to handle stuff you feel you'll always need, like crops or wood or what not.
Absolutely my game of the decade tho.
The reason is laziness.
If the input handling is poorly done early in development it can be a lot of effort to replace with something better later.
Is any game in history less deserving of such success?
It's like the coke classic of videogames.
"Slay your thirst without regard for international conventions or laws concerning use of force and military conduct!"
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Did they ever open up the town? Or is that area still a "joke"? That was some real fucking bullshit at launch.
No. I have no idea why people expected it to be available. There's plenty to do in the game as is.
Because there's a questline that can take dozens of hours to grind through, that tells you outright, "Do this to get into town"
I largely enjoyed my time with the game, but there was definitely some "Point and laugh at the audience for believing we'd give them what we said we'd give them" that left a bad taste in my mouth