[UPDATED V2] Several countries respond to Loot Box outrage in SWBF2

[PlayStation 2]

On 11/23/2017 at 3:10 PM, ARikozuM said:

What about the gambling that goes on around the CS:GO crates? You pay to open them, which isn't considered gambling in Sweden if true, but you can sell the rarer items for ludicrous amounts of money on Steam Marketplace or through Paypal.

The items itself aren't inherently worth anything in terms of a fiat currency. I think that'd set CS/TF2/Dota items apart from most other forms of gambling.

[ARikozuM]

11 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

The items itself aren't inherently worth anything in terms of a fiat currency. I think that'd set CS/TF2/Dota items apart from most other forms of gambling.

I think it depends. YOu can trade them over G2A, Steam Marketplace, or Ebay for a lot of money making it a liquid asset.

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

I think it depends. YOu can trade them over G2A, Steam Marketplace, or Ebay for a lot of money making it a liquid asset.

True, but I guess what I'm saying is that it has no inherent real world value that's not defined by a community.

Let's take Team Fortress 2 for example. A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key can be purchased for $2.49USD but once it's tradable, it can be sold on SCM for Steam money, sold for PayPal if one wished, sold via trading or used. Inherently, it's only worth what the user wants it to be, not from any set defined value. It's technically a liquid asset but its official determined use is for opening crates. The other three options are defined by what other people in the community are willing to pay, not necessarily from a set price.

[NumLock21]

Quote

As a result of the increasing external pressure for reform and regulation on the games industry, a group of industry leaders and experts has agreed to come together in a more permanent way, forming the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP).

https://www.techpowerup.com/239190/industry-leaders-and-experts-join-forces-to-fight-against-loot-crates

[ARikozuM]

36 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

True, but I guess what I'm saying is that it has no inherent real world value that's not defined by a community.

Let's take Team Fortress 2 for example. A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key can be purchased for $2.49USD but once it's tradable, it can be sold on SCM for Steam money, sold for PayPal if one wished, sold via trading or used. Inherently, it's only worth what the user wants it to be, not from any set defined value. It's technically a liquid asset but its official determined use is for opening crates. The other three options are defined by what other people in the community are willing to pay, not necessarily from a set price.

I'm not referring to the keys only. Several of the CS:GO items are probabilistic and can not be purchased via Steam's own accord. Many of the items in CS:GO crates are selling upwards of $100 on Steam's Marketplace and Valve benefits from the gambling. 

[PlayStation 2]

10 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I'm not referring to the keys only. Several of the CS:GO items are probabilistic and can not be purchased via Steam's own accord. Many of the items in CS:GO crates are selling upwards of $100 on Steam's Marketplace and Valve benefits from the gambling. 

If we're going off the value of knives/Unusual hats/whatever Dota's equivalent is, then that's a little bit of a different case. All have varying values, and when it comes to CS, people will pay a lot more for something that has a slightly better float value.

True, it's worth more than what you unboxed it with, but there's two things to consider here: at what cost and at what value? Unboxing a Nuts n' Bolts Neckwear Headwear would definitely be worth less and harder to sell than, say, a Burning Flames Towering Pillar of Hats (just using examples here), but what did it cost to get you there? If we went down that route, then to the person who unboxed it, it's worth either what level of enjoyment they got out of the hat or what they manage to sell either at. But what determines the value of these items? The community and people who were willing to pay x price for it, not really a set value even if they are worth more to the community at a very base value.

True, Valve benefits from both the sale of the keys and the knife/Unusual in question if it's sold through SCM. But there's a chance, and a very high one with TF2 items that they won't be sold on SCM but with either what the community considers the de facto currency (keys) or other in-game items. If it's traded for those, then they technically have no real-world value. If traded with PayPal, then it's still only worth what one would pay for it.

I guess this is better defined on a case-by-case basis.