Valve creates micro-transaction steam support

[Taylor]

Agreed, every game needs shameless monetisation.

[Campaignjunkie]

Well there's certainly no point in shameful monetization.

[twiz]

haha seriously? You're against a way for the mod community & budding developers to make a little cash along the way?

For stuff like map retextures or skins or shit like that, it would be client side only. Same with any 'custom' sounds. If you didn't want any thing but regular old TF2, no hats, no retextures, no whatever, you should be able to have that, for sure. But not allowing people who want to spend money on custom stuff just because it's "shameless monetization"?

I don't see the problem with a TF2 player wanting a hat/new fountain/giant purple dildo instead of the wrench, being willing to pay a couple bucks for it, and a modder actually receiving a portion of that couple bucks for spending a few hours modeling a giant fucking purple dildo. Maybe three, the animations can be tricky on those.

[Skjalg]

Why should games be different than how the rest of the world operates?

If you buy a car and want to pimp it with a omgwtfbbq stereo, why shouldn't you be allowed? Is that shameful monetization as well by the evil car-manufacturor that allows you to pimp your ride? Or are they smart to allow the owner of the car to do excactly that?

or even a simpler example. Is pimping yourself with a new hat that costs 20$ any different than pimping your ingame avatar with a hat?

If you're one of those that never goes out then your ingame hat probably gets seen more by more people, so its probably a better investment Unless ofcourse you live in a country where a hat is necessary for survival

[Taylor]

Car stereos are usually not a cosmetic change, and different models are usually not handed out free or by lottery depending by different manufacturers. Err, I can't use this metaphor.

But, I was being serious anyway. Totally serious. I like the concept of buying a game and then offered functionally valueless assets for additional money or to circumvent a badly designed and/or rigged random drop systems. The idea of buying a game then paying £17.50 on a crocodile hat fills me with nothing but excitement, and the idea this could be taken to its logical conclusion and extrapolated to every single aspect of the game even more so.

Hopefully in the future they can give me a credit card gun, and I can just go around clicking on every single asset in the game and charge myself sums of money for my own ‘personalised’ ‘experience.’ And if this could be done in an exploitive way that fuels buying on impulse, jealousy and peer pressure then even better! In fact I’d like every game to forgo aesthetic sensibilities, consistency and possibly even its own art direction; in favour of a player brought mish-mash of gimmicky crap.

[Buddy]

I can't tell who's sarcastic and who's not atm.

[-HP-]

I can't tell who's sarcastic and who's not atm.

[twiz]

Just want to say, Taylor, that I agree with you in that I think anyone who spends real money on a fuckin virtual hat is an idiot. I would never do such a thing. The only DLC I've ever paid for was a couple extra songs for rock band a few years ago, and that's actually functional content, not virtual Barbie.

But the fact is... people are idiots. staggering numbers of them are complete morons. You probably know some, cough-d3-cough.

Also, these idiots have money. Who knows how they got it, but they did. Probably a drooling contest or something. We, the modding community(which I am completely not a part of besides hanging around here), have the opportunity to benefit from this! And why shouldn't we?

One thing to note, is this is nothing different from all the other DLC systems out there, except that modders can make money from it. so its either:

big producers make big money selling hats to fools.

big producers make big money selling hats to fools, and some modders get some scraps thrown their way too.

Take your pick. DLC ain't going anywhere, not with that kind of cash flow.

(I hope I didn't offend any hat-owners in here :derp: )

[Duff-e]

I don't know about idiots so much as have disposable income or are under 18 and get all their money from their parents.

People buy expensive shit all the time that has 0 utility, in fact sometimes the less utility it has the more expensive it is.

If you're going to play the game then the goal is to be at the receiving end of transactions with these willingly ignorant people not to sit on the sidelines in your tattered rags preaching about fiscal responsibility.

[Defrag]

Hopefully in the future they can give me a credit card gun, and I can just go around clicking on every single asset in the game and charge myself sums of money for my own ‘personalised’ ‘experience.’ And if this could be done in an exploitive way that fuels buying on impulse, jealousy and peer pressure then even better! In fact I’d like every game to forgo aesthetic sensibilities, consistency and possibly even its own art direction; in favour of a player brought mish-mash of gimmicky crap.

lollin'

[Skjalg]

I think people should be allowed to do stuff that they think are fun as long as it doesnt hurt other people. Buying a purple hat for your TF2 character doesn't hurt anyone. And I wouldn't really go so far as to call them stupid just because they are doing what they think is funny.

Stupid is loathing people that knows how to have a good time

[Taylor]

Burned

[2d-chris]

i dunno, back in the day all this shit was a free downloadable skin replacement from websites, dildo knifes and other fun items paying for it is nuts

[twiz]

Stupid is loathing people that knows how to have a good time

[dux]

I think people should be allowed to do stuff that they think are fun as long as it doesnt hurt other people. Buying a purple hat for your TF2 character doesn't hurt anyone. And I wouldn't really go so far as to call them stupid just because they are doing what they think is funny.

Stupid is loathing people that knows how to have a good time

Oh way to be a killjoy skjalg