Lawyer: Valve’s Silence While Helping Gambling Sites ‘Unconscionable’

[ml_paladin888]

anyone know a good injury attorney? I think I may have hurt my eyes after rolling them so hard while reading the original article. gotta see if who I can go after...

 

[Iching]

Valve is about the money. Simple as that. Gaming doesn't matter anymore as far as they are concerned unless they can make money off selling gaming (not their own product). Can't fault them for being what they are now. Show me the money!!

I wish more people would realize that. Valve is a poster child of American greed. Everybody is fixed on hating EA and Ubisoft in the meantime.

 

[krotch]

It won't be long before the IRS makes a move then Valve will go into damage control.

Won't affect them, cause they'll disclose what they make. They're not selling skins for crazy prices. They just get a transaction fee for allowing ppl to sell their skins on their clients.

This helped me understand it a lot better. I seriously can't believe that there is even a demand to cash these things out anyway. I play CS:GO very very casually and I couldn't care less how my dude looks so it boggles my mind that anyone can make any kind of money 'gambling' and cashing out this way.

At least in Black Ops 3 these container drops are actually new weapons sometimes and aren't just cosmetic changes (though most are).

The price people pay for game items really doesn't surprise me anymore. Not after people dumped thousands into Second Life. Much like Second Life, the people paying thousands for an in-game item probably aren't doing it just to have an in-game item. They probably know they can sell it for more money or just plan to use it on some gambling website.

 

[NickJames]

Won't affect them, cause they'll disclose what they make. They're not selling skins for crazy prices. They just get a transaction fee for allowing ppl to sell their skins on their clients.



The price people pay for game items really doesn't surprise me anymore. Not after people dumped thousands into Second Life. Much like Second Life, the people paying thousands for an in-game item probably aren't doing it just to have an in-game item. They probably know they can sell it for more money or just plan to use it on some gambling website.

It does affect them actually because they are technically a gambling operation by proxy and they allow it by giving access to tools and API with the means of doing such a thing.

 

[v6maro]

So like GM is responsible if you go racing for pinks?

Howabout the drag strip or the town?

They created something you can buy and sell, the gambling is the players.

Valve provides an API (GM doesn't) - that API has ZERO regulation. Valve KNOWS about the gambling and they COULD shut it down (via API) but have chosen not to. Valve is culpable in my eyes!

I bet 11ty billion dollars Valves lawyers are telling them to keep their mouths shut.

fo sho

It does affect them actually because they are technically a gambling operation by proxy and they allow it by giving access to tools and API with the means of doing such a thing.

troof!

Ultimately yes, users are placing value on the items, not Valve, but, Valve is allowing this knowingly, that's the main issue. So as a parent, yes, I'd sue valve - they have the money to be sued.

 

[Inacurate]

Valve is not responsible for a made-up player economy, no more than any other game dev/publisher is for their game.
Even if someone 'legally' gets a court to say such, it's not true. Common sense trumps moronic law.

As always, comes back to the responsibility of the user. If said user is a child, then it's their parent's job.

This would also explain CS:GO's listing as always in the top 10 steam best sellers. I wondered how it could keep selling like that.

It's all the cheaters that get banned repurchasing the game so they can continue playing.

 

[Armenius]

News - In-Game Item Trading Update

In 2011, we added a feature to Steam that enabled users to trade in-game items as a way to make it easier for people to get the items they wanted in games featuring in-game economies.

Since then a number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there’s been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites. We’d like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency.

These sites have basically pieced together their operations in two-part fashion. First, they are using the OpenID API as a way for users to prove ownership of their Steam accounts and items. Any other information they obtain about a user's Steam account is either manually disclosed by the user or obtained from the user’s Steam Community profile (when the user has chosen to make their profile public). Second, they create automated Steam accounts that make the same web calls as individual Steam users.

Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements. We are going to start sending notices to these sites requesting they cease operations through Steam, and further pursue the matter as necessary. Users should probably consider this information as they manage their in-game item inventory and trade activity.

-Erik Johnson

 

[AMD T-type]

Until I can actually buy tickets from Ticketmaster.com at the price advertised on Ticketmaster.com, Valve can do whatever they want to do.

I hate Ticketmaster.

 

[Monkey God]

That gif is creepy. Jeebus.