Many video games are monetized by giving players the ability to customize their player’s characters and weapons with various styles which are known as skins. In most games, skins are sold by the game developer and kept by the buyer.
Unlike most games, Counter-Strike uses a more controversial system where every skin that can be bought is available for limited time and can only be obtained through loot boxes that give players a random skin based on a rarity system where common skins are weapons with battle damage as if they were used in a real battle scenario and rare skins have no battle damage which makes it hard for players to obtain the exact skin they want.
Because of the limited nature and rarity of skins, Counter-Strike players formed a grey market where skins can be bought and sold from other players as investments similar to NFTs and crypto currencies outside of the control of Counter-Strike’s game developer Valve.
This became highly problematic when people found they could use the monetary value of skins for gambling, turning harmless cosmetics into an asset for unregulated black market gambling which allows players to cash out their skins for real world money similar to poker chips. This caused the Counter-Strike skin market cap to grow to six billion dollars, as many skins are worth hundreds of dollars and only growing due to investors.
In order to combat the growing price of skins and illegal gambling, Valve decided to make an update where players can trade in their unwanted common skins for rare skins. This removes the gambling nature of loot boxes and gambling sites because players now have a guaranteed chance to earn rare skins which makes them a lot more affordable for the everyday player.
Although this change was received positively by some players, others viewed it as a negative as it lowered the market cap of skins from 6 billion to 4.5 billion dollars in the matter of days making some players lose thousands of dollars. In reality this change is highly beneficial to the Counter-Strike community and other game developers should follow as players should not be forced to gamble with loot boxes or buy over priced skins from other players.
With the new trading based system Valve can step away from the dangerous loot box system for a battle pass system where players can work their way up to a rare skin. For example they can start off with a common skin with many imperfections and work their way up to a rare skin with no imperfections.
Although some may argue skins should only be obtained from lootboxes as the ability to trade common skins for rare skins causes rare skins to be devalued as there are more rare skins in circulation. But this system is unsustainable as don’t have any inherit value outside of the video game meaning when Counter-Strike shuts down people will end up losing money anyways.
“If you lost money in skins it’s your choice to buy them as an investment so you shouldn’t be surprised they made you lose money not everyone profits with investments,” Miguel Valdes
After all, skins in video games are inherently a risky investment as their value can easily be manipulated by game developers. Instead skins in video games should remain a means of maintaining game servers, and paying game developers while providing more fun to players.
