In-Game Economies Part 2: More Scummy Than You Think

One of the first articles on this blog I wrote about was the in-game economies that Valve has implemented into its three flagship games: Dota 2, Counter Strike, and Team Fortress. The source video was at a conference at Steamworks, the company held-event where Valve essentially gives a lecture to other companies on how to do it right. Obviously, this economics lesson is from Valve's point of view with very broad implications that gloss over the everyday micro-transactions between users. How, then, does Valve's model stand against the real world?

It comes as no surprise that the model works extremely well, as Valve had years of experience and hard evidence on their side to prov that what they did maximized profits and user satisfaction. What's surprising to most is the degree of effectiveness it has on the users in a bad way; maybe it's not surprising to the cynics out there. The demand for in game items with value dictated by the community has led some down the road of ill intent: scamming, sharking, among other things in this article by Polygon.

As the article states, certain items, which have a controlled scarcity by Valve, are a de facto unit of currency for buying/selling in game items. For the uninitiated: Earbuds were only available for a limited time to Team Fortress players on an apple computer, and keys are a one-time use item sold in the virtual store for $2.50. Both have a high enough demand for there to be an external market buying these items for real world money. Louie, the investigator in this article, deducted that criminals from Russia would perform credit card fraud and use Team Fortress as a laundering device.

 "Louie believes someone came into possession of some stolen credit card numbers, used them to purchase as many Crate Keys as they could before the cards were deactivated and then traded those keys for items they could sell via PayPal for clean money."

Due to the nature of online purchases, these transactions are completely anonymous and virtually untraceable. Unfortunately, the corruption does not stop there. Middlemen, used to facilitate a trade between in game items and real world money, are being impersonated as a way of scamming those eager to sell their items for cash.  Sharkers, those who keep their victim in the dark about the worth of their items and buy it cheap, buy tools to target inexperienced players and then resell the items on paypal.

"James used another tool, called an inventory scanner, to browse the complete inventories and friends lists of any given player or group."

There are many other types of scams, like phishing links that hijack your account, but this is besides the point. The economy that valve has created has morphed into a microcosm of real life; as such, it brings all the pitfalls of human nature alongside it. As long as there is money to be made, there will always be someone who will make a business out of lying and cheating. Valve cannot integrate real world money into its trading system, otherwise the company would lose sovereignty over its biggest intake of money. The integration of the Steam market will for now be the safest way to trade your items for cash, albeit cash tied with your steam account and non-withdrawable.  

Bowman, M. (2014, May 22). The Hidden World of Steam Trading. Retrieved January 29, 2015.