So by now you've all heard of the CS:GO gambling scam. Three CS:GO youtube gamblers would make tons of views off of discussing their big wins and gambles across a gambling website. They were making plenty of money off of putting videos online of them gambling with skin DLC. The CS gambling scene has become a big industry, and technically anyone can do it since it falls through a loophole of not being money gambling... except it kind of still is. The big kicker was when it turns out these big youtubers might have had a good reason for winning... they were the freakin' owners of the gambling site, and lied about it as a sponsorship. I agree entirely with the anger and frustration going towards them about this mess, and I hate the lack of disclosure which is certainly illegal. However I have a different reaction when it comes to hearing how the same anger has been turned on Valve. The idea from what I've heard is that Valve should be in trouble (and are in potential legal trouble) for letting this happen through their client. Their recent release of information has had some people go "okay, but you just barely got off the hook", and others even angrier because of their PR speak. Before I go any further, I'd like to give my own little disclosure of a different nature:
The following is more of an opinion piece than normal, and contains very little facts in an area that admittedly deserves better understanding and facts. I am not very aware of how the economics of CS:GO work, didn't know much of the existence of these gambling sites, and do not know the laws around gambling very well. I'm also not sure how the web code, security, and account details work that go into what valve has set up with steam user accounts and linking. I don't even play CS:GO, nor is my steam account linked to anything in recent memory.
Okay, we got that out? Good. I let my opinion out more in a public and argumentative comment section already, and have yet to hear back on it, so I'm going to assume I know just enough to still have a point within my argument. Still please do be aware I don't know this area very well at all, I mostly just have my own thoughts, and have heard a lot about this scandal being blown open. Now that said, personally the farthest I can blame valve for in all this mess, and the most I can potentially hate them or dislike them for, goes as far as this:
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| Weapon skins |
Yup, that's an image of some of the skins you can buy. I don't like the idea of these DLC skins being random loot boxes in a game that costs money to even enter, but hey that's the world we live in today and its still way better than Overwatch's implementation where you pay $60 and then just have a much colder and calculated in-game gamble. That's about where it ends if you ask me. Valve set up a system in which you could incentive a trinket, put a price on it, and a trade market for it. They set the stage which could be exploited, but they did not condone, nor have anything to do with the act of exploiting it. Whether or not they're even profiting off of it indirectly, as so many claim is the issue, is debatable as its hard to say they wouldn't still see money coming in from their regulated market trades. People wanted skins, or money, and the market (unless things have changed way beyond my use, as they may very well have) offers both and is what actually puts money in valve's bank.
However even if valve was benefiting from this, I don't really care. I don't care if it was "negligence" on their part either, because I feel it was a very small case of it compared to another going on here. Maybe the law does care, and I'm not pretending to be any judge that'll tell you otherwise. I suppose we'll see how things go when that lawsuit goes into full effects much later. However as a normal mundane gamer instead of an authority figure, who interacts with other gamers, and who has heard countless other gamers act like Valve is a monster or should even be shut down for this... I'm kind of baffled here. Since when did people go into nanny state mode? When did we jump from defending violent video games and holding people accountable for their own actions, to accusing valve of being scum for someone's poor decisions to go and gamble? When did we decide to play the children card, and pretend valve is at fault for not parenting kids from a gambling scene based on an M rated game? What the hell are you even letting your kids do if they spend their time watching gambling "sponsors", and spending your money towards it!? Yet you want to tell Valve they're negligent? Some nerve you have there.
Look, even if you think the best parents ever can't stop their kids from getting into this stuff (that even I as a 22 year old gamer and long team steam user haven't heard of until now), then the last of your problems is this. If your kid is slipping under your radar onto the dark parts of the web that easily (or "kid" just extends to the idea of a 14 year-old who you don't watch like a hawk), then there's also porn, viruses, scams, bad influences, hackers, and piracy. Gambling can be bad, but I really doubt its the worst case scenario. If they're careless enough to get themselves into this self-destructive habit on their own will, they certainly wont be clever enough to skirt around the other issues. Sorry but you can't sit there and whine about how Internet Explorer is a meanie-head for introducing your teen to a hacker that robs you. Well that's exactly how I feel about this gambling and valve, it ain't valve's fault, and they don't deserve the shit they're getting. (that's not to say they're perfect, but this isn't one of their major faults.) What they deserve, is up to the court to decide.
Well that's all I've got to say on that matter, but not the entire CS:GO deal. Originally this was it, but after some discussion, and a depressing editorial response on the trust of youtubers, I think this can continue in a part 2. So... tune in when we talk about scandals, youtuber, and "ethics", because I guess GamerGate lives on beyond even the hashtag. Until then, can we please stop pretending valve is responsible? What's next, you gonna tell me Microsoft is scum for also allowing it on their operating system?
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| Damn-it valve! I dropped this here, and you didn't move it for me! |
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