I thought the stream trading aspect was one of the few things keeping this game alive.
Never in a thousand years would I think they would do this.
I consider myself a veteran of this game, and knowing my loyalty to the game will end in nothingness after it officially ends is disheartening, as I won't be able to trade it off to another game.
It's just a game, not a lifestyle. The reasoning behind the update is sound. Ultimately it is a game for younger audience, and protecting younger people from their own impulsive nature is something GH is looking out for, which is a good thing.
Aside from that, I really can't sympathize with experienced people who invest in in-game things.....like what even
I agree with those. It's a bad move to do things like this when the game is already half-dead. Maybe it has been a good option 5-7 years ago, but not now. Furthermore, this decision will not resolve the problem because people who did this will continue to do it, yet it opens a thousand new ways to scam people. Even if we forget about "key traders", now many people can lose their desire to do "quitting sales" and other stuff like this cause there is no more reason to do it now.
Certainly is a disgrace they remove the steam trading from the game. i dont know if this was just a big trouble for no steam users who tried to trade stuff outside game but why do it after 7 years?? my only guess is mostly because people were profiting SK outside of it, i mean one TF2 key used to worth the same as lowest energy package (i dont know if both things have changed price in their cash store though) which was 750 Energy, but trading the sole TF2 Key would net you around 1600 Energy (or that was the last time they used to worth when i played the game) Energy was there just to the one who can patiently grind the amount needed for what they wanted frm steam as some merchant have their energy rates for games.
and i was just thinking to trade my rare summer shades with headless horseshoes fire footsprint spell for some goodies in SK (as i think that worth around 26 TF2 keys) but now i wouldnt be able to do that lol.
It's grim to think that my in-game items are no longer of any worth within Steam (for the obvious reason).
I initially alluded to myself that i'd do some external trades to obtain some "expensive" in-game items.
Look likes that won't be happening.
I can't say too much about how it'll hurt the game, but then again, i suppose the decision was mandated and isn't up for debate.
As for Steam showcases, those are forever lost in time and space.
Lovely! :<
I'm not an expert on the video game industry --- not even an armchair expert. But could this be an unspoken reason?
The industry is under fire for loot boxes. Critics contend that they are a form of gambling. And this gambling is worse than most forms because it is available to, and even targeted at, minors.
But what if there is no way to convert winnings into real money? Then loot boxes are not identical to ordinary gambling. And companies can try to make the case that they're harmless randomized entertainment.
I'm all for them removing this. Burn the merchants to the ground, I say.
I never saw the honest point of SK having Steam Trading outside of it being a nifty but abusable gimmick.
Like, all the worthwhile items in the game that you could possibly trade away for something else are usually bound and untradeable, so outside of a CE<>Key market and people selling out, nothing was really done with SK and Steam Trading.
This is one of, if not the worst change they made yet. Never was a Steam Trader on a big scale myself, but the amount of people this screws over is staggering.
This is drawing the line taking out an entire system related to the player ran economy and damaging it beyond repair, which was already heavily flawed in the first place.
Another to the book of "Worst changes to SK", the same with lootbox spam, arcade creation, and many more.
Nerfing the prices such as Silver Personal Color was a fine but still questionable move, along with making it directly buyable despite obviously being an overinflated price.
That may sound crazy, but super rare items were just simply being priced far too high for their worth. It does not help a number of these rare items were exclusively behind their 1% spammy lootbox chances, only adding more fuel to the fire.
Gambling at it's finest folks, cue getting told they only contain "Cosmetics", see Owlite Wand, Orbit Gun/Overcharged Mixmaster, Celestial Saber, etc. Heck just even look at Daybreaker Band and Somnambulist's Totem from the Slime Lockboxes.
I don't agree with their "statement" in the slightest, to me how i read it, was pure lazyness on their part and using ToS as an dumb excuse. Steam Trade support has been around for like what, 8 years now?
Only now they decide to think it's "bad" and scrap it entirely. This just adds more on top they can't be bothered to make simple fixes either that have been submitted many times over the years, with some having to opt for a support ticket to even get their attention.
Every Dev/GM needs to learn number 1 that there will always be idiots that will be scammed, that is a thing you can never fix no matter what, only reduce the amount of scam rates.
The removal of this is only gonna promote scammers to skyrocket all time high in-game, which is by far the worst outcome for the playerbase.
You gave in GH like a bunch of buffoons, making the same mistake Valve did putting in Trading Hold and requiring a phone to get around it, which only succeeded in seriously hurting legitimate traders.
This is what scammers wanted, to hurt legit traders even if they don't gain profit out of it. No more quitting sales and killing off many other uses for energy.
The already low playerbase-count is likely gonna plummet as a result, esp those that relied heavily on Steam Trading for their market business. It's not guaranteed, but still likely.
Now that bopp said it probably its due that. Killing the free way to get goodies means full profit for GH because its not the same 3 players buying energy than one buying tf2 keys and trading for energy for the one who just have the time to grind it for free which buy with crowns from the only dude who purchase energy with Cash.
Most likely the prices of Those objects in SD its probably GH dont want to set prices of their objects so they use the prices from merchants players because they are the first who jump in scene if GH decides to undercut the prices. (The problem with merchants its also to keep Those items until price skyrocket in hope someone from the shrinking player base is willing to Cash $100 usd for the ítem but dont surprises me if nobody want for a game that baŕely have players)
While it is a concerning and upsetting change, I believe Bopp is right. With all the talk of lootbox bans, this game is my only fear. Otherwise I'd be all for the ban. I don't believe the timing of this removal is merely coincidence. The SK team likely believe that if there's no way to re-monetize the rewards of the loot-boxes then it's not going to be considered gambling. When someone buys a lootbox (with real money) now, there's no chance of them making their money back. The can only make back energy, a purely in-game currency. If the lootbox ban does hit SK, then it's going to hurt the game more than this trading restriction, that's for sure.
The current outcry about lootboxes is not related to potential cashout, but to give an experience similar to a slot machine via rarity/probability of the items, it's appeal to the player-base, and the pay to earn nature (if applied). Or the worst case scenario: pay to win. That was the reason about the controversy with games like Star Wars : BF2, Overwatch, among others. Would put some Jim Sterling videos on the topic, but sometimes his opinion is too radical or hysterical, but he usually explain pretty well some topics.
Also, if the real problem was the lootbox controversy, they could temporally disable lockboxes (like valve did some time ago with their online games) or some other tactic. An to be coherent with that idea, remove completely the slime casino (it's literally gambling). If they wanted to protect players, they could lock the steam traded items for 1 week or something, and if something weird happens (like items dissapearing due to stolen credit cards, etc.), the trade is reverted (I guess CS:GO does something like this)
Still, the only thing that could make sense to this decision is they want to close the in-game market, similar to what PUBG did some time ago.
Sadly, community economy is one of the things that keeps (M)MO games alive in this era, and this decision feels kinda wrong...
Thanks for your response, Benjakill (and others). After reading up some more, I do think you're right, that much of the outcry over loot boxes has nothing to do with cashing out, but merely with exploiting addicted whales, fostering gambling in children, and general irritating game design.
However, according to Wikipedia (not perfectly reliable, I know), the USA and the UK both make distinctions based on whether the gambling rewards are purely in-game or can be cashed out to real-world money. So I still think that Grey Havens might be trying to walk a "we have loot boxes, but not the worst kind" line.
This is absolutely the final nail in the coffin. SK steam trading was one of the only real lifeline this game had to attract the 2011-2013 crowd of SK players that make up 99% of its player-base. This decision to remove one of the sole things keeping this game due to the few people who take advantage of that system is like tearing down a dam because it had a few leaks.
I feel for every single merchant in this game who has invested in other markets outside of SK as well as SK itself. You were forgotten. The scammers won. RIP Spiral Knights 2011-2019.