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Guy spent (still going) ~$3,000 on Steam Winter Sale Badges
- Thread starter alr1ght
- Start date
PedroLumpy
Member
At what point does it go from 'Whatever, it's their money' to exploiting an addiction? I'm having a tough time figuring out where that line is.
There are several possibilities to what he wanted to say with this short statement. I think the most likely option is that he wants this as his GAF tag because it describes his personality best. He could also refer to the steam guy but that's very unlikely, because he doesn't know who that japanese gamer is and he probably never met him. So why would he insult a person he never met? That would be really pathetic.
Megatron
Member
It's Gabe's money now. $3,000 can buy a lot of ham sandwiches and pies.
VibratingDonkey
Member
opticalmace
Member
How is it exploitation? No one's forcing or coercing him to use Steam, much less buy cards.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Well...
...I hope it makes him happy. And I hope he didn't spend as much as we think he did.
...I hope it makes him happy. And I hope he didn't spend as much as we think he did.
EXPotemkin
Member
I got my normal badge up to level 5 and just one level in the foil badge just to keep all my badge levels uniform. Yeah, this is nuts. lol
opticalmace
Member
Why is it unethical?
Dreams-Visions
Member
Is he like a little hero of yours now?
My only hero is Durante.
Dreams-Visions
Member
*brofist*
Meccanical
Member
There's a lot of money to be made exploiting people like this.
FlyingSaucer
Banned
It's thanks to guys like him that I can sell my doubles on steam market <3
And here is precisely where lies Gabe's genius.
Why the hell would anyone care about a "Steasm level"? It's a store for christs sake!
And here is precisely where lies Gabe's genius.
King Mystery
Member
Hah. And I was feeling guilty about those three keys I bought.
Zomba13
Member
Why the hell would anyone care about a "Steasm level"? It's a store for christs sake!
People care about it just like care about trophy levels and gamerscore. It's a number that makes people feel better when it gets bigger except in Valves case they can directly profit from people raising it as people will buy cards for badges via the market place in which valve take a direct cut of every single item sold there.
Dreams-Visions
Member
We'd have to ask him, really. I agree it is the worst kind of thing to do becaues there's no perceivable payoff. He doesn't get something in return to enjoy. He doesn't get something he can sell or that can otherwise be thought of as an "investment". Not really even something he can show off.
He basically dropped hundreds/thousands in real money for the equivalent of a Platinum trophy.
endresults
Member
Sure there is. He got the drops from each holiday badge crafted and the steam level increases odds of receiving booster packs. Those can all be sold.
Dreams-Visions
Member
LOL
Those generally sell for pocket change. Compare to the actually investment he would have had to make if he purchased most of those snow globes.
Also, check his inventory. He has hundreds of pages of the aforementioned cards.
He didn't do it, nor does he do anything else under the belief he will make his investment back or make money. Let's not act dumb.
PoweredBySoy
Banned
Better him than me.
Sanic
Member
They loaded up on psychologists for a reason.
I feel bad, but what can you do. Any argument regarding ethics always has a flipside, you can't really reach a consensus.
@scitek yes, more digital junk. That's worth even less than the cost of the input items in most cases. These are losing propositions for most people, akin to slot machines.
I feel bad, but what can you do. Any argument regarding ethics always has a flipside, you can't really reach a consensus.
@scitek yes, more digital junk. That's worth even less than the cost of the input items in most cases. These are losing propositions for most people, akin to slot machines.
endresults
Member
He didn't hit the jackpot on one of the legendary items that could sell for serious cash, so what? What's his inventory worth right now? He didn't waste thousands of dollhairs.
ChaoticEko
Neo Member
when your level is that high,and you have that many games, you qualify for booster packs faster than you can deal with them. And, his friends are giving him a lot of cards to see him get there. He didnt pay a dime for it. He sold off all his booster pack cards,and bought globe cards with that money. Nothing spent except a HUGE waste of time haha.
You get a Snow Globe trading card for every three votes for the next sale, every $10 spent in the store, and every badge you crafted for another game. (You could also buy or trade those cards from other people.) Crafting a full set of 10 Snow Globe cards together gets you "XP" for your Steam profile and some misc. stuff like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and limited edition items for certain F2P games.
Derpcrawler
Member
It's not, you can get half the cards per game, he maxed out 99% of available budges including foils before booster packs were even there. This person is mentally ill, nothing else to it.
I just put my trading cards up for sale. Why do people pay money for these? Even tiny amounts? Is there a reward for collecting the most or something?
You increase your steam level by crafting badges from those cards, which makes you more likely to get more cards as booster packs I believe. You also get a larger friends list capacity, which is probably attractive to the hard core TF2/DOTA/LFD2 players.
During these sales you also get snow globe cards which give you a minuscule shot at getting a worthwhile F2P item in Dota 2 or Path of Exile.
EDIT: Some of it is just the same Epeen stuff that goes on with achievements/trophies.
Between spending $10,000 for the next im@s mobile ultra rare + and spending $1500 for a level 1000 steam foil snow globe, the latter is probably the cheaper way to get loads of internet cred. People do as people pleases, don't go calling people mentally ill just because their definition of a fun time isn't the same as yours.
Mushroomer25
Member
Man. While people may say "All that money went to Gabe!" - just think. Most of those badges were on sale in the community Marketplace. He didn't give that money to Steam (well, a percentage of it he did) - he gave it all of us.
And then a lot of us spent it on virtual hats.
maquiladora
Member
Neither does paying for expensive fine dining cuisine in a restaurant only to shit it back out in a stinking mass a few hours later. People spend money on different things because it makes them happy, not because it makes sense.
Argument being that Valve is exploiting various people's addictions and personality issues to gain money.
The maximum level should be significantly lower to stifle this kind of response.
Food keeps you alive, these have no tangible benefit.
Though both expenses will produce some endorphins.
Merely playing Devil's Advocate here.
butzopower
proud of his butz
Would play music with this dude.