Thanks!

better yet don't buy skins

oh lordy this sure is smart

wow what a scummy thing to do, good thing i buy all my skins from Marketplace.tf, Cheaper Than The Steam Market!

Don't let Vis scam you out of your upfrags with this thread

wtf that's terrifyingly smart
i will gladly upvote a good vis post for positive karma and better visibility and exposure for these villainous tactics of douchebagery and robbery

That's demonic, holy shit, thanks for sharing.

>trading in 2018
>feeding the corporate meta that turns games into glorified slot machines

You deserve this

Why don’t we just take scammers and push them somewhere else?

1. trading ingame items gives nothing to valve. the items already exist and their circulation between different accounts does not give valve more money.
2. why do you have to judge what people want to spend their money on? If they genuinely enjoy the items that they have, why can't they do it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/938tae/pds_warningpsa_fake_tf2_items_fakes_from_other/

You should read the whole thing, but TL:DR some new shovelware games on Steam allow the fake items to appear as if they are from TF2, CS:GO etc. Real and fake items have become extremely indistinguishable. You should avoid trading unless its from someone you know won't scam you (friends), or from websites like scrap.tf

thanks dad

apparently that Abstractism game was a bitcoin miner aswell

Our precious scammers have become even smarter, making the fake items look EXACTLY the same as the real ones, the best advice is to avoid trading with people you don't trust at all cost.

How do they fake the name of the game?

They have changed their item display name for the according game

jesus this is spooky

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/93au7a/valves_response_to_shovelware_spoofed_item/e3bxfz0/

valve have implemented a couple warnings so its the player's problem as a temporary solution, app name changes also require approval now

Apologetics like yourself are the entire reason why "vote with your wallet" type of protests always fail. You are addicted to the cheap and instant dopamine gratification of skins in the same way that a child is addicted to sugar sweets. You enable the corporate metagame that turns entertainment venues that used to be treated with artistic passion into a glorified slot machine that ends up aggressively preying on children. You're precisely the type of person that only acknowledged the problem of CSGO gambling websites once hip youtubers like h3h3 criticize it. I judge because these selfishly apathetic attitudes do have an impact on the market (regardless of whether you'd like to pretend that it doesn't) and because it ends up negatively affecting things that I care for, such as the quality in the entertainment industry of videogames.

Those attitudes are the reason we went from this:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/86/3b/4d863bbf630ccad88f68229894c3a0e8.jpg

To this:

https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/4/43/Taunt_balloonibouncer.png/250px-Taunt_balloonibouncer.png

You have no soul.

Normies downvote me.

https://i.imgur.com/dRmeXqS.jpg

>I cannot provide a rebuttal

How to counter this brilliant scam: obsessively hit the Inspect button on every item because your autism loves staring at stupidly expensive pixels. There's no Inspect button on any of these fakes.

normies reeee

I personally hate trading and the way cosmetics have devolved the game into a dressup sim, but to say "reee everyone who buys hats is a normie reeee" is really misguided. Without cosmetics/skins TF2 would literally be dead. Long gone. Caput. CSGO and DOTA wouldn't be a fraction of the size they are (item purchases drive tournament pools). Trading/Items are a healthy and important part of these games livespan. The problem is that valve has become very complacent to push outlandish items and killing the artstyles for the sake of pulling higher profits.

you're also pulling a major case of "STOP LIKING WHAT I DONT LIKE!!!"

TF2 popularized this microtransaction garbage that has now become the ingrained metagame in the entire industry. It is predatory gambling aimed at children, which is not only illegal in of itself in many nations but Belgium even went as far as taking extra steps to help curb that. Don't you see? It's not just "stop liking what I don't like", it is literally immoral and illegal (and I'm also annoyed by the fact that it contributes to the cesspool).

TF2 did not have to either whore itself to garbage MTX practices or go the way of the Dodo.
TF2 did not have to introduce gambling MTX specifically, it could simply adopt a "pay X for Y". Boom, no longer illegal.
TF2 did not have to take a shit all over the original game art design. Boom, the game's soul is preserved.

Am I seriously the only one who thought about this? I highly doubt that. You're justifying the path the game went down without once asking yourself if other alternatives could've been presented. I am criticizing the popular apathy and notion that our choices as consumers do not have direct, negative impact on the markets. Why is it so hard to accept this?

"Yeah, I know, but I frankly don't care."

If people would say this then they'd at least be honest. Personally, I care and I gave my reasons why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1W5DU4zmAA

You've seen this video before, I know you have, but do you believe that the culture that has been developed from these changes has been worth it? Do you think TF2 had no other options to keep itself afloat? Was it worth it to get random ads from trader mains trying to scam you? Was it worth it to give phishers a greater reason to prey on steam users? This thread wouldn't need to exist at all.

It's not "stop liking what I don't like" because these actions don't exist in a vacuum that don't affect other people. If they did then I'd concede, but that's not the reality.

But hey I guess all this can be ignored by calling me an autist for caring about a game that I sunk thousands of hours into, as if you nerds also didn't do the same.

You're assuming too many things on my side of the discussion. I am not justifying the path valve took, I agree there are better ways to manage item distribution (namely avoiding the gambling nature of lootboxes). I just feel/felt you are shunning cosmetics ENTIRELY for the reason that you don't like them in the game. Lots of people like them (that's why it's gotten to this point), their inclusion is not the issue. Their distribution is the issue. They are indeed distributed in a way that preys on invested players who justify large sum purchases on the chance of getting something worth more than their investment.

Likewise, had they kept the cosmetic slots limited to 1 hat 1 body (or something similar), the game could have avoided a lot of its current issues regarding visual downgrades and equip region nightmares. But we're past the point of no return, there is literally nothing to gain from reminiscing 'the good ol days'. All we can do is try to find new solutions.

Yeah I'm attacking the cosmetics and I dislike the fact that they are as widely popular as they are, but that proves my point that it is we, the consumer base, who are inevitably responsible for these practices. "We" (in a global sense) happily forgo unique artstyle for flashy unfitting cosmetics like Kanye glasses and brony balloons. We turn a blind eye to literal gambling. We are happy to blame Valve (or Blizzard, or whomever who also does it) but refuse to take any personal responsibility.

Before we can find solutions we must honestly identify the problem and the problem lies also within us.

Alternatively if the consumer base does not want to change then we deserve the consequences that come with it. I just consider it unfair that I also have to deal with the consequences of events that I never wanted. It is "you" (in a global sense) who are trampling on my thing, not the other way around.

There's literally nothing wrong with TF2's microtransaction model. It's one of the best of the F2P games available. You're also 5+ years too late to be complaining about hats breaking artstyle. If you don't like hats that much use NoHats mod. Or if you're really so against it, stop playing the game and go sell all those flashy non-artstyle skins you have in your inventory. You speak a lot about personal responsibility, but if you really meant that you wouldn't have any skins in your inventory, nor would you even support the game by continuing to play it.

Idiot