The virtual skin industry

The virtual skin industry

It appears that not only real skins (like fox skin, rabbit,etc.) have value in this world. Did you know that virtual skins (the one that is covering the body; or an object) can also get you hundreds of dollars or maybe more? It appears the most common cosmetic element, the skin, is getting a lot of attention from passionate game players. It might look like a simple decorated sniper rifle at first, but it’s probably the dream of most game-players: to have a generous inventory full of all the models the game has to offer. And most of them, are even willing to spend big amounts of money on these “virtual goods”. But how did something like this, something that doesn’t even influence the gameplay, become so popular, and even addicting?

VZqIHhJ-1024x512 The virtual skin industry

counter-strike-global-offensive-m4a1s-skin-cd-key-3688-3-1-1024x640 The virtual skin industry

It all started with CS:GO. Players have finally found something new in an apparent never-ending-shooting-at-each-other kind of game. And now, the game became more attractive, with players collecting skins, and even showing off in front of other players, as a method of proving how serious they were, as loyal players of the game. It wasn’t long enough before item-trading started. And item gambling. Depending on your offer, or better yet, your investments, your chances of winning could grow. Players would bet on matches, using skins as a sort of in-game currency. There were also various types of “item-gambling” games. These included jackpot-like games, and other types of gambling mechanisms, down to a simple coin-flipping. The problem was, that in the end, there were a series of gambling-related crimes, including teenagers that not only got addicted to it, but also found ways of getting more money. And that wasn’t the only problem.

There was also a problem on the inside, a problem that had to be dealt with the people playing the game. It seems like the mechanisms was linked to the amount of skins dealt by a player. Thus, the players that had more items in the inventory, were the ones most likely to invest a higher number of skins, thus increasing the chances of winning. It wasn’t long until the same players were winning over and over again, and the competitions started to be considered as unfair. But perhaps the most specific case of unfairness, was the one of a person filming himself win a “grand rare skin”, only to later expose the fact that everything was “set-up” and that the “win” wasn’t quite random, but planned by those who asked him to promote “skin betting”. Some skins were so rare,and had such value that some players actually considered it “impossible to gain”.

CnlbAOlXgAAdGYW-1 The virtual skin industry

143577857609856-300x161 The virtual skin industryThe players also had to overcome fake websites, where no winnings were to be gained, but only the inevitable and irreversible loss of the skin or item that has been gambled. And last, but not least, the well-known loosing problem. Underage teenagers that wanted to cover up money losses, only managed to loose even more. And most of the time, it wasn’t their money. Things weren’t looking too good for one specific teenager, who’s mother filled a lawsuit against Valve, for “enabling gambling by minors”.

Some say the whole situation was exaggerated, but looks at the numbers: 38 million people visiting the csgolounge.com web site in March only. It wasn’t long before Valve had to choose between fighting in court and taking some strict measures. Lack of online gambling regulations and understanding of the phenomenon, led to even more confusion.

P9S6RWT-576x1024 The virtual skin industry

Iulian Sasaran

Iulian Sasaran



Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.