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Context: The TF2 SDK has arrived!
Also this is technically political as well so go into this knowing I am presenting my vision of the world.
Quote from Team Fortress 2 Mods FAQ regarding distributing the TF2 SDK:
Workshop contributors and players both have a lot of investment in their items, and that is something we want to continue to respect. We won't be allowing TF2 mods that are based around manipulating the items or economy.
As someone who wants to empower players to escape from scam virtual economy systems, I don't think it's right to just say "oh yeah, that's completely fair." I know that we can just ignore using these systems in our mods, but there needs to be someone who is willing to argue for more, especially if it give players better value for their money and in turn my money. So I have put some thought into it and I think I found a flaw in the reasoning Steam has given to why they won't give the full player-base and creators access to all the items and vfx available in game from across TF2's history.
Why is Steam saying that limiting player privilege to TF2 items respects the player-base's investment?
I have a couple items in my inventory that are worth something, and yet I don't think this statement represents what I want or how I feel. Not only that, I doubt I am the only one who would feel the same way when given thought. Of course there are many people who did invest in TF2 items for exclusive access and monetary gain, but I highly doubt that outweighs player investment for the betterment of all players. This isn't even mentioning time investment which I'm guessing tips the scales against exclusive access even further.
These is just words on the internet, how would anyone prove that players aren't selfishly investing?
We can prove it by creating a data set that shows what players today invest in TF2 for. The best way I know to represent player investment is for players to disclose their inventory and to share what their investment was for. I also have an idea what a system for gathering that data looks like. I think it's too bias for real use among other issues, but it gets the basic idea down. It would be a website that you sign in with steam. As long as you TF2 backpack is public, you can move a slider to represent what your investment in TF2 mean. One side represents the portion of investment is for exclusive access or monetary gain while the other represents the portion that was for the benefit of yourself by how it effects or empowers others. The ratio and the total value of the backpack determines which sides get how many votes which can be viewed later to get an idea on if limiting player access to TF2's items is indicative to the investments we gave.
Is it worth my time to show what my backpack means to me?
Yes, no matter if you are for or against my vision, you should share what your investment means. If sharing wins, then that might mean Valve has to find a solution to pay back that investment or argue against sharing of in-game items. If exclusivity wins, then that might mean everyone who has monetary value in their items can continue trading them until the economy finally dries up. Either way, we are still free to make experiences that ignore the TF2 inventory system so we still have that for those who want to stray away from micro-transaction hell.
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brad
i think what they meant is they dont want you making mods that allow you to get valuable tf2 cosmetics for free or to manipulate players into making an investment that they shouldn't, by not having tf2 mods based around playing with people's inventories it saves a lot of trouble and prevents unnecessary market manipulation. In the tf2 blogpost Valve also mentions that they hope mods will simply add support to equip the same cosmetics/items you can in base tf2 and for games like TF Classic and Open Fortress it seems pretty in line with what they're planning with their cosmetic systems.
I probably should have worded it better. The limiting of player privilege I was talking about is the inventory system limiting what cosmetics and expressions you can use based on if you "have it in your inventory." It's pretty much as you said, but I don't think we should be limited to the steam inventories on what stuff we use. The argument I created was that players didn't invest in the economy solely for the value of the items and other selfish reasons. As someone who has TF2 items, I can say what they are for as to whittle down the point Valve was making to justifying the TF2 inventory. Hope that clears it up.
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