DayZ creator says Valve's "gambling mechanics" need more criticism

Earlier this week, Valve managed to completely devastate Counter-Strike 2 traders en masse by allowing players to trade five Covert-quality weapon skins for knives and gloves. That sounds like pretty good change for the average gamer, but those heavily invested in Counter-Strike 2's economy found themselves on the wrong end of the market crash as billions of dollars were lost overnight.

Anyone who plays Counter-Strike 2 often will tell you that there is a lot of money to be made with the pseudo-gambling, lootbox economy, which is usually frowned upon by the gaming masses. However, Valve has managed to avoid garnering the kind of ire that the likes of Electronic Arts and Activision have received, despite Valve trying to circumvent as many loot box laws as they can.

DayZ creator says Valve's “gambling mechanics” need more criticism

A hooded man runs down a trash-strewn street holding a gun in a counter strike: source.

Well, one person thinks that needs to change, and that's DayZ creator Dean Hall. In a new interview with Eurogamer, Hall points to Valve's lootbox practices by calling them “gambling mechanics” and even stating that Valve “doesn't get enough criticism” of the practices.

“It's something that I don't think Valve gets criticized enough for,” says Hall. “I'm honestly disgusted with gambling mechanics in video games at all – they have absolutely no place. My challenge to game developers is that if they think these things aren't a problem, they'll make the data available to universities that are clamoring to study these things.”

It's a pretty striking statement from Hall, and it certainly has some merit. Because Valve is generally pretty customer-friendly in all other aspects of its business — like Steam — and because it's revered by many as one of the best developers around, it often gets away with things that other publishers can't. Valve can on the one hand set up a predatory market full of loot boxes and gambling, but on the other hand offer some generous sales on Steam and the former will be swept under the rug.