I’m not much of a gamer; gun games are WAY too addictive. I couldn’t run this blog and game. Or take care of my daughter. Or the dogs. Or myself. Not to mention the fact that video games can be a tad expensive. kotaku.com reports that a gamer named The Dahn “managed to painstakingly amass a glittering arsenal of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in-game items that total out to a real money value of between $7,500 and $9,000. And now he’s getting rid of them all.” . . .
That’s a lot of money for guns that don’t exist – at least in the physical sense. Then again, if you add up all the man-hours required to collect the weapons (if you even could) it’s a bargain! I’d rather spend my money on a real world Nightforce 5-25×56 F1 B.E.A.S.T. scope and a troika of Aimpoints. Either that or the mortgage. You?
I do not understand this. At. All.
People invest their time were their money is, and their money where their time is.
Essentially, a big part of CS:GO is the marketplace where there are a TON of various skins for weapons. Some of the rarer ones are worth quite a bit.
I would equate this to selling your fancy rare barbecue guns.
Except that the fancy barbeque guns are actual real life physical guns. Your argument doesn’t make sense.
The music on your iPhone, the apps on your iPad, the videos on your Netflix are just as tangible as these in-game items. A market exists where there is a buyer. Welcome to modern economics.
Same as a few years back, when there were games around that people were paying real money for virtual pigs, or whatever. People who have lost their lives to video games live in a different reality from the rest of us. Until something blasts them out of the game mentality, like living in their cars or discovering they’re hungry and there’s no food. I have some of that going on in my house.
Paying somebody else to play video games for you? Why even bother playing them in the first place?
Then again, getting paid to play video games was my dream job when I was a kid. So if you can sucker somebody into handing over what amounts to a used car for some video game achievements, then go for it.
“Paying somebody else to play video games for you? Why even bother playing them in the first place?”
Guess you haven’t heard about Twitch, where you can *watch* someone play video games. Sometimes those people get paid quite a bit to have people watch them play. Capitalism at it’s finest.
Yep. I’ve heard some of the ones on YouTube have millions of followers and make a solid six to seven figure income. Kinda makes you wonder where our priorities are as a society :/
Do you watch pro sports? Paying someone to play sports for you – never understood it still don’t. I’d rather go to the park and throw the ball around and I’m in the utter minority.
I am with your Jim – I don’t remember the last professional or even college game of anything I watched. I haven’t been to a live game in two decades. Further that, how we can justify paying a person millions just to watch them play a game is utterly beyond me. But some people live for it I guess. Wathcing sport has always been a great distractor, going all the way back to Rome and gladiator games. Whatever distracts you from reality and makes your life more livable.
Damn, Jim, I would have never put the two together, but you are absolutely right! Thanks for the insight! Just don’t ask me to give up Formula 1, I’d be happy to do it myself, but $10 million cars are out of reach.
Wow.
Yeah, I don’t get it.
I game, a lot less than a few years ago, but I don’t get it… I thought it was weird a few years ago when people were paying cash for Koreans and chinesse people to play mmo games and “farm” for them. That was chump change compared to this, I hope this doesn’t sell, it might lead to a lot of copy cat gamers trying to get rich off every game.
So? If somebody is willing to provide a thing that somebody else is willing to pay money for, who cares?
I do like that pit viper camo. It looks like a good place to get cerakote job ideas at least. I will be taking a few screenshots, lol. I hope he doesn’t mind.
I wish all that was real and for that price.
People never cease to amaze me.
I’ll stick with Smash Bros and real guns.
I’m a huge gamer, but this is: meh.
Call me when I can buy a full set of every weapon, shield, and armor piece from Dark Souls.
For those of you who know Diablo, Kripparrian proved that working a minimum wage job was a more efficient way of leveling up your character up than actually playing the game. And the economy of any “gaming universe” can be manipulated via glitches, hacks, bugs, and/or exploits, sometimes making hard earned items worthless (just like real life). For example, the GTA V money glitch or the Diablo Auction House gold exploit. Things are worth what someone else is willing to pay.
End rant.
…wait – what?! These aren’t real? They’re virtual game pieces?!
I don’t get it either.
But this is from an OFWG that quit playing video games in the mid-80’s after I couldn’t make it through Caverns of Mars without getting blown up.
Ever wish some people would choke on their own stupidity?
Stuff like this isn’t new, and what CS:GO is doing is basically an expanded version of the system Valve created with Team Fortress 2. There are other games as well.
There have been multiple stories for both games of the outstanding value of a single “backpacks” total worth, measuring into the thousands. One recent story that comes to my mind is a TF2 backpack that is valued at around $21,000, and I’m sure there are others worth far more.
Then you can get into stories of the extreme value of single items, with Unusual hats from TF2 running into the hundreds for an item that does nothing but sit on your virtual head and look pretty. Or a knife from CS:GO that is literally one-of-a-kind and is the rarest item in the game, but I forget what it’s value was.
All of this is old news anyway. People have been making money from online game content for well over a decade with Diablo 2, Runescape, Everquest, etc.
Wonder if he’ll have to use an FFL and do a background check. What say Shannon?
Welcome to the new age of digital marketplace.
I was big into counter strike when it was a free mod for Half Life. The standalone paid version with the weapon skins is just silly, the idea that weapon skins earned in game are worth real money is just laughable. Honestly I can’t believe people are still playing CS.
The premise of the game revolves around terrorist team vs counter terrorist team in either a hostage rescue or bomb planting scenario, on a series of fairly small maps that players memorize. The addition of weapon skins like those pictured was just really tacky and undermined the spirit of the game, imho. In the early days CS strove for a certain degree of realism.
FPS games have really gone downhill with the increase in their popularity and budgets. Probably the best I ever played was Battlefield 2, after that EA in particular really started pissing off a lot of people. I’ve heard the BF: Bad Company series was really good but didn’t play it myself. I’m tempted to try the current crop of shooters, but despite how pretty they all look most just seem uninspired.
You’ve never played cs:go then so your argument is invalid
Far Cry 3 and 4 are both excellent shooters that are the very opposite of uninspired. Open world shooters with an emphasis on non-linearity as freedom of engagements, rather than Call of Duty and its many knock-offs (though Advances Warfare is quite good.
Far Cry 2 is good as well, though highly divisive. There are some huge issues and some massive successes with the way that game works.
The “Buzzsaw” (improved MG-42 for the non-gamers) in Far Cry 4 is legit!! My favorite gun in that game too bad you only get it towards the end :(.
I bid 10,000 virtual quatloos!
…nice ST:TOS reference!
I know I’ve read about stuff like this before. It amazes me. However, it doesn’t bother me at all that someone is trying to sell their virtual stuff. It doesn’t even bother me if someone buys it. Whatever makes them happy. This doesn’t affect me at all.
Ive been paying for quite a while and have a ton of skins and cases. Never really thought much of it but if they can buy me some real toys than that makes me a happy camper(game reference).
They’re only worth what someone will pay for them, “valuation” aside. We’ll see.
Ahh, CS:GO.
The “abusive boyfriend” of video games. You play, you (probably) lose to some 12 year old who has too much time on his hands, say you’ll never play again, then play the next night.
Some of the weapon skins are pretty sweet though. I’ve sold stuff from drops (cumulatively) for more than I paid for the video game.
PC gaming isn’t as expensive as people think. If you can build an AR 15, you can build a computer. And between steam sales and the humble bundle, you can get games for around $5 each.
Some of the in game skins are actually pretty cool looking. Id love to have a glock ceracoted to look like the candy apple skin.
This makes me think a LOT of a recent episode of South Park. Specifically it’s about crappy mobile games that require micro payments to get in game items. Not exactly the same thing as this, but these kinds of systems are becoming more and more common in online games.
Does the TOS of game allow for this?
Oh Lord, spare us. What’s next, are Kee and Foghorn going to start reviewing virtual guns here?
This gamer should be shamed for his emasculated worthless life that he lives. By the time he sells the crap and divides it by the time invested he will be earning like half a cent per hour. When hes on his deathbed he will wish he used his time to hit the gym, learn a language, spend time with his family and friends, whatever.
Its a shame…we went from john wayne and steeve mcqueen and 30 year old men putting spaceships on the moon to a bunch of men taking feminine selfies and playing games all day.
They are not mutually exclusive, you can still do “manly” things and play video games. Shaming someone for having a hobby is about equally as douchey as antis shaming us for being “gun nuts”.
I actually play videogames in between going to the gym, learning a new language, hanging out with friends and family, and going to the moon.
I don’t even… Wow. I’m 19 and I love video games, and this is just… God. I absolutely do NOT understand why ANYONE would buy this for so much. I mean, I understand the rarity. But they’re SKINS! Will they really increase the enjoyment you get out of the game enough to justify the cost? Jesus. I guess it really is true what they say about fools and their money.
I play CS:GO relatively seriously. I never have and never will understand the draw of the gun skins. But, I’m not complaining. I’ve made about $50 at least for playing. I play with the “stock” skins.
I win cases and guns, I sell them. That gives me money that I can spend in steam for other games and such. It’s silly, but convenient for me.
I think I’d rather have $7-9k worth of real guns. But there’s probably some nerd in Japan who will gladly pay that much for digital ones.
I read this article several times before I realized that you were talking about selling JUST the skins.
I thought that maybe he was offering all those guns for a steep discount, even the SBRs. Then I saw the Bizon and I was like… Ehhh. I know they basically do not exist in the US because I tried to get the parts to build one. No-go.
Back when I played CS, I started at beta 5, played a ton of 1.6 and Source. I bought my first AK because it was my favorite gun in CS.
About the only FPS I still find time to play is BF3, and it’s sort of fun now that I’m older, having owned or shot a good chunk of the guns in the game.
I sort of get it. People have NO life. Just watched the new episode of South Park. If you catch it you’ll see what I mean. Gruber was right. Anation of dumbasses(or world). Hey if you can make money for literally nothing go for it…
To be fair, homeboy has 27 pages of like 25 fire arm skins each. Even if he gets $9k for the lot that’s like $13.50 a skin.
I’ve wasted more money than $13.50 on things of even less value.
Like many of you, video games are the best way to have a great time, and I share that opinion. But, in this hobby there is another plus, here is the site https://csgobettings.com/ thanks to which you can also earn extra money here, since you can place a bet and increase your budget.
Good and interesting article!
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