The re-introduction of the “Arms Race” game mode has been entirely overshadowed by Valve’s greed and desire to extract more money from its players in the newly rebranded Counter-Strike 2.
Valve has recently introduced a rather large update for their cash cow, Counter-Strike 2 which includes various changes to the games netcode in an attempt to minimize the peeker’s advantage, alongside various gameplay changes such as a “refund all” function to the starting round buy menu.
The update introduces changes to the Zeus, which can now be used repeatedly on a 30-second timer. Additionally, Valve has introduced another weapon case due to the increasing number of case openings compared to active Counter-Strike players.
For the first time, players can unbox a weapon skin for the Zeus, as Valve aims to generate additional revenue from its players on a monthly basis.
However the most revolutionary change is intended for those who invest heavily in digital skins, as it has been a standard practice for a single weapon to accommodate a maximum of four stickers.
However, this limit has now been increased to five stickers in total, each of which can be rotated and positioned individually according to a player’s preference.
I believe Valve would seemingly devalue exquisite weapon crafts featuring four highly prolific stickers for a relatively simple reason. The last Paris major event was immensely successful for Valve, generating $110 million from team sticker sales.
Increasing the total number of stickers one can place on their weapon would prompt individuals to pay more money to acquire additional stickers through unboxing or direct purchase, leading to increased revenue for Valve through direct sales or via the Steam community market.
The conspiracy theorist in me would suggest that this radical change was made to coincide with the upcoming Copenhagen Major event, scheduled from March 17th to the 31st.
Valve has recently profited greatly from major stickers, particularly those with minimal border designs. However, what everyone truly desires are clean and flush designs like those from Katowice 2014, which, depending on the team and rarity, can fetch tens of thousands of dollars.
Regardless, allowing players the benefit of adding an additional sticker to their weapon alongside complete control over placement of the sticker itself alongside full 360 degree rotation has led to a problem that could be seen from a mile away.
People are taking full advantage of freedom to customize their weapons by organizing various sticker crafts that feature profanities, slurs and giant cocks.
Truth be told, if you give those with a creative mindset an inch, they’ll take the whole mile. Various new weapon crafts are now entirely available featuring all kinds of slurs.
Various stickers long since forgotten have increased in price tenfold, simply because of their potential for unique weapon crafts. Stickers such as the Nemiga 2020 RMR sticker, once sold for 3 cents and thanks to the latest update its price spiked to a peak of 8 cents USD.
It may seem like a small increase, however the 2020 RMR set is infamous for being overinvested, with an undesirable border design with an insanely high volume of stickers for sale.
In fact, over 41,960 Nemiga stickers have been sold within the past 24 hours. All for entirely creative reasons I am sure.
However when it comes to constructing crafts featuring other letterings, such as “G” or “ER”, the prices for those such stickers have increased exponentially due to having a far lower supply.
The “FER” Berlin 2019 sticker went from a humble price of 8 cents, soaring to as high as $2.
Though of course, it doesn’t just stop at racial slurs, with the addition of that extra sticker creative individuals can now adorn their weapons with swastikas.
While this image is obviously fake, this sticker combination is entirely possible to craft in-game for a minimal sum of $160,000.
If you’re looking to recreate one yourself for a slightly lower budget, for instance, other users can create a similar design using the Seek & Destroy sticker, which has increased from 27 cents all the way to $7.
Considering how Steam sporadically bans users or restricts their access to certain features if their account has received enough reports, ranging from adult-oriented avatars to offensive images, I fear for those who have created such weapon crafts.
The inclusion of controversial gun crafts in-game will absolutely spark issues with other players, those who have created these crafts may swiftly be punished for abusing Valve’s “generosity” of free sticker placement.
The whole situation brings to mind a simpler time, when Call of Duty was filled with profanity and intricate emblem designs, which were carried over into Black Ops 3 as custom weapon camos.
However, this feature was eventually scrapped, likely for reasons similar to what we’re seeing now. Considering how Valve is undoubtedly making a significant profit from this recent update, it’s equally likely that they will introduce safety precautions.
This could include measures like enforcing default sticker positioning as an in-game setting or taking explicit action against those creating these types of stickers, regardless, Counter-Strike 2 for at least a short time is going to be a lot more hilarious.
