This is very long so if you don’t want to look at all the fine details then please feel free to skip to the summary at the end of this post. However, if you are someone who feels passionately about this topic, or are a Splash Damage Dev, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to read my points.
Now I know this is a very controversial topic but I have thought about this for a while now and really believe that having a community market will help this game grow. I’m going to start off with this, taken from the Steam FAQ:
Why aren’t all games on the Community Market?
It is up to the game developer to decide whether or not they want to participate in the Community Market.
Now I know it’s not as simple as this, but only Splash Damage can decide to do this. So I will point out how it will benefit them, and how some things may need changing if a community market was to be put in place.
Whenever people discuss a Steam community market for a game, it is always compared to CSGO, and rightly so as it is the most successful game market on Steam. The appeal to have multiple skins that you can choose from is a great option. However, after looking at prices, they may decide to open some cases to try their luck for something they want. This exact thing could be used for Dirty Bomb. Many special edition cards have come out over the years. If your a free to play player, you may have collected a few, or if you help support this game like I do, then you may have gathered quite a few. Some you maybe don’t use, don’t have the merc for, or in the worst case, have a duplicate (just happened yesterday, still salty). What can you currently do about that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You can’t do anything with a duplicate. You may not ever play the merc you got it for. You may not ever use it (like my friend who has an A31 fletcher in wrong en vogue pls I need it). However, if there was a community market, it would solve all these problems. You could sell the cards, and use the money to buy the new mercs coming out or new event cases. You could trade the cards with a friend so you both get a card you can enjoy. This is just one of the ways it benefits both splash damage, and the player base.
Quickly going back to the relation to CSGO, I believe it would also grow the player base. I know that many people are drawn to CSGO simply because of the skin system and how it works. There are so many possibilities and many ways to obtain the skins themselves. By having an active market, I believe different types of players will be drawn to game. As soon as people see that there is a vivid market, they may want to join in. This may inspire them to buy some cases to test their luck and get something that is worth a bit on the market. Not only does it increase the player base, improving matchmaking times and more, it also gives Splash Damage an influx of money that they can use to grow the game further.
Now, going back to buying cases, some of the cards people put up may be pricey. Special editions can be extremely rare, especially the 1st edition events like What the Dickens or Rogue en Vogue. Even some of the recent event such as the Ghost Clip and Containment War have already passed and (just assuming) won’t ever return. They will be in limited supply and people won’t be able to get them anymore, but will through the market. The prices will most likely be high, due to the limited supply, and may turn some people away from them, but may cause people to realized how rare special editions can be. This means that next time an event comes out that brings along cards with new and awesome skins (ghost clip and jackals eve are amazing keep it up) they may think, “Man, these are never coming back, better get em now.” So they buy some cases and what do you know, they get a duplicate. Now they’re happy with the card, so they keep one and decide to hold onto it and later sell it. They wait until the event is ended and list that card on the market. Someone sees it and is willing to pay the price. The guy gets his money and realizes he can now buy the card he wanted from an earlier event. This makes him happy and he will repeat the process next event. This not only gives Splash Damage more money to grow the game, but also helps the player base to be happier with the cards they can acquire.
Now notice how I only said special edition cards. The tricky part of this system is including the normal tiered cards. Leads and irons would be pointless, and there is already an in game store for the bronzes, so those cards wouldn’t work in the system. The question is premium cards. The crafting system is the way to get these cards either with or without money. It gives you a much better chance to get the cards you want instead of through cases. The money route appeals to many people especially for gold and cobalt trade ups given their high credit costs. This is where the market could interfere, but could possibly help. Say I really wanted to try crafting a KE21 Proxy in Cobalt, and premium cards were on the market. I look on the market and see a high price, but then realize it’s only $8 to craft a cobalt using the crafting system. I would have to grind out some equipment cases, buy some cheap silvers or golds on the market, or buy elite cases to get some fragments. When I have enough I could try to get the card. Say I fail and get to the KE12. It’s good, but not what I wanted. I could try and trade it, but if no one is willing to make that trade, I could sell it. I still may not have enough, and therefore could get some more fragments and buy some more crafting kits and try again. Say I got the KE21, but it’s in shard and I really wanted fragment. I could then find someone who would want to trade for it. Then I’m happy and have the card I want. Now I know this is all theoretical and will definitely not happen exactly like this. There are quite a few faults to this, as some people may just be inclined to buy it from the market, and money would be taken away from Splash Damge. That is why I am unsure in the premium cards, but am certain on special editions that can’t be crafted.
Obsidians would also help out both sides in this system. When a new obsidian operatives bundle is released (please be Nader next) someone may see the very reasonably priced bundle for the three cards (assuming they stick to that). They may compare it to others and think that it’s willing to put in the extra money so that they could get the card or cards they wanted, and later trade or sell the ones they weren’t gonna use. This inspire people to buy the higher prices bundles, as it can benefit themselves. It also provides them with more money, if they choose to sell the card, to buy another bundle, buy a new merc, etc. I personally can relate to this, as I bought the entire Phantom obsidian bundle. Later in though, I got a containment war card for one of the exact same loadouts. I really like the containment war weapon skins, and find myself using it over the obsidian version. If the market system was there, I could sell the obsidian and use the money from that to put towards new content. I believe this is a major benefit to both sides.
Trinkets could also be a possible market item, which may inspire people to invest in the event trinkets, but the main point I’m trying to make is about the loadouts. I personally would love to be able to get some special event cards I wasn’t lucky enough to get, and to sell my duplicate (lucky it’s only one). I am sure many others feel the same, but currently this is not possible. However, from the points o have made above, I seriously believe that not only would the market help solve these problems, it would also help the game to grow and expand even more.
In Summary:
Community Market - Beneficial for both Splash Damage and the player base. Could also increase player base and bring in more money to grow game.
Special Editions - Allows for those to have a chance to get cards they missed, and make sure they buy event cards when they come around.
Premium Cards - Would have to be worked around or not included into the system due to issues with grinding and crafting.
Obsidian Cards - Could inspire people to buy the bigger bundles as an investment while allowing those who missed them to get a chance.
Marketers - Those who are able to sell duplicates and cards that others will find more enjoyment about will be more likely to use that money to buy new content.
Buyers - Will be able to get cards they missed or just want, but high prices could turn them to cases.
Trading - Completely harmless system that just allows people to trade with others so that both people get a card they want.
Overall - So many benefits to both sides, but will need tweaking from devs if it were to be put into place.
