[Hnrobert42]

How does this make them rotten to the core?

This is a business. They invented the game. They host it. How are they rotten for wanting to make money from it?

These aren't real objects. They are entry in a Valve database. I can't understand why people get emotionally, much less financially, invested in it.

[gquere]

Read up on the story, look at the influencers promoting it and the ecosystem that grew around it. Valve is willfully running a casino for underage and have bypassed local laws that protect against this using technicalities. It's frightening.

[raspasov]

Yeah… It’s like NFTs with 100% centralized supply and control, if I’m understanding this niche market correctly.

Control, as in, tomorrow Valve might decide that some of those items are “unusable” in their game which would presumably also crash their value.

[aklein]

Humans are social-emotional beings who assign “irrational” value to things for social signaling and emotional (self-)gratification.