Speaking to Develop recently, Valve’s Gabe Newell said “The industry has this broken model, which is one price for everyone. That’s actually a bug, and it’s something that we want to solve through our philosophy of how we create entertainment products.”
Imagine a world where different individuals paid a different price for the same game. Of course this just screams “prejudice”, but what if the qualifying terms where something that most right minded gamers could get behind?
Newell postulates a system whereby positive and friendly members of the global gaming community pay less for a game, while those with a history of troll-like tendencies would pay more. “So, in practice, a really likable person in our community should get DotA 2 for free, because of past behavior in Team Fortress 2,” said Newell. “Now, a real jerk that annoys everyone, they can still play, but a game is full price and they have to pay an extra hundred dollars if they want voice.”
Imagine the cost of a particular game displayed to you in your Steam profile was somehow dependent on a reputation system. It might make abusive players think twice before sounding off on a hostile tirade, however, there are additional implications concerned. Would you like to game in a world where everything you did affected your score in some sort of overarching popularity contest?
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