Team Fortress 2 is very nearly a perfect game, but everything has flaws, and to many people, that flaw is…the hats.
It’s almost the new horse armor, people hate that Valve just threw some hats at the community. But apparently, hardcore TF2 players really love those hats. So much that an economist did an analysis and found that players had dumped $22 million worth of work into the hat economy.
This isn’t actual money that Valve has made off of selling people stuff in the in-game store or otherwise raking in the bucks: this is work, done by players, who collect weapons and turn them into metals, or buy keys, to unlock crates. To get hats.
In short, when we game, we are, believe it or not, technically working. Therefore, we can put it down on your time sheets as work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to frag this Heavy/Medic duo that’s ticking me off get some hard work done.
[ via the virtual economists at Kotaku ]