Dean Hall, creator DayZ and most recently, Icarus criticized Valve for using gambling-related monetization methods in its games.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Hall said: “I think Valve doesn't get enough criticism about this. To be honest, I'm generally disgusted by gambling mechanics in video games – they have absolutely no place.
“My challenge to game developers,” he added, “is that if they think these things are not a problem, they provide the data to universities that are looking to study these things.”
Hall's comments apply to loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2which offer weapon and armor skins that can be traded with other players, and thus fuel a multi-billion dollar market around the game – a market that includes significant betting activity.
Loot boxes have generally been moved away from several countries have ordered investigations into their use and what influence they had on the minds of young people. But Valve got around these rules by changing the loot box system so that you pay for the contents inside the box, rather than for the box itself.
Hall's comments came during a conversation with me about survival game Icaruswhich was originally supposed to be free before switching to the expensive DLC model it has now – the Paradox model, as Hall calls it. “It's a divisive model, but RocketWerkz—Hall's studio—had to use it to survive,” he told me.
Players aren't the only ones unhappy about this. “I’m not happy either,” Hall said. “I agree with a lot of people who are angry about the approach to DLC. I don't really like Icarus' approach. We need him to survive.
“I actually think a lot of gamers don't realize that 99 percent of developers sit there and think, I don't like this. So who wins? Because it's definitely not us. There are a lot of game studios like mine that are just hanging on and trying to keep making the games that we want to make, but aren't necessarily happy with how they're monetized.”
Hall's answer to this problem can be provided by the space agency Kitten, which is shameless and somewhat frank. Kerbala space program a sequel that RocketWerkz is currently working on. The idea is to make it free – free with the option to contribute if you want to pay.
“I want to find another way,” he said. “We have to do something. We have to try something. And if ever there was a game worth trying, it's a KSP-style game. I think this is one of the games that I think we can try to do something different with. We say games can inspire and inspiration should be free, and that's kind of the KSA slogan. I think the game deserves better, I really do – I think the game deserves to be free.”
Kitten Space Agency doesn't have a release date yet, but testing is starting to open, albeit for select guests for now. Whether the additional fee will work for Kitten Space Agency and whether the revenue it generates will be enough for RocketWerkz to survive remains to be seen. Life in the New Zealand studio was hard; the launch of Icarus four years ago nearly sank it. But, as I discussed in candid interview with Dean Hallthings are starting to change.
