Oh shit: Valve cracking down on Item buyers and Middlemen. - Games

EDIT: Shh no panic only trades now

Most good. I mean trying to fix problems with trading in general, not the middleman thing.

[QUOTE=NeoDement;36768074]Most good.[/QUOTE] not really, middlemen were a big part in trades. this will probably increase a lot of scamming sadly

What did middlemen exactly do? I am not following this recent TF2 trading stuff.

[QUOTE=nmagain;36768131]What did middlemen exactly do? I am not following this recent TF2 trading stuff.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=usaokay;36768130]I don't have enough knowledge on the trading business, so what is middlemen?[/QUOTE] A middleman holds the item for the seller while the payment is sent, and once the payment is confirmed received, the middleman gives the item to the buyer. This protects you from "I gave the item to the buyer, but he didn't pay" and "I paid the seller, but he didn't give me the item". [url]http://www.sourceop.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=35844[/url]

Middlemen hold an item for one party until the other pays, then gives the payee their item. I.E. person A wagers a refined in a spycrab against person B's refined. person C is the middleman and hold both refined, and pays out to the winner.

Psycho beat me.

This sucks

[QUOTE=nmagain;36768131]What did middlemen exactly do? I am not following this recent TF2 trading stuff.[/QUOTE] Middlemen are people who usually deal with money trades. They hold the goods while the money is exchanged. After the money is sent and confirmed, he distributes the items accordingly. Ex: I buy a pair of buds for 30, seller gives middleman buds to hold onto, I send the money, seller confirms I sent 30, and then the middleman gives me the buds.

Do you think Valve would ever introduce that "trade steam wallet funds" thing they were kicking about? That would certainly lessen a perceived need for middlemen in high value trades.

Ah, thank you three. I don't really know what to think about this, the middleman could be working for one of the two traders and scam, so this is part good and part bad.

[QUOTE=the article]These include, but are not limited to sharking, and to a limited extent sharking.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-raise.gif[/IMG] I can see why Valve would crack down on this, though.

[QUOTE=nmagain;36768226]Ah, thank you three. I don't really know what to think about this, the middleman could be working for one of the two traders and scam, so this is part good and part bad.[/QUOTE] that's why you have trusted middlemen, same with buyers & sellers. impersonators are everywhere though, but they are usually easy to spot granted you can never fully trust somebody via the internet, and there's always the chance of a trusted member going rogue (unlikely, but has happened before) but you're fairly safe with ones that have been doing it a while and gained a lot of reputation throughout the community

[QUOTE=Damoman;36768208]Do you think Valve would ever introduce that "trade steam wallet funds" thing they were kicking about? That would certainly lessen a perceived need for middlemen in high value trades.[/QUOTE] I kind of hope so, However, Valve kicked along trading for a fucking year and only near the end of 2010 was such a system developed. There's also the possibility that transferring funds to accounts/in and out of paypal will be at a fee, meaning valve could want a cut of whatever you're putting in there, or taking out. I also don't get the hate with item buyers. Big fucking deal. Every popular game with a way to trade items is going to have that issue. Valve kept a neutral stance the entire time, so it should have been expected. On the spuf thread, theres a few who just show so much hate and malice against these people. I don't see what the big deal is.

The trading industry has already reached its peak, and has begun slowly dying.

I want to see the actual statement from Valve about this, it smells more like someones gone ahead and spammed a shit load of reports to Steam and they've then gotten those peoples trade statuses revoked and its how led to speculation because they all happened to be Middlemen. Also they say that even adding a crate makes it still one-sided, how the fuck? TF2 Items have no set value. Something just doesn't add up.

Don't fucking post this here, last thing we want is panic.... Oh well, I guess it's too late now.

Well, I'm done brokering / middlemanning now. I'm also going to stop entering raffle at tf2r, since tf2r is one side trades, someone could easily get me trade banned..

another reason to quit the trading game altogether

:c I'm so close to completing my flies collection too. now it's going to be tougher without middlemen.

First they buttfuck the warehouse for a while. Then they buttfuck steamrep. Good game, trade system.

Welp, this seems pretty scary. Now i'm scared of doing trades with folks at all, incase it's considered a crime to them or somethin'.

[QUOTE=01271;36768534]First they buttfuck the warehouse for a while. Then they buttfuck steamrep. Good game, trade system.[/QUOTE] They also won't fix this bug I have when trying to view my backpack. It constantly glitches out so I can't view it, only one that works well is my steam inventory. I asked valve and they just said "ask the website owner" I really doubt its a problem with outpost, optf2, tf2bazaar, tf2b and tf2items. It's something with steam. They weren't very helpful, it's quiet annoying. They also are trade banning for sharking now apparently. If the person who got "sharked" reports it, he can get him trade banned.

i told you all, i told you valve would come down on the trading system like a ton of shit. who's paranoid now??

if they're working on trading (which is a good thing!), why not implement an official sort of trading rep? that sort of thing seems up their alley.

Well, it's Valve who's getting e-mails from people getting scammed by fake middlemen and demanding their items back. Guess they've had enough.

[QUOTE=NoNameForEvil;36768858]how is this a bad thing[/QUOTE] You can accidentally shark someone or item values can radically change over a short period of time, thus resulting in you appearing to have sharked them. Also you can overpay then ask for a trade ban on the guy you traded with. As a guy who gave away buds and unusuals to his friend, this kinda scares me for their sake.

I love how Valve has recently started to crack down on scamming and has inadvertently been screwing all of the working systems up in the process. Try to crack down on account hacking, end up taking down TF2WH for two weeks. Attempt to crack down on laundering and sharking, end up banning middlemen. Meanwhile, Steam Trading is still a hunk of dump that barely works. Shit, the best thing Valve ever did as a step against sharking was getting rid of the working trade system and replacing it with a broke-as-fuck one that only willing participants would be willing to tolerate. Priorities.

Oh this is bad.

Without the paypal economy, TF2 will die a lot faster, whether any of you like it or not. [editline].[/editline] This is overreacting, obviously. Just pointing this out to all the people that are happy about the idea of no paypal trading for some reason.