Valve has paid out over $10M to 400 contributors and partners who created content for TF2

[Aphtonites]

This is probably just Valve trying to get more people to create content for TF2 in hopes of getting a big paycheck like these people did.

[Grenadiac]

there's absolutely no reason valve should have to pay anyone anything

they're paying people to mod their game out of their own free will. any paycheck is a good paycheck; i'm happy if someone says thanks after i texture something for them.

[Bredirish123]

I think it's pretty fascinating that a game like TF2 has such a dynamic economy. I don't necessarily think people should blow hundreds and thousands of dollars on hats and stuff, but it's still pretty neat to think that Valve literally created a whole economic system overnight. Plus, it's making some people do quite well for themselves; I can't blame them for that.

[SCopE5000]

If you work in 'the industry' as a 3D modeller, you'd be expected to piece together entire levels in a matter of weeks, consisting of many high-detailed models, for your annual salary, which could be as low as $35,000.

Not to mention, you'd be working 9 till 5 everyday, 7 days a week, with 2 weeks off per year, giving you practically no time to ever master your skill, and killing any real interest or passion you might have for it as an artform.

With Valve's program, you make a set of items which probably take a week to polish, and you have a nice constant (temporary) revenue stream. The most useful thing by far is the fact that you are free to continue being creative. No stressful deadlines to meet, no being forced into modelling shit you don't want to model.

[Pako]

I bought a couple of keys to support the contributors [img]http://facepunch.com//fp/emoot/colbert.gif[/img]

No other reason to do it, the hats became really cheap in terms of ingame currency a couple of days later

[Occlusion2018]

There aren't many instances when i feel i've missed an opportunity. But this is one of them.

[knoxed]

Even if you get a 1000$ from an ingame hat that you have made.

I would be pretty satisfied if I got it.