Games mimic life.

Some players like the ability to pursue luxury, express themselves and display status. Now Valve as an established player; market operator and sort of a financial institution of the "tradable hats" world plays conservative.

I disagree that this is a case of games mimicking life, but do agree with the underlying thesis that it’s coming from outside of Value.

Personally I think that this is a capitalism thing: any company that finds a way to sell this type of luxury suddenly finds out why other people are doing it ($$$$$) and it’s very hard to turn down a constant stream of money.

I am often found defending Valve here on HN, so I'd just like to go on record that these skin and card trading markets are bad and Valve is bad for running them.

Why do you think it is bad? Is the negative effect is on games, or Steam users?

> Is the negative effect is on games, or Steam users?

Yes.

Steam users most of all though because it exploits bad habits people have like gambling, collectionism, and completionism with all the ugliness that comes with them for the sake of profit.

Can you articulate why?

That reads just like an xkcd comic :D