Does Valve Want to Turn Steam Into a Gaming Metaverse?

Very interesting post from Redditor /godelbrot, citing this talk above by Valve CEO Gabe Newell (among other references), arguing that Valve is aiming to turn Steam into a kind of unifying metaverse for all the games within it, with a unified economy as well:

Gabe himself has said that where he sees the future of Steam is that every game on Steam is just an "instance dungeon" of the entire content economy that is the Steam Store. They are pushing to make it possible to transfer or trade value that you generate in one game to ANY game or to ANY player. So you spend 15 hours questing to get the Spear of Whatever, the value of your time spent on that is not boxed in to just one game, you could trade that Spear to another player for 10 Taunt Animations in another game or even just trade it for real currency. But it wouldn't just be limited to items, like I just mentioned: animations, skins, props, maps, badges, 'signed' items (THE ONLY weapon that Dendi used to win the International or something), essentially anything that represents value intrinsically or simply as a representation of time spent in a game ought to be transferable to any other game or tradeable. They want to turn the entire Steam Store into an actual economy. And this is why they have been hiring economists.

Notably, this would represent an ultimate triumph of user-generated content (i.e. modding) which has made Valve what it is today:

When game modding first became a prevalent thing, it wasn't taken seriously. But these days, when nearly all of Valve's most profitable games started as mods (DOTA, Counter Strike, TF2), people have started to realize the value of User Generated Content. I mean you are essentially getting the sum value equivalency of entire new games being made by your users at no additional cost to you. Valve has been historically unamtched in their ability to direct and harness the power of the crowd in their creation of content for games, TF2 and Portal's Perpetual Testing Initiative in particular.

But I think that anyone who looks at this trend can see what the ultimate endgame of this User Generated Content "revolution" is heading towards: namely a system whereby nearly ALL the experiences and content are created and monetized and consumed by users, and the original devs are only acting as some kind of governing system to keep the madness in some form of organization while getting a cut of the money.

Much more here. The analysis seems sound, and when you think about Valve's virtual reality efforts, you have to see these directions as likely being linked to turn Steam into a metaverse in the Snow Crash sense.

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Comments

[thisisaname]

Is it just me or is Gabe describing Project Sansar? ;)

To me this is exactly what Sansar has the potential of becoming.

In terms of being able to traverse many experiences with your single avatar (or with friends) and to take away from those experiences, so your progress isnt lost for nothing in xx months time.

Imagine SL with next gen graphics, where its cheaper to own land and easier to make high-end content/experiences.

It would still need a high social base (which I think Linden should let developers in mega-early to develop tools for - ready for launch) but would ultimately make money taking cuts from content/experience creators.

Imagine small (or big) game dev teams making first person/third person gaming experiences inside of Sansar. Like a multiplayer shooter where you could not only use your own avatar to participate but also take away cosmetic items earned and continue to wear them anywhere you like.

Youtubers, Twitch streamers and Bloggers could own their own enviroments for their subscribers/followers to join and participate in events or competitions.

Museums or Expos able to offer relatively cost effective VR replications of experiences to users all over the world who would otherwise miss out.

Then theres the possibilty of massive GTA style sims, housing, decor, clothing etc.

Only a few examples but could go on.

I think people underestimate its potential with or without VR if im honest.

It really is a second chance at a second life.

If devs were able to create high quality gaming experiences on the platform, it could be more Sansar less Valve. Maybe.

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Transalation: We want to implement more of our own monetization schemes so that we can take more money from gamers for ourselves.

[Jean-Paul DuQuette]

You have to hand it to Steam; from my point of view, they created a service nobody realized they wanted and did it better than giants like EA and Ubisoft. Of course they're in it for the money, but if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be playing video games at 43.

[irihapeti]

i think Valve are looking at it quite a bit different to how is seen in SL

seems is more that they want to cater for the Player Added Content (PAC) market than User Generated Content (UGC) in itself

is not that UGC isn't a worthwhile market and Valve will provide for this also (as they do now). Is that PAC is a lot bigger market in terms of player participation. Or can be when the host gets it right, by creating a marketplace that is sound, economically speaking

+

the ability to trade assets won/earned in a game (PAC) can add value to other players. Which quite a few are prepared to pay for. Rares for example, like you mention

+

PAC also include in-game help from other players as a monetarised added value

gameplay example:

like you in a game in a battle. If the battle goes against you then can lose all your stuff. Which cost you a lot of money (and/or grinding time) to obtain

in PAC can shout out for help. Then some mercs (really good players) will come in and assist you, for which you pay them. A amount less than the replacement cost of what you lose if defeated

[Robbert]

It is delightful to read this post and i get many useful point through this post. Please keep posting such kind of post