Team Fortress 2, despite its age, still has a thriving digital economy surrounding the trade and sale of in-game cosmetics. Now, a sudden glitch has unfortunately thrown that economy into disarray.
Steam's community market, where players can buy and sell in-game cosmetics for the first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 has seen a sudden influx of Unusual hats and cosmetics. Under ordinary circumstances, opening an in-game crate has a small chance of rewarding the player with an Unusual item. However, due to a glitch, that percentage temporarily went through the roof, rewarding players with a myriad of previously ultra-rare Unusual items.
For those not in the know, Team Fortress 2's economy revolves around the trading and sale of in-game cosmetics. This includes regular cosmetics and Unusuals, which feature particle effects denoting their rarity. Since the majority of in-game cosmetics can't be purchased outright, and have to be randomly found by unboxing crates, the community has set values for items based on their rarities.
Many players flocked to the Steam community market to sell their newly gained Unusuals, as most are typically extremely expensive. However, due to the sudden flood of incoming items, the price of Unusuals has crashed. This has also posed a problem for trading communities outside of Steam's official one, as players often swap Unusuals for keys and other in-game items based on the rarity of the Unusual.
Valve did become aware of the glitch and has taken steps to squash it. Team Fortress 2 is no longer awarding players an abnormally large number of Unusuals, and Valve has placed a temporary moratorium on trading or selling items unboxed during the extent of the glitch.
For now, Valve has not shared what it plans to do with the impacted unboxed Unusual items. Most would likely consider it to be unfair if Valve goes so far as to remove them from inventories, especially for those who purchased them fair and square on the market. However, the generally-balanced economy of Team Fortress 2 could be forever altered by the presence of these Unusuals.
Thankfully, these unlocked cosmetics won't change the game itself. Unusuals carry no special bonuses with the exception of visual effects, so players who didn't get in on the unboxings or pick up a cheap one on the market should see little to no impact on their gameplay, other than potentially spotting more players with unusual gear.
Team Fortress 2 is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Reddit