Euler's Identity Transpositioned
[everything is a triangle]
I have identified the current issues in Valve's ecosystem.
- Attraction to low floating point value, which is artificially scarce. Produces Stockholm syndrome.
- Occlusion of truth in odds, there is no transparency as to your odds unless successfully legislated by your government.
- Value of items are based on artificial scarcity above artistry.
- Participation in the system is closed, Valve is a walled garden
- Potential for addiction
- Potential for commitment without reward
- A risk too complex for all family members to understand. A father spending money on his family will get a wildly different result than another father. The system does not contain any equity for those who make tangible commitments.
- Value brought in is not adequately reinvested into the product in the correct areas. Profits do not have an earmark to maintain the system.
- This system is gambling. Gambling is against religious faiths, countries laws, and traditional family values.
- System builds entropy over time and adds weight to product
- No personal agency, level designers, skin makers, everything submitted is receives no protections.
Valve's gambling ecosystem inside Counter-Strike 2 can be interpreted as a failure through the physical abstraction of mathematics, primarily using Euler's formula. Euler's formula being abstracted to mean that there is a maximum extraction rate from all derived growth. Euler's formula is a way of finding the maximum compound interest in a given system — or in a metaphorical sense it is a way of understanding how much you can harvest while maximizing your compounding growth rate.
My argument is predicated on my belief that Valve's ecosystem is misunderstood by Valve themselves; they seek to derive value from the wrong source. Valve has made several attempts in the last 10 years to try and sell a game, however the community has only ever shown tangible interest in creating their own games. Valve is competing against the mod community rather than synergizing with it. [map foisting]
If I pose the question, 'how can Valve derive as much value as possible from their own labour output?' it would be a pointless answer. The answer is — that's currently how they operate. They only derive value from their own output.
e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0
I interpret this to mean philosophically that it is possible to take Euler's formula, for market forces and interest to combine (i), they will go through 4 phases together, and return to exactly where they started. The massive clue in this formula is that the engineering dilemma can be neutralized, essentially meaning we can arrest of perpetual cycle of cultural amnesia.
We can through interpretation of
and
i ^ 4=1
What this equation means to me is that we can go through growth fazes while remaining synchronized. A quintessential problem in video games is the shifting perception of value due to the shifting level of understanding. Why do people not value NES games the same anymore? Because it is lost in understanding that 8bit is where you begin designing any video game, even a 3D one. 8bit is not a limitation, it is a discovered condition that is the progenitor of the reductive creative process.
The Valve ecosystem can empower creators, the and result would be an empowered Valve.
Valve solves physics problems. HL3 should be based around the recognition of the engineering dilemma, and an adjustment to our way our life through the lens of calculus. Our way forward is by receiving positive feedback from the love we put into the system.
In order to begin to be able to visualize the answer, we will first illuminate what artificial scarcity will be replaced with — discipline.
The system is powered by crates and keys. The key is what makes the system gambling. If we remove the key, what is the result? The value of the crate it then derived through human discipline. If any person can open a crate with zero friction, than they most impose their own friction for the crate to not be opened. As the total number of unopened crates dwindles, the value is increased for those who exercised discipline.
The system is further enhanced with transparency. If Valve made the crates free to open — and they also revealed what has been harvested and what remains to be harvested, a storm system can be generated. Huge amounts of friction in the air will generate lightning bolts the travel down and become grounded into items, increasing their value in to the stratosphere. An items value is now based on discipline, fear, love, generosity, and conservation. The previous system was a value artificially derived through scarcity; or that is to say a random number generator.
We also reduce transparency in certain areas in order to enhance surprise. By only revealing what has been found, and by creating mystery of what is yet to be discovered, the question of whether or not to open your crate becomes an interesting one. You could discover for everyone first what is available in the crate, and reap a reward for it. Or you could wait, and reap a reward for it. Both instances reward you potentially.
Value is now derived from the crate, and not the crate + the key.
Where else can we derive value? Maps. If Counter-Strike came with a quarterly subscription, imagine if you could pay it, and earn money from your maps. You don't need to become an all-star to profit, if a handful of people enjoy your map and donate to you, it can have a profound effect. It should become normalized what mapping is, it is street laden with shops. Support the shops or the disappear. Create a system of competition that is not about capturing Valve's attention, but just your own.
A new case drop is not just an event now, it is enhanced to become a play with the world as the stage. The result of a new crate being dropped will be profound with this system.
