Recently, one of the skins included in the Revolution Case was replaced. This happened with AWP Doodle Lore due to the fact that the rights to the drawing used in the design did not belong to the author of the skin. However, this is not the first such case in the history of the game, and once such a situation led to the emergence of a separate category of skins.
What happened to M4A4 Howl
In 2014, a skin for M4A4 called Howl was added to the game, the authors of which were listed as two community members – Auzzii i sic. Previously, they added the skin to the Steam Workshop, and the developers liked it. In the description of the object, Auzzii mentioned that the source for the illustration was an image of his own dog. However, it later turned out that there was not a word of truth in this note: in fact, the author of the drawing was an artist named CanisAnubis, for whom it was an unpleasant surprise to find his work on the body of a virtual rifle.
After the author contacted Valve The story went public and Valve responded quickly. Both creators of Howl were banned, and also lost income from other skins that he had created earlier. In addition, Valve changed the design of the skin, replacing the borrowed design, and transferred it to the “Contraband” category. This means that the skin never drops, there are no new copies, and it can only be obtained through a trade with another player. It is not surprising that the price of the M4A4 Howl has increased many times. The problem with AWP Doodle Lore When, after the release of the Revolution case, rumors began to arise that the design of the AWP Doodle Lore had also been stolen by its creators from another artist, many players expected that Valve will add to the list of “Contraband” skins. However, this did not happen, and there may be several reasons for this:
- The developers could have decided that the incident with the M4A4 Howl ultimately had a negative impact on the game's economy. Most transactions with Howl are carried out outside the official trading platform, which is disadvantageous for developers.
- For stable development of the market, a large number of transactions with skins of low and medium value is more important, rather than rare purchases of unique items.
- In addition, unlike Howl, change design Doodle Lore, keeping its main idea would be much more difficult.
As a result, Valve simply decided to replace the skin, although not all players liked this decision. However, even if a similar situation arises again in one of the following cases, expect the list of “Contraband” items to be replenished. weapons are hardly worth it – Most likely, Valve will make a decision each time based on the specific situation.
