“Taunt Kills!” + Why the new Chemistry Sets are good for the economy

Literally the day I write a blog post mentioning a desire for a “taunt kills” strange part, Valve releases one!

And that’s not all; some very interesting changes have been made to the trading metagame. You can now use “Chemistry Sets” to make strange cosmetics items which track points scored. On one hand, I question the use of such things when nobody will see a cosmetic in a deathcam, plus points are largely irrelevant, but on the other hand Strange Genuine Archimedes.

This is actually very, very good for the economy, and here’s why:

Step 1: A player obtains a Chemistry set somehow. He wants the strangifier.

Step 2: He obtains a bunch of unique weapons and a strange (or a sizeable chunk of regular hats).

Step 3: He crafts those items into a Strangifier, meaning those ingredients no longer exist.

Step 4: He consumes the strangifier by making an already existing item strange.

Do you notice what this does? Every item involved gets used up, leaving a net loss of stuff in the market. This is great, because unique weapons, regular hats and trash stranges are currently all over the market, and nobody wants them. This will raise the value of all of those items, since their supply has diminished. See Money Sink for a more extensive description if you like. (Warning: TV Tropes link. Very addictive.)

Sorry for the short post; currently flying to Ohio for a week.