Team Fortress 2 Hat Economy ~ Select, Start, Blog

Two individuals size one another up, the soldier admiring the fancy coat worn by the smartly dressed doctor before offering a a pile of keys, scrap metal and a headband that is on fire to the doctor, in exchange for a baseball cap with pink lightning surging from it. This scene might sound completely bizarre to most people but for long time Team Fortress 2 players this is actually not too uncommon a scene. One of the strangest things to grow from this 9 year old First Person Shooter game is it has a rather rich economy based on in game items such as weapons, tools, metal, crates and of course cosmetic items such as hats. It is rather odd to think that value can be given to virtual items within a computer game but it is actually rather interesting, in depth and draws parallel's with even real world economics.

Everything within TF2 has a set value based around two main items in the game. The first is Key's, which are items bought with real world money used to unlock crates for different items. The second is Metal. Metal is an item you can create in game by smelting down the random weapon drops players get every week.

2 weapons = 1 Scrap Metal

3 Scrap Metal = 1 Reclaimed Metal

3 Reclaimed Metal = 1 Refined Metal

Metal as a resource in game can be used to either build other weapons using recipe's in combination with other weapons, or they can be used to craft a random cosmetic item for each class. Now because Metal is so easy to produce and use up within the TF2 market, it is used as a rough estimate for the price of other items in the game and enough Metal can equate to the value of a Key. As of writing this just now a Mann Co Supply Key can be bought in game for £1.79 in the UK. In terms of Metal, Key's are currently valued at about 18 Refined Metal so in terms of real world money they roughly equal about

1 Scrap Metal = 0.03p

1 Reclaimed Metal =0.06p

1 Refined Metal = 0.10p

So for example, if there was a certain hat in the game a player wanted to trade for that cost 4 Refined, then that would equate to about 40p. For more expensive items they get valued at their Key value instead.

Usual supply and demand also becomes a factor. The more common an item is the less value it has, the rarer it is the more expensive it is valued. The less popular an item is, the less it is valued, the more popular the more expensive. Certain promotional or limited edition items in the game for a very high price along with sought after special quality items like Unusual's, hat's with unique particle effects.

This chap here sports a set of very rare items like golden guns and limited cosmetics

I'll probably talk more in depth about this later but I do find it incredibly fascinating how an entire economy has grown out of virtual items that have real world monetary value. Even investing in my own collection of rare items.

Special thanks to Layla on steam for letting me use the poster of the rather rich looking TF2 player. Check out her stuff on her twitter~ Layla