Steam’s Broken Banana Hustle Proves The Marketplace Is A Mess

Who would have thought a game about clicking a banana could expose a major loophole in a huge online marketplace? The Banana game on Steam is a prime example of absurdity meeting internet manipulation.

This clicker game lets the players, you guessed it, click a banana. Clicking generates points, and occasionally, the game drops you a rare banana – a useless digital skin. Here’s the kicker: these bananas can be bought and sold on the Steam Marketplace using real currency. And that’s where things get truly bananas.

Banana Gone Bananas

Bots are running the game 24/7, collecting these rare bananas at an alarming rate. These skins are then dumped onto the Steam Marketplace, where they jack up the prices to insane levels.

Now, the gameplay itself is a joke. Clicking a banana offers zero entertainment value. The banana skins offer zero in-game functionality. So, who in their right mind would spend real money on these things? Here’s the disturbing part: some people actually do.

The current market for these so-called rare bananas is priced more than what they are actually worth in the market. Given that bots are actively participating in putting up the market, the bubble is sure to burst at some point. When it does, those who bet big on these so-called rare skins will be left holding the, well, banana peels.

Banana. Steam’s 2nd most played game is a bot farm. Steam does not learn and does not care, it’s getting out of hand.
byu/JH_Melo intf2

Virtual Money Laundering

When you trade items for money in the Steam marketplace, it adds the money to your Steam wallet and you can only use it to buy games or skins on Steam. After the Banana fiasco, players are selling off their banana drops to buy CS: GO skins and sell them for money on (not-so-legal) websites. This creates a bizarre money laundering scheme – turning useless bananas into virtual skins, then into real-world money.

Is it a scam? No, technically, but it is an exploitation of the loopholes that exist in the system. Is it genius? Maybe. The whole thing seems like a social experiment turned into an embarrassing joke. The Banana game may be a joke, but the problems that are revealed are not a joke.

A Marketplace Gone Mad

Steam marketplace is meant to be a place where players can trade their in-game items and assets. But Banana has made into a stage for a money-laundering botnet action under the disguise of a game. This throws a wrench into the entire system, pointing to the weakness in which virtual bananas become this odd form of digital currency.

The sad reality behind this situation only gives the spotlight to the more negative side of online markets where greed and exploitation can come so effortlessly. That’s how desperate this side of the community is for a fast buck, even if it is clicking a banana for hours on end. But more than anything else, it is a comical reminder that the internet, in all its chaos, sometimes gives birth to really absurd schemes, strangely interesting at times.

Valve, the company behind Steam, won’t be able to ignore this absurdity forever. They will likely intervene, possibly by banning bots, implementing stricter regulations on the Steam Marketplace, or even removing the Banana game altogether.

The Future Of Clicker Games

The Banana game may be an extreme case, but it does raise a lot of concerns about the future of clicker games. Simple yet often repetitive games rely heavily on microtransactions and in-game economies. The Banana case shows that such systems can be manipulated and result in scams and profiting off vulnerable users.

Will this discourage developers from creating clicker games? Or will they work and attempt to impose stricter rules to make sure such incidents don’t happen again? Only time will tell. One thing, however, is certain, the Banana game will cast its shadow on the clicker genre for years to come most probably.

A Lesson Learned 

All this Banana nonsense is a rude awakening to all of us. Logging on to online marketplaces, we all wanted that deal that appears too good for its worth. The game preys on that desire for easy money it’s a slippery slope. It shows how some folk will bend the rules (and their morals) to get ahead and leave everybody else scratching their heads.

I bought this shiny banana for $53 USD cause I’m an idiot apparently
byu/lukeyk94 inSteam

The thing is, we all get a little greedy sometimes. But sometimes, the most obvious explanation is the correct one. A banana’s just a banana, folks. Not some golden ticket to riches. Hopefully, Valve takes note and tightens things up to prevent similar schemes from taking root. Let this be a lesson to us players: if a game is about clicking a banana for hours, probably step back for a second. There are better ways to spend one’s time and money.