ABSTRACT
This chapter describes new manifestations of risk at the intersection of technology and games by arguing that, while games have a long and natural association with risk, that association is decisively modulated by technology. This is supported through the story of “skin gambling” in Counter Strike (CS) over the period 2012–2016. A CS “skin” is the outermost layer of a game object, and allows players to alter guns’ and soldier’s appearance while retaining their basic shape. In CS, skins became a rare luxury item and a mark of prestige and acquired the properties of real-world money on third-party websites. Soon afterwards, “skin gambling” emerged; players could wager their skins in the hope of winning better ones, and the practice quickly became a multibillion-dollar industry. The success of skin gambling led to skin gambling cheating and thus was born a new arena of game-related risk-taking. It is an old pattern, but this chapter highlights areas where the technological changes of the last 20 years have played a decisive role in the story. The chapter concludes by arguing that skin gambling is an example of the way technology can surprise us, throwing up new risks where we would never expect them.
