After years of player-led lobbying, Valve has reintroduced graffiti sprays to Counter-Strike. There is, however, a catch.
Absent since Counter-Strike: Source, graffiti sprays have now been added to Counter Strike: Global Offensive as consumable patterns—which means players can obtain them in one of three ways: purchasing individual patterns from the Steam Market; purchasing Graffiti Boxes which "feature art created by Steam Community Artists"; or collecting patterns via free weekly drops as rewards for ranking up.
Now, while modern Counter-Strikers are pretty accustomed to monetisation—a process which inadvertently facilitated the recent skin betting scandals—Valve has also applied restrictions to the use of the sprays in-game.
As outlined in this Steam Community Q&A update, once players unseal graffiti, they can apply the pattern 50 times (players who unseal a graffiti pattern already housed in their inventory will receive an additional 50 charges to their existing supply). Players can only apply graffiti once per round, however—or every 45 seconds if matches run longer—and one application of graffiti lasts just seven minutes and "degrades over time until it is no longer visible."
Check out the Q&A in its entirety for the minutiae of the matter. A few threads have popped up on the CS:GO subreddit, where some players don't seem best pleased with Valve's decision—see here and here—many of whom consider it a cash-grabbing exercise.
I've not played CS:GO for a long time myself, so I'd like to put this one to you guys: how do you feel about the return of graffiti sprays in this guise?
