Should CSGO players be able to share skins?

Want to share skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? You’re not alone.

Skin collecting has effectively become a second game built into CSGO. Everyone from Silver Twos to elite pro players want a nice inventory, but the sheer price of many skins means that most are stuck with budget options. CSGO’s free-to-play nature also means that a massive portion of the player base can’t afford to flex expensive cosmetics. 

What if Valve had a system where players could lend skins to each other for a temporary amount of time? The original owner could select someone on their friends list and share a skin for a week or so. The owner would lose access, but it would automatically be returned at the end of the week. Valve wouldn’t have to do much to implement a system to share skins in CSGO.

If Valve added a skin lending system, it would help the average player, encourage trading, and create new opportunities for collectors.

Ever wanted to show off a cool new gun skin with your friends? You can always just drop it for them in-game, but that method doesn’t work on eco rounds or for fancy new knives. The practice of borrowing skins is already fairly common among close CSGO friends, but there’s always the risk of someone not giving the skin back. An official system would prevent any possible bad actors.

This is also something that exists to some degree in Dota 2, where players can use the map skins and announcer packs of teammates. Though it doesn’t have a “rental” system where players lose access to their items when someone else is using them, it does show that this is possible.

Would skin lending affect CSGO trading?

If Valve does wind up implementing a system for sharing CSGO skins, would it impact the skin economy?

At first, this sounds like it would devalue expensive skins. Why purchase CSGO skins outright if you can just use them whenever you want? But in reality, it would add a new level of value to owning an expensive inventory. Collectors may get annoyed by all the friend requests, but it adds extra prestige to owning a Black Pearl or fancy AK-47 skin.

In fact, high-profile collectors could even start businesses centered around sharing CSGO skins. Players could rent skins for use in tournaments or in-house leagues. Giving players a taste of high-end CSGO skins could even introduce more people to the world of CSGO skins, raising the value of prestigious collections.

It seems like almost everyone would benefit from safely sharing skins in CSGO.