At long last, Valve has reintroduced graffiti sprays to Counter-Strike. However, some fans aren't particularly pleased about how the company has approached the new consumables this time around.
Is this another instance of a company being unable to please everyone? Perhaps. But this time, there is actually quite a bit of merit — and even some physical evidence — within these complaints.
The first complaint is about how Valve decided to implement graffiti in the first place: making them limited-use consumables — with just 50 charges per spray before you need to pick up another.
The issue here is that graffiti has been a facet of Counter-Strike games in the past, most recently in Source. In past games, graffiti was free and had unlimited uses, as opposed to CS:GO where Valve has made them paid-for items. Granted, as the FAQ notes, players do have a chance to receive graffiti as a free weekly drop for ranking up, but the easiest and most consistent way to get them is to buy them.
For what it's worth, Valve probably did need to make the graffiti more official. In older games, graffiti worked by having the player upload an image that would then be placed on a surface. Since these images weren't regulated by Valve, the graffiti could depict anything ranging from actual designs to penises.
Of course, this consideration means little for long-time players who are used to having free, unlimited-use graffiti, and took to the Counter-Strike Reddit to vent.
"I can deal with paying for it as a one-off kinda thing - but the fact there isn't unlimited use with the graffiti is insane," reads one comment.
"Valve isn't a game studio (which implies at least some artistic ambition) anymore," wrote another. "It's purely a profit-seeking company with little to no interest in unique, creative or ambitious pursuits."
The second reason some people are complaining about the graffiti has to do with gameplay. Though graffiti is purely cosmetic and doesn't offer any statistical advantages to the player using them, they can be used in the middle of a competitive match to distract someone during competitive matches.
One such example can be seen below where a streamer is complaining because — from a distance — a spray behind a crate in a common camping spot looks like an enemy player.
Fortunately, unlike making graffiti a completely free item, prohibiting their use during competitive play seems like an easy fix, and some are already calling on Valve to do just that.
