Dev promises that Steam sensation Banana has 'no scamming', after fellow dev's shady faux-Bitcoin past sees his fruits confiscated
Banana is one of the funniest things I've had the pleasure of reporting on—it's a game that seems to have started as a joke, but has rapidly skyrocketed to a high throne on the Steam pantheon, becoming the second most-played game on the platform, beaten only by Counter Strike 2.
In case you're unfamiliar, Banana isn't this popular because it's a good game. It's this popular because it offers a stress-free way to gain steam items (Bananas) of various rarity for trade. Essentially think of TF2's hats system, except the game itself only lets you click on a 2d picture of the Spy a lot. Also, you can't wear your hats. That's what Banana is.
The swollen Banana community, however, has been experiencing some turbulence as of late (thanks, Eurogamer). Heading on over to the Discord, which has over 108,000 members at the time of writing, you'll see a news post proclaiming that «There is no scamming/scam going on» in the appropriate channel.
One of the game's developers—a user by the name of Theselions—had been involved in a supposed market manipulation scam that happened some years ago, which also included Steam items.
According to YouTube channel TDM_Heyzeus, Theselions was part of a group of users who got Steam wallet rich when a joke Bitcoin item from a game called Run! had its value artificially inflated (more than pictures of useless bananas, I mean) on the marketplace. The ringleader was banned, the game was removed, and the item was forbidden forevermore.
«We did not know about this until recent videos started to point this out and we had a talk almost immediately with the whole team about the situation. We gave him the chance to explain the situation to us and we know he is showing remorse and is sorry about what happened in the past.»
The Banana authority has still decided to part with him «on good terms». However, Theselions has had his fruit privileges revoked as a gesture of good will to the community: «Lions' inventory is cleared of all valuable bananas, feel
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