You may want to sit down for this one, innocent, doe-eyed gamer. Valve - the gaming company that no matter how rich they may or may not be always has your best interests in mind - has just released an update to the oft-updated Team Fortress 2 that is going to radically alter your worldview. You see, in-game items are no longer things you earn through sheer digi-work and e-sweat; the so-called "Mann-conomy Update" will allow players to use actual Earth bucks to purchase items. How many items? Valve's Robin Walker tells PC Gamer, "It's roughly the equivalent of 60% of the items we have released in the 120+ prior updates." So, a lot.

Item cost will range from $0.49 to $4.99 and "community item contributors will get paid based on the sales of their items." Instead of using an in-game wallet, Team Fortress 2's Mann Co. Store will use the Steam Wallet service which is available for in-game purchases in any Steam game. In addition to making items available for sale, the update also adds item trading, item customization, a dueling minigame, mystery item crates, and item sets. It's a lot of stuff, is what we're saying. Read the source links below for all the gory (or exciting, depending on your perspective) details.