The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
OLD Steam thread is old. Go find the new one!
iolo
ioloRegistered User regular
ioloRegistered User regular
Welcome to the Steam thread!
This is a pretty neat community of people who like to talk about video games, sales, digital distribution, hat economies, classiness and classholery. We enjoy long walks on the beach, digital hoarding, gifting, the suffering of longtime members, and raising money for charity.
This is a big, busy thread. There are some guidelines to keep things nice and orderly:
- Be civil.
- This thread is for Steam-related discussion. Try to look for other, more appropriate threads before discussing games or other topics in here. Let's not drain other threads of precious content!
- If you feel someone's acting inappropriately, then quietly report the responsible parties to forum mods.
- Don't post links to active kickstarters without prior mod permission. Forum-wide rule.
- Linking your Steam profile in your sig will help community members find you, see what kinds of games you like, invite you to MP games, etc.
- Do not beg for games.
We have two core Steam groups: Both of these groups have chat, and both are used sometimes to try to limit giveaways to community members. If you've just arrived, hang out here in the thread for a while and talk games with us before you ask for membership. When you do ask, include a link to your Steam profile. Steam name search is poop from a butt.
Penny Arcade is a general Steam group for folks from the PA forums.
PA G&T Adventure Team is a group that was originally created to get multi/coop going for smaller or older titles. Because it is actively moderated, a lot of folks use it as a giveaway group (to avoid problems we've had in the past with non-forumers scooping up gifts intended for the community.) Membership is locked during major sales.
Occasionally we also go on quests to slay a dragon and win the heart of a princess
The Newell needs those hearts (apparently they are used as power supply for the Steam servers).
Sometimes people gift games.
- Don't feel that you have to gift games to be a part of this community. It's just one of many things that go on. Some people can give lots of games. Some people can give a game or two a year. Some people make amazing images. Some people find hidden indie gems and report about them. Some people relay amazing gaming moments. Some people report sales. Some people are hysterical. Etc. There are many ways to participate in this community. Gifting is just one of them and is not required.
- If you run a contest, have entries PMed to you. The thread gets too cluttered otherwise. You can, however, post the winning entries.
- If you receive a gift, then take a moment to thank the gifter. Use the notification system so they can see your thank you post! ( @NAME. Use quotes around names with spaces.) See below for an example.
- If you win a Steamgifts giveaway, in addition to thanking the gifter, be sure to mark the gift as received on Steamgifts. You tie up a gift 'slot' for the gifter until you do.
- In addition to contests, wishlist gifting, ninja gifting, revenge gifting, pile-on gifting and Steamgifts.com giveaways, we have the new [ codes ][ /codes ] tags which can fire off one or more Steam codes (or activation links). More info about [ codes ] below.
A Steam thread participant preparing for gifting...
SmokeStacks wrote: »If you want to @ someone with spaces in their name, use quotation marks around the name so it looks like this:
Which will then turn into this:
Rare footage of a gift fight in action...
Steam sales are legendary. From small to honking massive:
Daily Deals: One game a day goes on sale at 10am PT for 24 hours.
Midweek Madness: Starts 10am PT Tuesday and ends Thursday afternoon.
Weekend Sale: Starts midday Thursday and ends with the sale rollover Monday. Sometimes accompanies free play weekends for MP titles.
Publisher Sale: Many of the publishers games will get a modest discount with a single title or franchise getting a featured day with a deeper discount. Follow the big sale guidelines.
Seasonal Sales: Mardi Gras time here in the thread. Huge swaths of games go on discount, with daily specials, flash sales, community vote sales, and whatever else the evil geniuses at Valve cook up to separate us from our money. There are often metagames such as sale achievements or collectibles or other madness that rewards buying, playing and gifting games and participating in Steam's community. The summer sale usually starts in the last week of June and runs for two weeks, and the Winter sale usually runs for two weeks across Christmas and New Year's.
Other retailers like Amazon and Green Man Gaming get into the act now too, so there are often great values to be had during sales for Steam-activatable games from other sites.
Seasonal Sales are basically a big deal around this thread.
Important Note: If you are waiting for a particular game, be sure to mind the countdown timer on the game's store page. Starting Winter 2013, the last day of the sale was just a recap of top sellers. Most games went back to full price.
How do I join the Steam groups?
Membership to the two Steam groups is for reasonably active community members. If you have been on the PA forums for a while and have participated, post a link to your Steam profile here in the thread and a Steam group mod will take care of you.
If you've been on the forums for three days during a major sale and your only posts have been to casually express your strong desire for certain games, your request is unlikely to find a positive reception. Ditto if your very first post on the forum is to ask for group membership. Sadly this does happen sometimes.
The best parts of this community are available to you now just by showing up. Read some posts, make some posts, ask to be invited as a guest to chat, buy some games, play some games, etc. Group membership is modest icing on delicious cake.
Warning: This guy's going to make you buy games. All the games.
Where are you guys getting those nifty Steam Signatures?
Check out Alabaster Slim for his lovely signature generator.
How do the new [codes ][ /codes] tags even work?
Put a series of Steam activation codes (or activation links, or movie quotes, or winning lottery numbers...) inside the tags, each on its own line like this (without the spaces inside the brackets, of course):
[codes ]code 1
code 2
code 3
...
code n[/codes]
That will create a little box with a clickable link and a number. Each forumer who clicks the link will get a popup and a PM with the next line. Each line can only be sent out once and each forumer can only click once. It was originally designed to allow developers to hand out lots of codes for a game without some goose grabbing the lot.
Just one code thingy per post!
Note: [ code ][ /code ] is a different tag. Be sure to get that "s" up in there!
Trading cards? Badges? Steam profile levels? Boosters? FOILS?! What the hell?
Some games (more every week) now have trading cards. You can earn some of these cards by playing/idling the game. Some of them you'll need to get by trading or buying them from the Steam community market. Completing a set lets you craft a badge, which gives you an emoticon, a profile wallpaper, a coupon (usually) and profile experience. Leveling up your profile increase your friend cap, earns you customization options for your Steam profile and, allegedly, increases your chances of getting a booster. Boosters are packs of three cards that show up in your inventory sometimes. You can open them or sell them on the market. Sometimes cards are foil. Each game has a regular badge with five levels and a single-level foil badge.
But that's pure, diabolical evil!
Yes, that's right.
Can we trade cards in the thread?
You can but it's inefficient. Use the Steam feature that shows you which of your friends has the cards you are looking for. Oh, and join the Steam group we created for trading cards: PA Card Sharks
Is Steam down?!
Is it Tuesday? It's probably scheduled maintenance.
It's not Tuesday. Is Steam down?!
http://issteamdown.com/
What are you people talking about? Why hats and what is an "Isy?"
Check out the handy Steam Thread Primer, written by @Smokestacks!
Steam Thread Primer:
Gaben/The Newell - Gabe Newell, Director of Valve Software. Called "Gaben" because in the commentary for older Source Engine games he would tell players to email him at "Gabe N. at valvesoftware.com" with user feedback. Used to be the subject of a lot of weight-related jokes, but those have sort of fallen out of fashion.
Serve the Newell - To buy games on Steam, to give Gaben your money. From this comic edit.
Bad Rats - An incredibly awful 'physics' based puzzle game, available on Steam, notorious for being as awkward as it is broken. Will haunt your dreams. Popular gift to give to people.
Gifting - Buying a game on Steam and giving it to another person.
Class - An attribute demonstrated by people who will generously purchase games and then give them to internet strangers.
Class War - When two or more forumers buy each other games back and forth until one of them gives up. I know this sounds really crazy, but it happens.
Bundle - Originally the Humble Indie Bundle, which was a "pay what you want" system for a group of games, now usually means any website selling a group of games (usually able to be registered on Steam) for a low price.
The Group/The Steam Group - The Penny Arcade Steam Group. Although this usually refers to the main PA Steam groups, there are many PA groups on Steam for various games (for example, PA Crime Time for Payday: The Heist).
Giveaway/A Giveaway - Usually refers to a giveaway on Steamgifts.com, a website where you list a game you want to give away, people enter, and then a winner is randomly decided among all entrants after a set time period.
Hats/The Hatconomy - The purchase and sale of in-game hats or sometimes other items in TF2. Some hats are very valuable, which is funny because they are just hats for videogame characters. People who have valuable hats or other items in their inventories sometimes get messages from random people on Steam begging for those items.
Boner Toots - Bientôt l'été, a game on Steam. Super artsy-fartsy pretentious "art" game. Also sometimes gifted as a joke.
Backlog - The list of games you have purchased, but have not gotten around to playing yet. Tends to grow over time, often to immense proportions. If you do not have a backlog yet, between the thread and the sales you will get one.
Spies/Russian Spies - People who lurk the thread or try to get into the various PA Steam groups not to participate in the community, but to try and get free games.
Steamsigs - Custom forum signatures that display a link to your Steam profile, as well as an image of a game you are currently playing, have played the most in the last two weeks, or have played the most over all time (if you haven't played any games on Steam in the last two weeks). Available here courtesy of forumer Suds. Having a Steam sig (or some sort of clickable link to your Steam profile in your signature) makes it considerably easier for people to add you to their friends list.
Child's Play - A charity started by the writer and artist behind PA that raises money for videogames/toys that go to children's hospitals, originally started in '03, has grown every year. Helps sick kids feel better about their time in the hospital while simultaneously refuting the idea that gamers are antisocial jerks.
Isy - Big Classy, a forumer. Formerly known as "Big Isy", he was granted the new name after donating a hefty amount of money to Child's Play during a fundraiser. Sometimes referred to as Isy, which might cause confusion to people who haven't been around very long.
The Sale/Summer Sale/Winter Sale/etc - Seasonal Steam sales. Home to absolutely ridiculously good deals. We are edging closer to the Summer Sale right now. I recommend saving up a few bucks because there will be deals galore. Seasonal sales have their own general guidelines to follow to maximize your purchasing power, they are posted in the thread often before and during the sales.
Summer Dale - A phone's auto-correction of "Summer Sale", which through some sort of internet voodoo produced an actual entity, a smooth voiced funk loving man who lives in a world where the 80s reign eternal and supreme. Also sometimes used to describe the upcoming Summer Sale itself.
Rainbow and/or Slash - Two forumers by the name of Rainbowdespair and slash000 who are notable for developing the third and fourth installments of the Penny Arcade: On the Railslick Precipice of Darkness series. Also developed Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, two RPGs that, alone with the Rainslick games, are available on Steam.
Gaben/The Newell - Gabe Newell, Director of Valve Software. Called "Gaben" because in the commentary for older Source Engine games he would tell players to email him at "Gabe N. at valvesoftware.com" with user feedback. Used to be the subject of a lot of weight-related jokes, but those have sort of fallen out of fashion.
Serve the Newell - To buy games on Steam, to give Gaben your money. From this comic edit.
Bad Rats - An incredibly awful 'physics' based puzzle game, available on Steam, notorious for being as awkward as it is broken. Will haunt your dreams. Popular gift to give to people.
Gifting - Buying a game on Steam and giving it to another person.
Class - An attribute demonstrated by people who will generously purchase games and then give them to internet strangers.
Class War - When two or more forumers buy each other games back and forth until one of them gives up. I know this sounds really crazy, but it happens.
Bundle - Originally the Humble Indie Bundle, which was a "pay what you want" system for a group of games, now usually means any website selling a group of games (usually able to be registered on Steam) for a low price.
The Group/The Steam Group - The Penny Arcade Steam Group. Although this usually refers to the main PA Steam groups, there are many PA groups on Steam for various games (for example, PA Crime Time for Payday: The Heist).
Giveaway/A Giveaway - Usually refers to a giveaway on Steamgifts.com, a website where you list a game you want to give away, people enter, and then a winner is randomly decided among all entrants after a set time period.
Hats/The Hatconomy - The purchase and sale of in-game hats or sometimes other items in TF2. Some hats are very valuable, which is funny because they are just hats for videogame characters. People who have valuable hats or other items in their inventories sometimes get messages from random people on Steam begging for those items.
Boner Toots - Bientôt l'été, a game on Steam. Super artsy-fartsy pretentious "art" game. Also sometimes gifted as a joke.
Backlog - The list of games you have purchased, but have not gotten around to playing yet. Tends to grow over time, often to immense proportions. If you do not have a backlog yet, between the thread and the sales you will get one.
Spies/Russian Spies - People who lurk the thread or try to get into the various PA Steam groups not to participate in the community, but to try and get free games.
Steamsigs - Custom forum signatures that display a link to your Steam profile, as well as an image of a game you are currently playing, have played the most in the last two weeks, or have played the most over all time (if you haven't played any games on Steam in the last two weeks). Available here courtesy of forumer Suds. Having a Steam sig (or some sort of clickable link to your Steam profile in your signature) makes it considerably easier for people to add you to their friends list.
Child's Play - A charity started by the writer and artist behind PA that raises money for videogames/toys that go to children's hospitals, originally started in '03, has grown every year. Helps sick kids feel better about their time in the hospital while simultaneously refuting the idea that gamers are antisocial jerks.
Isy - Big Classy, a forumer. Formerly known as "Big Isy", he was granted the new name after donating a hefty amount of money to Child's Play during a fundraiser. Sometimes referred to as Isy, which might cause confusion to people who haven't been around very long.
The Sale/Summer Sale/Winter Sale/etc - Seasonal Steam sales. Home to absolutely ridiculously good deals. We are edging closer to the Summer Sale right now. I recommend saving up a few bucks because there will be deals galore. Seasonal sales have their own general guidelines to follow to maximize your purchasing power, they are posted in the thread often before and during the sales.
Summer Dale - A phone's auto-correction of "Summer Sale", which through some sort of internet voodoo produced an actual entity, a smooth voiced funk loving man who lives in a world where the 80s reign eternal and supreme. Also sometimes used to describe the upcoming Summer Sale itself.
Rainbow and/or Slash - Two forumers by the name of Rainbowdespair and slash000 who are notable for developing the third and fourth installments of the Penny Arcade: On the Railslick Precipice of Darkness series. Also developed Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, two RPGs that, alone with the Rainslick games, are available on Steam.
Also, sometimes shit gets real. Like that time we all murdered each other for bloodsport games. And there was a kabob conspiracy and a kind of Cthulhu bunny. @akajaybay took us down that particular rabbit hole.
Why are you people obsessed with Bad Rats and Amnesia?
A moment of ill-advised swagger from anoffday turned into a horrifying LP of Bad Rats which, because reasons, turned into over $6000 raised for Child's Play.
CorriganX raised over $1100 for Child's Play via Amnesia.
We raised $11,903 dollars for charity in December!. Wowzers!
For our Christmas fundraiser to restore TychoCelchuuu's threadmaking privileges (and help the kids), I donated to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. This week I received a nice letter from them! I figured I'd share part of it with y'all, since this applies to all of you at least as much as it does to me.
What is this Steamgifts site? I wish to create a giveaway! I cannot enter a giveaway!
Steamgifts is a neat site that lets people create giveaways for games on Steam. Points for entering giveaways are accumulated over time, so just wait a bit if you need points. Entry to giveaways can be limited by Steam group membership to prevent mooches from getting games.
How do I make one of those cool Steam Gifts signature giveaway banners?
What are all these bundles you people keep talking about?
In addition to Steam sales and sales of Steam keys on other sites and gifts, we live in a golden age of bundles! Bundle sites sell batches of games for modest amounts of money, often as low as a few dollars. Many, but not all, contribute to charity and many, but not all, give you Steam keys for the games. Sometimes you'll buy an indie gem that isn't even on Steam, and later when arrives on Steam you will get a key through the bundle site. Be careful if you plan to gift some of the games, as sometimes the bundled games will come in a single Steam key. We have a separate bundles thread.
I have too many games! Which do I play?
Steam Roulette randomly picks a game for you to play.
I have too many games! How do I move them to my new hard drive?
Steam Mover makes transporting your massive library much easier.
But wait! I have ALL OF THE GAMES installed! I need more space on my hard drive! wat i do?
You download Tikione Steam Cleaner and clean up that shit
Okay that helped. Now I have more room for stuff. Free stuff.
Someone on a steam forum made a nice list of all free DLC you can add to your steam account if you have the base-game but that thread is currently not available so I figure I post it here. Since it is pretty easy to miss some of these.A Virus Named Tom - Winter Wonderland
Alan Wake - Bonus Materials
Alice: Madness Returns - Special Edition Content (Instructions / Config File Edit)
Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition - Dirty Arena
Bunch of Heroes - Holiday Pack
Choplifter HD - Zombie Zombie Zombie
Crusader Kings II - Songs of Yuletide
Delve Deeper - Gratis Grottos
DmC Devil May Cry - Bloody Palace Mode
Dragon Age: Origins - Promotional Items (Instructions)
Dungeons of Dredmor - You Have To Name The Expansion Pack
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - High Resolution Texture Pack
Europa Universalis IV - Songs of Yuletide
Farming Simulator 2013 - Classics
GRID 2 - Demolition Derby Pack
Lost Planet 3 - Hi Res Movies
Magicka - Jolnirs Workshop
Mass Effect - Bring Down The Sky
Metro: Last Light - Metro 2033 Novel (US Only)
Omerta: City of Gangsters - The Bulgarian Colossus
Painkiller Hell & Damnation - Satan Claus
Prime World - Prime Machine Game is F2P
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 - Data Pack
RACE 07 - Andy Priaulx Crowne Plaza Raceway
Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - Ogredeath
Resident Evil 6 - Wallpaper
Saints Row IV - Reverse Cosplay Pack | Thank You Pack
Sanctum - X-Mas Carnage | Yogscave
Sleeping Dogs - Ghost Pig | High Resolution Texture Pack
Vanguard Princess - Director's Cut
Waking Mars - Soundtrack
Wargame: AirLand Battle - Magna Carta
Wargame: European Escalation - 4 sets of DLC
Worms Ultimate Mayhem - Single Player Pack
X3: Reunion - Bonus Package
The sale prices aren't right! What's going on?! Oh God, the darkness is closing in...
During the seasonal sales, you are one of a million monkeys hammering F5 at 10am PT to see the new sales. The system is always borked for 5-20 minutes. Take a deep breath. The Newell will deliver, and the new dailies will be available for 48 hours.
Why are some games not available in my region?
Publishers determine what countries get what games. Someone in a suit decided that it wasn't worth the money to make the game available to your region, so it isn't available on Steam. This also applies to cases of games having edited/censored versions showing up on Steam in certain countries. The good news is that you can generally get around this by having someone from another region gift or trade you the game.
Steam is downloading slowly. What gives?
You can head to Steam -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud and change your download region until things improve. Since other regions are typically less populated, you will probably get somewhat better results even if the new server is in another country.
The Steam thread has a proud tradition of marrying our love of Steam and Penny Arcade in comic edits:
GALLERY OF EDITS:
iolo on
+4
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Also be sure to give berylline more hours for her marathon.
Thanks.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
The Game: SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED!
If you're new here, or if you've just been living under some kind of rock, you will not know the majesty of this game. It's like Mario Kart, but Sonic. Everyone picks a character, races around a wacky track set in one of various Sega games, and is generally an asshole to everyone else along the way. There are three modes of racing - Road, Air and Water, most tracks include all three. Transitioning between the different areas sees your vehicle transform into something more appropriate - it's pretty cool.
There's all sorts of power-ups to make everyone elses day hell. There's also a pretty decent cast of Sega endorsed characters (most are related to the Sonic games, but there are a few others too). It was around this time last year that we all exploded in excitement for playing this game multiplayer. It's pretty Rad.
Q: Sonic can run really fast, why is he driving a car?
A: Because Sonic is a total BRO and understands the value of a fair race, moron.
You said something about a tournament?: Yes I did. I invite anyone and everyone from the Penny Arcade G&T forum to take part it a racing event in aid of Child's Play. Whoever wins overall will be given a Steam game of their choosing!
Tournament Structure: Straight Races in a Grand Prix style. Races are for Ten contestants, with 1st Place receiving 12 points, 2nd 10 points and so on. These points will add up over a number of races, with the winner being the individual with the most points by the end.
In the event of more than 10 individuals taking part, multiple lobbies will be formed for a qualification round, where, after a few races, the top 'X' players from each will then go on to take a place in the final 10-man lobby.
Event Times: Saturday 28th June, starting 11pm BST/12AM CEST/ 5pm EST/ 7PM US-Eastern. This time is a mixture of trying to be the most fair for everyone as well as the fact that my internet connection will be strongest at that time (I live in a house of people who are heavily reliant on internet use, but they sleep early).
Duration: The event will last 3 hours. If we don't finish, whether due to technical difficulties or other circumstances, I will screen shot the leaderboard at that point then play will resume at the same time the next day. This is doubly so if we gain enough contestants to require a qualification round - the qualifiers will be one day, the main event will be the next.
How to Enter: PM me your interest (even if you have told me otherwise before, my memory is terrible), you will be added to the 'Potential Racer' list. Then, anytime up to an hour before the event starts, send me proof of a donation you have made to Child's Play and I will add you to the 'Confirmed Racer' list.
All entries require a donation of at least $10 to Child's play! Important note: This is for ANY donation to Child's Play that has contributed to the total running in this thread. If you have already donated this level or higher prior to your knowledge of this tournament, just link me to the proof you already provided.
Edit: Obviously, let @Iolo and @CorriganX know that you've donated too, so they can consider it for the overall total. The easiest way to to this would probably be to PM me 'I wanna Race!' So I have an easy to track list of names, then when it comes to making the donation link the shot in this thread as normal and just @ me as well so I can see it too. I think that would be the best way?
List of Potential Racers:
@MechMantis
@Berylline
List of Confirmed Racers:
@The Brayster
@Sumanai
@Dashui
@anoffday
PSN: TheBrayster_92
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
So what are these Steam Trading Card things?
A cynical ploy designed by Valve's in-house economist to use the addictive personality traits which many gamers exhibit in order to get people to spend more money on cosmetic items for the Steam Marketplace, generating Valve and developers more money in the process (thereby making Steam a more attractive platform) and to cause the player to become more "invested" in the Steam ecosystem so they're more likely to buy a given game through Steam instead of some other digital distribution service.
Yeah, yeah, I get all that. But how do they work?
So, if a game supports Steam Trading cards, while you play it periodically a new card will appear in your inventory. The number of cards for a given game varies from (I believe) 5 on the low end to 15 on the high - at least I don't recall seeing anything more. You will be able to generate exactly one-half of the cards for a set (although you may get some doubles instead), or if the set has an odd number, rounded up (so 3 for a 5 card game).
Free to Play games operate a little bit differently - you will earn card drops based off of how much money you spend in-game. I believe the current rate is roughly 1 card for every $9 spent.
Each card has a piece of artwork (which sometimes are actually quite excellent, or even can be concept art for the games - check them out sometime!), and usually a description. If you haven't played the game yet, though, I'd avoid reading the description: The Walking Dead, for example, has spoilers for later chapters contained in the card descriptions. Whoops.
Okay, so I've got my drops, now what?
Well, there's only a couple ways to get more cards. You can trade with other people; perhaps trading a card you don't want from one game for one you do want from another. But it's not just limited to cards. You can trade TF2 or DOTA2 items (or any other number of games), games themselves, or sometimes people can just gift you cards out of the goodness of their own heart. The other way is to put some money into your Steam Wallet and go into the marketplace and buy the cards you need. During the summer/winter sales, you generally get 1 card for every $10 you spend in the store, too.
I've got a full set. What should I do?
Well, if you go to the Badges page on your steam profile, you'll see that there's a bar for the badge you've been working on, and it looks all filled up - there should be a giant blue button which says "Craft Badge." Click that, and you'll get to watch a very silly little animated slide show of your cards rotating around, and then you'll see that you've got some new stuff! 100 XP, a background, emoticon, and something else. What that something else is will depend on whether or not there's currently a promotion going on - usually, it's a coupon, typically for 33% to 90% off the sort of games that you'll see in the Weeklong Deals. Not always great, but always a fun opportunity to get something cheap and make a giveaway. If there is a promotion going on, such as the Winter or Summer sales (and shortly prior to them), instead of a coupon you'll get a card of some sort. Right now, we're in this case, and you'll get Mysterious Cards.
What are Mysterious Cards?
No, but seriously
When the Summer Sale starts (probably next week sometime), they'll turn into Summer Sale cards. As to what THOSE will do, we'll have to wait to find out. In the Winter Sale, crafting a set of those got you a background, an emoticon, and some item for an MMO with varying rarity. Depending on the rarity/which game, some of those actually went for some serious cash (like....hundreds of dollars serious cash).
You said something about XP?
Yeah, so Steam itself is kinda a game now. You gain experience from a variety of things: owning games, length of time with an account, doing various things around the community (which get you community badges), those sorts of things. After a certain amount of experience, you gain a level. Amount needed is as follows:
1-10: 100 XP per level
11-20: 200 XP per level
21-30: 300 XP per level
And so on and so forth. Every level allows you to have 5 more people on your friends list. I have no idea how many you start with at level 0, but every level adds 5.
At level 10, 20, 30, etc, a few other things happen: The color around your steam level changes (and the shape changes every 100), you're allowed a new showcase on your Steam Profile, and the likelihood of getting a booster pack drop increases by 20%.
Booster packs?
When you've gotten every card drop from a game which is possible (and provided you're at least level 10), you're eligible for a booster pack drop. Every time that someone, somewhere in the world crafts a badge for a game, someone else gets a booster pack (at least that's how it works, I think). Booster packs contain a random 3 cards for that game - they can be opened, or bought/sold/traded as items themselves.
So I've got to buy a bunch of badges to get up to higher levels, huh.
Well, yes and no. Every badge can be upgraded to level 5, for a total of 500XP. The logo of the badge looks different, and every level you get an emoticon, background, and other item. So there's that, too.
What can I do with those emoticons and backgrounds?
Well, other than buying/selling/trading them, emoticons can be used in chat windows in Steam. Most of them are awful because the resolution in the actual chat window is quite small. Steam really needs to fix that.
As for backgrounds....most of them kinda suck too, honestly. They're just backgrounds you can show off on your Steam Profile to make it look more unique. The other things I mentioned - Showcases - are the other way to customize your profile. They allow you to put up your favorite review, your favorite game, your favorite group, show off some inventory items, maybe some workshop items you created, that sort of stuff.
Help! I just got a foil, and you haven't said anything about that!
Every time you get a card, there's a roughly 1% chance of getting a foil card instead. Foils are rare, and work in parallel to normal cards - ie, you have to build a full set of foils (no mixing and matching). Foil badges are unique, and can only be leveled up once. Otherwise, they behave like normal cards, just with higher prices/value because of their relative rarity.
Okay, anything else I should know?
Well, in most things there's exceptions to the rule - last Winter sale, there was no cap to the level you could get your badges (either foil or regular), and the cards expired at the end of the sale. Expect a similar thing to happen with the summer sale. Also, in the winter sale, foil badges (but only of the winter sale cards) dropped 5 MMO items instead of one. Expect something similar for the summer sale, too.
Also, while it's currently wishful thinking Gabe Newell has previously expressed an interest in having people who are "invested" in the Steam ecosystem to be rewarded somehow. Whether this will come to fruition is another matter, but it's reasonable to assume that Steam Level would factor in somehow.
Cool. I got all that. So what should I do?
Well, if you don't care about cards, selling sooner rather than later is better. The price of summer sale cards will drop the whole time until the very end when it'll start moving back up, but the number of people trying to use the market will swamp it and there's no guarantee you'll get things through. If you're planning on crafting cards, last time the rare items didn't start appearing until later in the sale, but I don't know if that's a matter of probability or Valve trying to build interest - I won't be crafting my summer sale badge right at the buzzer, at the very least.
In anticipation of the mystery cards, people are buying up other cards and crafting right now. If you've been holding onto other cards with the intent of selling, doing so during the sale is your best bet.
If you're looking to BUY cards, get in now - prices will be going up, not down. Look for sales on games to temporarily drop the price (particularly humble bundles). But if you're really looking to make a deal, don't worry about trying to do so this sale and wait for the winter sale - you'll find better pickings for card prices in like....September or October.
Can I use a bot on the market?
Short answer: yes
Long answer: no
Real long answer: yes
People use bots. It's apparent and obvious to anyone who uses the market at all, and it's super fucking annoying. So yes, it happens.
However, it's against Valve's TOS. So the answer is no, you shouldn't.
That being said, I am not yet aware of a single person being banned over it, so there's not really anything stopping you from doing so. My advice? Don't be a dick to everyone else by doing so.
Any other resources?
http://steamtradingcards.wikia.com/wiki/Steam_Trading_Cards_Wiki - wiki to look at the various pieces of art/emoticons/backgrounds, etc, and which should be able to answer any questions which I have not.
http://www.steamcardexchange.net/ - Steam trading card group whose Steam Forum is active for trading, and there's a bot which has a library of cards you can swap with. Valuation is based off value in the market (but you get the whole value instead of valve/developer getting their cut), it's just got limited usefulness because getting the "last" card of any type has a 150% cost penalty. YMMV, we'll see how it holds up in the summer sale since it's the first sale since the whole "offer a trade" thing went live, as opposed to having to wait in a queue.
http://www.reddit.com/r/steamtradingcards - Trading Cards subreddit. People offer trades, links are on the side, etc. Just another place to look if you care. I don't normally bother.
http://ehsankia.com/steam/ Ehsan Kia's resources. Absolute Godsend if you're trying to get the cheapest badges possible. Check out the Trading Card page. Or the other ones, if you so care.
http://www.enhancedsteam.com/ - super useful browser plugin if you're going to be dealing with the market.
If you've got any questions, feel free to PM me here or add me on Steam and bug me there. I think that should cover the overwhelming majority of questions, though.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
@Halfazedninja is one classy awesome person and I will dick-kick anyone who says otherwise.
TEAM PINK WOOT!
And his hair was perfect.
Steam ID: Good Life
1) Give to childsplaycharity.org, either cash donation or games, books, movies, etc. off hospitals' wishlists.
2) Post PROOF here in the thread. Please do it inline and not in a spoiler or link. (Very hard to spot these things at sale speed).
3) Alert @iolo and @CorriganX in your post for tallying and beancounting and other administrivia.
We have $3288.32 so far. And there are stretch goals:
Other folks have stuff going on too, like The Brayster's tourney, above, and @akajaybay's game and giftcard drawing.
So get to it!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Worth noting that Star Ruler also does the 4X/RTS mix incredibly well.
Behold the class!
I love Valve implementing a market so that sort of circumstance is open to non-bot runners.
Oddly enough, that seems to be how my day at work is going too...
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
You don't actually join a team until you vote, click "join a team," or craft something. Just checked your profile: you're not on one yet.
Currently there's a $50 steam card, Remember Me, and Dead Rising 3!
Another reminder: I have a free copy of Cthulu Saves The World, and a free copy of Breath of Death VII, to give away!
Add me on Steam and make your request, you attractive person, you!
@kaliyama
Handmade Jewelry by me on EtsyGames for sale
Me on Twitch!
Hey, what's your steam name?
Collect a bunch of tokens from one of the losing teams while they're cheap, switch to the losing team, then use some point stealing tokens and then dump all of your team switch tokens at twice the price after you get them in the lead.
...
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Also, @Anarchy Rules! you should probably look into Endless Space, which is amazing and on sale.
Ahh odd, I voted with the app. Mightn't count those. Stupid phone refuses to login through the browser
3DS Friend Code: 2449-5711-0640
Definitely worth the price though.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
I haven't even crafted a sale badge yet. 00:45 here and I must wake up in 5 hours so all that will have to wait until tomorrow... Except a cuople things:
Thank you very much my dear bunny empress @Berylline for Double Dragon Neon!
And finally, PROOF:
@iolo @CorriganX
See you tomorrow Steam thread!
🖥️Steam Profile
If they're going to deflate, they'll start doing so when the volume starts increasing. So like, after 3-6 vote opportunities and perhaps as many days of card handouts.
But... I'm not sure they're going to. There is serious incentive to use them up as you get them this time around. Demand might outstrip supply until the last day of the sale, when people start to see doom approaching.
If it's 10am pacific that's going to be hammering the site even more than it would be normally on a new sale day.
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