This is a big, busy thread. There are some guidelines to keep things nice and orderly:
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:
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.
How do I join the Steam groups?
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. 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 is going to make you buy games. All the games.How do I join the chat rooms of the PA Steam groups?
Each PA Steam group has its own chat room which you can freely join once you are a member. They are happy places with no monsters.
To enter a group chat you must follow these steps:
- On the main Steam menu, go to your username submenu and then click on the "GROUPS" option
- Then, click on the link showing the number of people present in the chat of the group that you want to join. This will launch the Steam client (in case it is not already running in your system) and open the group chat in it
- In case your web browser is not able to launch the Steam client, the following window will show giving you the option to open the group chat directly in your web browser (web chat) or to download the Steam client
- Alternatively, you can go to the main page of a Steam group and then click the "Enter chat room button"
- Want to chat and use Steam, but not at your computer? There are apps for that!
Android Steam or iOS Steam
- Don't want to install the full Steam App, but still want to chat...there are apps for that as well!
Android Chat or iOS Chat
Where are you guys getting those nifty Steam Signatures?
Check out
Alabaster Slim for his lovely signature generator.
Has Game X ever been Price Y? How can I keep track of all the sales and discounts?http://isthereanydeal.com/ is your friend. Sync your Steam wishlist and get notifications when prices drop. Double check that you are getting a Steam key from a 3rd party site before buying.
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 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!
Steam Game Categories
You can make a copy of of the file below to backup your category tags!
\Steam\userdata\*USERIDHERE*\7\remote \shareconfig.vdf
Trading cards? Badges? Steam profile levels? Boosters? FOILS?! What the hell?
Jrraghen put together this helpful guide:
The House of Cards!But that's pure, diabolical evil!
Yes, that's right.
Can we trade cards in the thread?
Yes, but it's inefficient. Use the Steam feature that shows which of your friends has the cards you need. Join our Steam group for trading cards:
PA Card Sharks
Check this
handy tip from HiT BiT:
A little Steam trading trick some of you may not be aware of:
- Go to your Steam Inventory
- Click on the "Trade Offers" button
- Then click on the "Who can send me Trade Offers?" link
- Below you will find a "Trade URL"
Share this URL with other Steam users to allow them to directly send you a trade offer even if they aren't on your friends list.
You can share this URL anywhere, including your forum sig.
If you have shared or posted your URL and would like to stop receiving trade offers from it use the "Create New URL" button.
A new Trade URL will be created turning the previous one inoperative.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Rainslick Precipice of Darkness series. Also developed Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, two RPGs that, along 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.Previous Years Winter Sale Drives
2019: $2,407.09
2018: $2,190.06
2016: $5,315.84
2014: $9,248
2013: $11,903
Fanda
shared this with us:
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.
I have too many games! How do I move them to my new hard drive?Steam Mover makes transporting your massive library easier.
But wait! I have ALL OF THE GAMES installed! I need more hard drive space! What do?You download Tikione Steam Cleaner and clean it up.Steam Cleaner also available through GitHub!That helped! I have more room for stuff. Free stuff.Isorn wrote:
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.
The sale prices aren't right! What's going on?!
During 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.
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?
Steam > Settings > Downloads + Cloud to change your download region until things improve. Sometimes other regions are less populated and you can get somewhat better results even if the new server is in another country.
VR - You know, the thing with the goggles and doo-dads.
EvmaAlsar did a great write up about various
VR game options on Steam.What was the PA Friday Night Game Fever?
CorriganX had this crazy idea of getting some folks together to play games and thus Friday Night Game Fever began. Each week a game was posted as the Friday selection and at 9pm EST/6pm PST people would get online and fire up some multiplayer action. The games were typically streamed by at least one or two folks for viewing as well. The game night and its Steam group are not actively managed any more.
Old PA G&T Friday Night Game Fever banner made by HiT BiT
Posts
Ahh.
---
Picked up Forged Battalion last week. Petroglyph RTS where you can design your own units. It's fun enough but it also made me nostalgic for Warzone 2100 which I think has far deeper customization.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
You could post it again.
In other news, I really need to sit down and pick games to play. The choice paralysis is getting to me something fierce. As is, feels like I've spent more time watching tv this week than I have playing games.
A new thread, a new opportunity to pimp a game I like! In this case, I'm gonna keep singing the praises of Friendship with Benefits! I've since completed the main story and done a bunch of the side stuff (almost done with all of that, too). It's really good! Especially if you've ever watched MLP: FiM. There's lots of fun nods and references to the show, while also having its own fun takes and spins on characters. The whole justification as a porn universe and why stuff happens is well done and you even get some cool inter-dimensional stuff that ties everything together. The art is really high quality and there's tons of fun scenarios and character combinations. You're basically playing by Witcher rules, so you can't get anyone pregnant or get STDs or anything, so people end up being a lot more receptive to your advances. Anyway, I had a great time with it, maybe you will too!
Anyway, it's a smut game, so link is NSFW:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299370/Friendship_with_Benefits/
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I shattered my wrist Sunday before last, and the doctor said playing games can be part of mt physical therapy. Wewt!
We aren't supposed to post anything. Just lurk.
I started a new job last week! Hooray! Money is still pretty tight, so there’s nothing in the Steam gift budget right now, but at least there’s a cash flow for paying bills again. Also helpful, this is a permanent work from home gig, so that finally provided me with enough motivation to clear out the storage room and set up my proper home office. We’ve only lived in this house for three years now...
Two months off did not cause me to actually work on my backlog. Instead I went back to playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Which was fun, but again, not backlog helpful.
Finally, thanks to the couple of folks who messaged me just to check and see if I was all right. I truly appreciated that.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
With the holidays coming up, I hope to get in some more Steam gaming time. This last two weeks have been especially rough in an already garbage fire year; a friend passed away unexpectedly, and it's hitting me harder than I anticipated. I'm hoping to kick back and dive into the backlog over then next two weeks!
I ain't afraid of no ghost MNC Dover.
*flees*
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
What current game has the best character creator? I feel like dumping some hours into this activity but I haven’t been playing that sort of game lately so I’m out of the loop.
Thanks in advance.
@Pixelated Pixie you've been summoned.
You probably should have counted again....
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
I MISCOUNTED THE M̶E̶N̶ POSTS, LIZ! I MISCOUNTED THE M̶E̶N̶ POSTS!
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Also I win my own personal game I was playing.
I believe you counted correctly, but then you got cardboard delusioned.
🖥️Steam Profile
On my phone, too.
With my last breath, I curse @cardboard delusions
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
Do not taunt Happy Thread Monsters.
Caution: Happy Thread Monsters may suddenly gift without warning.
Happy Thread Monsters contain a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
Do not use Happy Thread Monsters on concrete, grass, or in your house.
Discontinue use of Happy Thread Monsters if any of the following occurs:
gifting
extreme class
random friend invites
entering Steam chat
Steam Sales
birthdays
anniversaries
holidays
or days ending in 'Y'
If Happy Thread Monsters sends you a Steam invite, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
Happy Thread Monsters may cause feelings of euphoria or dread.
When not in use, Happy Thread Monsters should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration. Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Thread Monsters, PA Incorporated, and its parent company, Gift Pixie 3K, of any and all liability.
Ingredients of Happy Thread Monsters include an unknown glowing green substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Happy Thread Monsters have been shipped to our friends behind the Euro shield and they're being flung by cat-apults on unsuspecting thread posters all over the world.
Do not feed Happy Thread Monsters after midnight.
Happy Thread Monsters come with a limited lifetime warranty. Some restrictions apply. The manufacturer is not responsible for any gifting that may occur.
Announcer: Happy Thread Monsters! Accept no substitutes!
Just in time for me to not buy anything, since i just blew all my money on a new monitor
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
I don't think the next thread is that far off.
Truth! You can say whatever you want
No one can hit me with a Ryzen 3 3100 at the downtown seattle post office.
Such precision targeting is beyond the range of mere mortals
I've been trying a thing where I make a bunch of homebrewed civs in Stellaris to populate the galaxy with rather than letting the game pick from random generations. One fanatically materialist pacifists (space nerds) keep managing to get into wars every single game I play, which you'd think is weird for pacifists.
Well, they're not the ones starting these wars. But since they're usually much more technologically advanced, they will be the ones ending them.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
This is amazing. @Mudzgut, for consideration for the OP!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
"Best" is really hard to say. But some of the good ones I've played with that I can think of offhand:
Really limited options but can make some neat characters
Baldur's Gate 3
Sunset Overdrive
Any Bioware game :razz:
Outer Worlds, but then you never see the character again so WTF?
Lots of options
Monster Hunter World
Code Vein (if you want to go the anime route)
Soul Calibur VI
Fallout 76 (or FO4)
Modded Skyrim is still good 9 years later
And, of course, MMOs are always a good place to play with character creators - Elder Scrolls Online and FF14 are my faves here. Black Desert Online is worth a look, too.
No doubt there's something glaringly obvious that is escaping me, but it's 6:30 in the morning and I cannot think yet. :razz:
Bottom line, I think the ones with the greatest range of options are going to be either heavily modded Bethesda games or MMOs. But I could probably spend days just making characters in MonHunWorld or CodeVein too. And despite the limited options, I've probably made about 20 characters in BG3 so far (mods are every day adding new options here, too).